Atheists remain the only US minority group that lacks majority social acceptance

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. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 231

Categorization

• XREF: Directly relevant to the reader’s analytical project on the fumi-e and partner choice — persistent distrust of atheists evidences that theism functions as a costly signal of reliable cooperation, and rejection of atheists is the flip side of the Big God mechanism.