Are atheists unprejudiced? Forms of nonbelief and prejudice toward antiliberal and mainstream religious groups.

Abstract

Building on the ideological-conflict hypothesis, we argue that, beyond the religion-prejudice association, there should exist an irreligion-prejudice association toward groups perceived as actively opposing the values of nonbelievers (antiliberal targets) or even as simply being ideologically different: religionists of mainstream religions. Collecting data from three secularized Western European countries (total N ϭ 1,158), we found that, though both believers and nonbelievers disliked moral and religious antiliberals (antigay activists and fundamentalists), atheists and agnostics showed prejudicial discriminatory attitudes toward antiliberals, but also toward mere Christians, and atheists did so also toward Buddhists. Prejudice toward antiliberal and mainstream religious targets was predicted uniquely by antireligious critique, occasionally in addition to high existential quest for the antiliberal targets, but in addition to low existential quest and low belief in the world's benevolence for mainstream religionists. Future studies should determine whether the effects are similar, more pronounced, or attenuated in very religious societies.

Prejudice toward Christians and atheists among members of nonreligious groups: Attitudes, behaviors, and mechanisms

“…To examine whether the belief styles underlying fundamentalism and authoritarianism are also involved in nonreligious prejudice, we selected measures including dogmatism (rigidity of one's belief), intellectual humility (capacity to recognize that one's belief may be wrong), and belief superiority (belief in the correctness of one's belief compared to what others believe). Research has provided evidence for these measures to be applicable to both sides of the religious spectrum (Hopkin, Hoyle, & Toner, 2014;Toner, Leary, Asher, & Jongman-Sereno, 2013;Uzarevic et al, 2019). Although theoretically distinct, we hypothesized that all three constructs represented plausible mechanisms for prejudice toward Christians, with atheists displaying the greatest endorsement.…”

The Attitudes of Deconverted and Lifelong Atheists towards Religious Groups: The Role of Religious and Spiritual Identity

“…Because the religious landscape is relatively alike in our four research contexts (Australia, Finland, Germany, Norway), and because Uzarevic, Saroglou, and Muñoz-García (2019) have demonstrated interreligious attitudes of atheists to be similar across nations, we expect to observe the same pattern of results in all four national subsamples.…”

Nonreligion, Atheism, & Mental Health

“…nonliberal or religious groups), and show a lack of flexibility in taking a different perspective. 85,86,87 None of this is particularly unexpected or surprising and it has certainly not been our intention here to present the nonreligious as superior-morally or otherwhise-to religious individuals, an obviously flawed approach. What we have attempted here was, on the one hand, to point out the historical neglect, and the conceptual and methodological biases on this topic.…”