Atheists remain the only US group most voters refuse to support

Evidence

Historical trends in the United States also show that distrust of atheists is remarkably resilient. One standard question that sociologists ask is, “Would you be willing to vote for a presidential candidate of your own political preference, who is ______,” offering respondents various options, such as African American, Catholic, female, Jewish, Muslim, atheist, and so on. Over time, we see an encouraging pattern of increasing social acceptance of almost all groups that have been historically marginalized. In 1948, only 48 percent of Americans said they would be willing to vote for an African American presidential candidate. By 1999, that number had almost doubled, to over 90 percent. True to these numbers, Americans elected in 2008 the first African American president. Catholics, Jews, women—in fact, every single group polled, including gays, who only a few decades ago were excluded by the majority of Americans—have crossed the critical 50 percent mark already by 1999—except atheists, who even today, cannot garner the approval of a simple majority. This singling out of atheists is something that is found repeatedly by pollsters surveying American social attitudes. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 231

Categorization

• XREF: Connects directly to the reader’s core thesis: if atheists are uniquely excluded, then the Big God mechanism’s binding of believers depends on shared supernatural belief as a costly signal of in-group trust.