Trust and Trustworthiness of Christians, Muslims, and Atheists/Agnostics in the United States

Abstract

Trust, a cornerstone of economic development, is promoted within religions. In a randomized controlled trial, we examine how trust and trustworthiness vary across religions (Christianity and Islam), religiosity, and atheists/agnostics in the United States. Three novel findings emerge. First, Christians are trusted more than Muslims and nonbelievers, which is due to a Christian ingroup bias––Christians trust Christians more than they trust Muslims and nonbelievers, while Muslims and nonbelievers trust all groups the same. Second, religiosity matters to trust. Religious people trust those of higher religiosity more, but only if they are of the same religion. In contrast, nonbelievers trust people of higher religiosity less. Third, trustworthiness among nonbelievers is somewhat lower than that of the religious, especially toward Christians. We speculate that the lower reciprocity originates in the prejudice toward nonbelievers. Our results may help explain discrimination against Muslims and nonbelievers, given that discrimination often originates in distrust.

Respect for Religiosity: Review of Faith Integration in Health and Wellbeing Interventions with Muslim Minorities

“…Trust is closely related to religious beliefs. Thunström et al (2021) investigated variations in trust levels between faiths. They found that Christians trust Christians more than other faith believers, while Muslims and atheists/agnostics trust all groups in the same way, and religious people trust people who have higher religious knowledge, if they are from the same belief.…”

The Cost of Being Christian: The Association between Christian Affiliation and Discrimination Experiences among Asians in the United States

“…For instance, Christians tend to only make friends within the religious affiliation when a solid identity is shared, and such intracongregation friendships directly affect interracial contact and acceptance (Lim and Putnam 2010). Christians are also found to cast higher trust only in other Christian adherents rather than the generalized population (Thunstrom et al 2021). Such co-racial religious participation and coethnic friendmaking are found among Asian Christians as well.…”

“…As the dominant religion in the United States, Christianity has become a symbol of sacredness, earning popular faith from mass American citizens, as evidenced by the fact that around 70 percent of U.S. adults are Christian in 2020 (Jones et al 2021). Christian affiliation becomes a sign of cultural superiority in this country, as Americans are found to perceive Christians as warm while other religious adherents as cold (Cooperman et al 2014;Thunstrom et al 2021). However, this finding does not consider the racial/ethnic diversity within the Christian group, where white Christians and minority Christians are perceived differently (Baker, Perry, and Whitehead 2020;Davis 2018).…”

Belief in karma is associated with perceived (but not actual) trustworthiness

“…Third, in geographic areas where there is a major prevailing religion, the tendency to trust religious individuals could stem from an in-group preference to trust fellow believers (Chuah et al, 2016). In line with this in-group bias explanation, a recent study found that American Christians trusted fellow Christians more than they trusted Muslims and non-believers in an incentivized trust game (Thunström et al, 2021). Do people also perceive individuals who believe in karma as more trustworthy?…”