Atheists - the most hated minority

[_Hoops]

This:

If a person is dealing with their fear of death with religion, my assertion that faith is a delusion results in extreme cognitive dissonance and negative emotional reactions.

[_moksha]

Surely telemarkers occupy a lower position than atheists.

[_krose]

Surely telemarkers occupy a lower position than atheists.

Surly telemarketers would, perhaps.

[_EAllusion]

Surely telemarkers occupy a lower position than atheists.

The only group I've ever seen perform worse on measures of distrust, whether you'd be happy if your child married a member of that group, etc. were pedophiles. That's it. Atheists* are despised in America. A lot of the effects of that are just taken for granted, such as being openly atheist disqualifying you for almost any public office, but this isn't just an abstract phenomenon.

*Some of the studies I've seen, such as this one, didn't rely on using the word atheist. Rather they'll use a term like "someone who doesn't believe in God." The same bad numbers come up, indicating this isn't just an issue with the connotation of the word atheist.

[_EAllusion]

In this paper published late last year atheists performed as well on a distrust measure as rapists.

J Pers Soc Psychol. 2011 Dec;101(6):1189-206. Epub 2011 Nov 7.
Do you believe in atheists? Distrust is central to anti-atheist prejudice.
Gervais Walmart, Shariff AF, Norenzayan A.
Source
Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia.

Recent polls indicate that atheists are among the least liked people in areas with religious majorities (i.e., in most of the world). The sociofunctional approach to prejudice, combined with a cultural evolutionary theory of religion’s effects on cooperation, suggest that anti-atheist prejudice is particularly motivated by distrust. Consistent with this theoretical framework, a broad sample of American adults revealed that distrust characterized anti-atheist prejudice but not anti-gay prejudice (Study 1). In subsequent studies, distrust of atheists generalized even to participants from more liberal, secular populations. A description of a criminally untrustworthy individual was seen as comparably representative of atheists and rapists but not representative of Christians, Muslims, Jewish people, feminists, or homosexuals (Studies 2-4). In addition, results were consistent with the hypothesis that the relationship between belief in God and atheist distrust was fully mediated by the belief that people behave better if they feel that God is watching them (Study 4). In implicit measures, participants strongly associated atheists with distrust, and belief in God was more strongly associated with implicit distrust of atheists than with implicit dislike of atheists (Study 5). Finally, atheists were systematically socially excluded only in high-trust domains; belief in God, but not authoritarianism, predicted this discriminatory decision-making against atheists in high trust domains (Study 6). These 6 studies are the first to systematically explore the social psychological underpinnings of anti-atheist prejudice, and converge to indicate the centrality of distrust in this phenomenon. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved).

[_brade]

In this paper published late last year atheists performed as well on a distrust measure as rapists.

J Pers Soc Psychol. 2011 Dec;101(6):1189-206. Epub 2011 Nov 7.
Do you believe in atheists? Distrust is central to anti-atheist prejudice.
Gervais Walmart, Shariff AF, Norenzayan A.
Source
Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia.

Recent polls indicate that atheists are among the least liked people in areas with religious majorities (i.e., in most of the world). The sociofunctional approach to prejudice, combined with a cultural evolutionary theory of religion’s effects on cooperation, suggest that anti-atheist prejudice is particularly motivated by distrust. Consistent with this theoretical framework, a broad sample of American adults revealed that distrust characterized anti-atheist prejudice but not anti-gay prejudice (Study 1). In subsequent studies, distrust of atheists generalized even to participants from more liberal, secular populations. A description of a criminally untrustworthy individual was seen as comparably representative of atheists and rapists but not representative of Christians, Muslims, Jewish people, feminists, or homosexuals (Studies 2-4). In addition, results were consistent with the hypothesis that the relationship between belief in God and atheist distrust was fully mediated by the belief that people behave better if they feel that God is watching them (Study 4). In implicit measures, participants strongly associated atheists with distrust, and belief in God was more strongly associated with implicit distrust of atheists than with implicit dislike of atheists (Study 5). Finally, atheists were systematically socially excluded only in high-trust domains; belief in God, but not authoritarianism, predicted this discriminatory decision-making against atheists in high trust domains (Study 6). These 6 studies are the first to systematically explore the social psychological underpinnings of anti-atheist prejudice, and converge to indicate the centrality of distrust in this phenomenon. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved).

They climbin in your window, snatching yo people up, tryin to disabuse em; so ya'll need to hide yo kids, hide yo wives, hide yo kids, hide yo wives, and hide yo husbands cuz they disabusin aybody out here.

[_Hoops]

Except the title of this thread, and many of the ensuing comments, doesn't read anything about distrusting atheists. It reads they are hated. Please document that phenomenon.

[Guest]

Except the title of this thread, and many of the ensuing comments, doesn't read anything about distrusting atheists. It reads they are hated. Please document that phenomenon.

Most people won't say that they hate another group in response to a poll. That sounds bigoted. However, they will say that atheists are the group that:

least agrees with their vision of American society
most disapprove of if my child wanted to marry a member of this group
most distrusted
least likely to vote for

http://newsjunkiepost.com/2009/09/19/research-finds-that-atheists-are-most-hated-and-distrusted-minority/

http://live.washingtonpost.com/why-do-americans-hate-atheists-herb-silverman.html

http://www.atheistrev.com/2011/06/why-do-they-hate-atheists.html


If this isn't hate, it is certainly extreme intolerance.

[Guest]

This:

If a person is dealing with their fear of death with religion, my assertion that faith is a delusion results in extreme cognitive dissonance and negative emotional reactions.

So atheists are disliked because they speculate about why they are disliked?

Do you have anything substantive to say about the hypothesis that terror management theory explains why believers get so emotional over atheism, and why believers, who are normally at each other's throats on points of doctrine, will unite in anger against an atheist who suggests that all supernatural beliefs are a delusion?

To put it another way, "Atheists are 'hated' because one always 'hates' whoever pokes a finger into one's deepest convictions - especially if one is also a bit insecure in them. And I bet that quite a lot of believers are at least a little bit insecure in their belief because it too often requires them to stretch their powers of reasoning beyond breaking point. So, when an outsider fingers the raw nerve the reaction is quite emotional - and eruptive.'

[_Hoops]

Except the title of this thread, and many of the ensuing comments, doesn't read anything about distrusting atheists. It reads they are hated. Please document that phenomenon.

Most people won't say that they hate another group in response to a poll. That sounds bigoted. However, they will say that atheists are the group that:

least agrees with their vision of American society
most disapprove of if my child wanted to marry a member of this group
most distrusted
least likely to vote for

http://newsjunkiepost.com/2009/09/19/research-finds-that-atheists-are-most-hated-and-distrusted-minority/

If this isn't hate, it is certainly extreme intolerance.
http://live.washingtonpost.com/why-do-americans-hate-atheists-herb-silverman.html

http://www.atheistrev.com/2011/06/why-do-they-hate-atheists.html

Wth is extreme intolerance? As opposed to medium intolerance? or light intolerance?

What is intolerance anyway?

Still, the title claims atheists are hated. There has been no evidence of that. So let's move the goalpost to: "Well, we didn't really mean hate, we meant intolerance."