Adopting a Stigmatized Label: Social Determinants of Identifying as an Atheist beyond Disbelief

Scheitle, Christopher P.; Corcoran, Katie E.; Hudnall, Erin

doi:10.1093/sf/soy084

Cited by 18 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…For example, in 2007, 16% of the American population self-identified as religiously unaffiliated; by 2014, this number had climbed to 23%, and in the years since, it has risen further (Pew Research Center 2019, p. 3). The number of people who explicitly identify as atheist is far smaller, due to stigma associated with the label, at least in the United States (Scheitle et al 2019); nonetheless, this group, too, is undeniably growing (Pew Research Center 2019, p. 4). In the United Kingdom, meanwhile, more than half of the population does not identify with an organized religion (Guardian 2021).…”

Section: Atheism Public Opinion Prejudice and The Mediamentioning

confidence: 99%

Atheism in US and UK Newspapers: Negativity about Non-Belief and Non-Believers

Veen

Bleich

2021

Religions

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Atheists are among the most disliked “religious” groups in the United States, but the origins of this aversion remain poorly understood. Because the media are an important source of public attitudes, we analyze coverage of atheism and atheists in American and British newspapers. Using computational text analysis techniques, including sentiment analysis and topic modeling, we show that atheism is portrayed negatively by the print media. Significantly, we show that greater negativity is associated with atheism as a concept than with atheists as individuals. Building on this insight, and challenging arguments that prominent atheist intellectuals attract negative coverage, we also find that coverage of famous atheists is actually more positive than that of atheists or atheism in general. Overall, our findings add a new dimension to scholarship on differences between individual-targeted and group-targeted tolerance in public attitudes, establishing for the first time that media coverage mirrors such differences.

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Section: Atheism Public Opinion Prejudice and The Mediamentioning

confidence: 99%

Atheism in US and UK Newspapers: Negativity about Non-Belief and Non-Believers

Veen

Bleich

2021

Religions

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“…Scheitle et al. () showed how the adoption of and openness about an atheist identity is in part shaped by the outness of close friends and intimate others who are atheists, and Zimmerman and colleagues () examined the consequences of individuals coming out as an atheist to religious family members. They found this often led to reactions of anger, rejection, and distrust, but also in at least some cases, examples of support and continued closeness as subjects attempted to reconcile their beliefs and family relationships.…”

Section: Prejudice and Discriminationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mapping Religion's Other: A Review of the Study of Nonreligion and Secularity

Smith

Cragun

2019

Scientific Study of Religion

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In this article, we review the research literature on nonreligion, secularity, the nones, and other forms of "religion's other." As a relatively new area of sustained and still growing research activity, with its attendant theoretical and methodological implications continuing to take shape, our focus is on the social science research from the mid-2000s to the present. We consider the challenges of definition and perspective in this line of inquiry, highlight key arguments, and summarize the main findings from empirical studies of nonreligion and its relationship to topics including identity, health, family, and prejudice. After discussing the organizational and social movement aspects of nonreligious communities, as well as related developments in how scholars are studying these communities, we conclude our assessment of the state of this field by proffering questions relevant to both current efforts and whatever future directions are in store for research on religion's other.

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“…Critically, the important variable of social stigma has not been sufficiently factored into these analyses-to the extent that nonreligious individuals fear social stigma, they may be more apprehensive about interacting with members of their own network, especially less trusted and less familiar members. This apprehensiveness may be especially pronounced among members of racial and gender minority groups (Scheitle, Corcoran & Hudnall, 2018).…”

Section: Religious Vs Nonreligious Network Timementioning

confidence: 99%

“…These self-identified atheists, however, comprise about 13.5% of religious nonaffiliates. There is an emerging empirical consensus among researchers that these proportions vastly under-estimate the actual number of atheists, because many "closeted" atheists remain wary of expressing a stigmatized identity that might jeopardize relationships with family, as well as at school and work (Cragun et al, 2012;Gervais & Najle, 2018;Scheitle et al, 2018). However, at least in the West, it is becoming easier for atheists to build supportive social networks, in part, because more secular geographic regions (e.g., Northeastern and Northwestern US) are less stigmatizing to atheists, while the religiosity of more conservative geographic regions appears to incentivize the development and spread of atheist support groups and social clubs (Garcia & Blankholm, 2016; Schutz, 2017).…”

Section: Atheism Social Capital and Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Low income, low educational attainment, and being a racial or ethnic minority are consistently correlated across studies with worse health outcomes due, at least in part, to the stress associated with resource disadvantage and perceived discrimination (Schnittker & Mcleod, 2005;Marmot, 2006). Also, racial and ethnic minorities are less likely to adopt stigmatized identities, such as "atheist" in the first place (Baker & Smith, 2015;Scheitle et al, 2018). The combination of these factors-that racial and ethnic minorities and those who are resource disadvantaged are both more likely to suffer worse health outcomes and less likely to identify as atheist-may be part of the reasons why affirmatively selfidentified atheists have been found to have better mental and physical health.…”

Section: Atheism Social Capital and Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Atheism, Social Networks and Health: A Review and Theoretical Model

McCaffree

2019

Secularism and Nonreligion

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Introduction From an evolutionary standpoint, social networks have been critical in the biological and cultural development of human beings (Pinker, 2010; Hrdy, 2011; Price & Johnson, 2011). Cooperative hunting and food sharing, alloparenting of kin and nonkin, reliance on others during times of sickness or during periods of pregnancy and potential tribal warfare are all staples of the sort of foraging existence within which the human mind evolved (Tooby & Cosmides, 2015). The ultimate punishment meted out by foraging groups is social abandonment, which is certain to result in death (Boehm, 2012), and today in modern societies, socially isolated people experience greater subjective pain and higher rates of mortality (Eisenberger & Lieberman, 2004; Lieberman, 2013; Holt-Lunstad, Smith, Baker, Harris & Stephenson, 2015). Fundamentally, then, humans are a social species, relying on social capital, or the support emanating from social networks, to survive. Secondarily, from a cultural standpoint, the material security hypothesis suggests that in societies that are unstable or impoverished, people will tend to seek out dense, homogeneous social networks that help to meet needs for food, shelter and protection (Hruschka et al., 2014). Regarding religiosity, this indicates that material insecurity will tend to motivate people to embed themselves into dense, homogeneous religious communities in order to seek safety and material support (Norris & Inglehart, 2011; Barber, 2011). On the other hand, the expansion of impartial and well-funded social welfare institutions will reduce material insecurity and, thus, commitment

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Adopting a Stigmatized Label: Social Determinants of Identifying as an Atheist beyond Disbelief

Cited by 18 publications

References 43 publications

Atheism in US and UK Newspapers: Negativity about Non-Belief and Non-Believers

Atheism in US and UK Newspapers: Negativity about Non-Belief and Non-Believers

Mapping Religion's Other: A Review of the Study of Nonreligion and Secularity

Atheism, Social Networks and Health: A Review and Theoretical Model

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