Americans Simultaneously Hold Both Positive And Negative Stereotypes About Atheists

By Emily Reynolds What — or who — do you think about when you hear the word “atheist”? Someone scientific, rational, and open-minded? Or, instead, someone who lacks morality, or who is less trustworthy than your average religious person? Prior research hasn’t been wholly positive for non-believers, finding serious levels of distrust of atheists — even among atheists themselves. But the real picture might be slightly more complicated. According to a new study, published in Social Psychological and Personality Science, positive and negative stereotypes abound when it comes to atheists. And for many, these stereotypes exist at the same time: people can believe atheists to be fun and open-minded just as they find them to be immoral. Although past work has mainly looked at negative stereotypes of atheists, there is reason to believe that people could, simultaneously, hold positive stereotypes. You might perceive atheists as uninhibited and rebellious and want to invite them to a party or have them serve you at a restaurant, for example — but you may not want them to look after your children for exactly the same reason. The first study looked precisely at these traits, testing the hypothesis that people see atheists as fun, open-minded and scientific (and the religious as the opposite). Participants were randomly assigned to read three vignettes in which a character either displayed one of these three traits (e.g. fun), or its opposite (e.g. n...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Personality Religion Social Source Type: blogs