Atheist counts are distorted by social-desirability pressures in both directions

Evidence

Admittedly, counting atheists is notoriously difficult. In deeply religious societies, the numbers are likely underestimates, as atheists are unwilling to reveal their lack of belief. Conversely, in officially atheistic societies such as China, they may be overestimated, as cultural norms push people to mask their religiosity and falsely claim to be atheists. There are also issues of semantics—what does it mean to be an atheist? Should we count those who say they are agnostics and nonbelievers? Should we include in our definition people who do not believe in God but nevertheless attend religious services, such as many secular Jews? Should we include people who say they do not believe in God but are “cultural Christians,” such as many Danes and Swedes? Is opposition to religion an important part of the definition? — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 242

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

• DEFINE: Clarifies the definitional ambiguity of ‘atheist’ — central to the reader’s analytical argument about belief signaling.
• XREF: The masking pressure on both sides shows belief as a costly, socially-loaded signal — exactly the mechanism the fumi-e targets.

Related

• Social pressure biases atheism counts in opposite directions by society type (similarity 0.88)
• Atheists are distrusted as norm-wildcards whose beliefs cannot be inferred (similarity 0.82)
• Atheists are distrusted more than other stigmatized groups even amid rising tolerance (similarity 0.81)
• Discriminatory laws against atheists span many religious-majority countries (similarity 0.80)
• Atheism has multiple independent causal pathways, not one (similarity 0.80)
• Anti-atheist prejudice cannot be explained by xenophobia or general outgroup distrust. (similarity 0.79)
• Atheism lacks the intuitive support that religious belief enjoys. (similarity 0.79)
• Atheists are specifically distrusted as moral freeloaders, not disliked generally (similarity 0.79)
• Believers distrust atheists because they doubt atheists feel watched by God. (similarity 0.78)
• Moral distrust of atheists is not explained by generic stereotype content (similarity 0.78)
• Atheists generally do not distrust religious believers (similarity 0.78)
• Distrust of atheists by believers is one-directional and deeply asymmetrical (similarity 0.78)