Anti-atheist prejudice stems from trust concerns, not xenophobia or outgroup dislike

Evidence

Gervais found converging evidence to support this prediction. First, across nations, anti-atheist prejudice among believers was reduced where atheists are more numerous, even after controlling for important individual and international differences, such as conservatism, human development, and individualism. Second, in a Canadian university sample, anti-atheist prejudice was reduced among believers who thought that atheists were more common, and this was the case especially among the most deeply religious participants. Last, it was found that experimentally induced reminders of how common atheists are statistically eliminated anti-atheist prejudice. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 312 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim
• XREF: connects to: Belief-centered religions generate more prejudice against atheists than practice-centered ones; Atheism is perceived as a public threat to cooperation, not a private belief; Anti-atheist and anti-gay prejudices have distinct distrust versus disgust profiles (+8 more)

Related

• Anti-atheist exclusion rises when trust matters critically in a role (similarity 0.94)
• An unlikely mechanism reduces atheist distrust even among believers (similarity 0.93)
• Belief-centered religions generate more prejudice against atheists than practice-centered ones (similarity 0.93)
• Cross-national correlations cannot establish causal direction for atheist distrust (similarity 0.91)
• Outgroup prevalence reduces distrust-based prejudice even as it raises fear-based prejudice (similarity 0.89)
• Atheists generally do not distrust religious believers (similarity 0.89)
• Atheism is perceived as a public threat to cooperation, not a private belief (similarity 0.88)
• Perceived atheist prevalence directly reduces anti-atheist prejudice across nations and experiments (similarity 0.88)
• Anti-atheist prejudice cannot be explained by xenophobia or general outgroup distrust. (similarity 0.86)
• Atheists are distrusted more than other stigmatized groups even amid rising tolerance (similarity 0.86)
• Anti-atheist and anti-gay prejudices have distinct distrust versus disgust profiles (similarity 0.86)
• Atheist distrust stems specifically from moral distrust, not fear or disgust (similarity 0.86)
• Nonbelievers show mild trust toward believers while believers trust only their own (similarity 0.85)
• Distrust of atheists exceeds what warmth and competence stereotypes alone predict (similarity 0.85)
• Anti-atheist prejudice is specifically about distrust, not general dislike. (similarity 0.85)

Broader Connections

• Anti-atheist exclusion rises when trust matters critically in a role #corroborates (0.90)
• Perceived atheist prevalence directly reduces anti-atheist prejudice across nations and experiments #corroborates (0.80) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 312
• Religious belief strongly predicts distrust of atheists #qualifies (0.80)
• An unlikely mechanism reduces atheist distrust even among believers #corroborates (0.75)