The believer-disbeliever trust asymmetry is not ordinary ingroup-outgroup antagonism

Evidence

This asymmetry—believers distrust disbelievers but not the other way around—at first glance may come as a surprise, especially in light of recent public attacks on religion by some atheist intellectuals. But this asymmetry is exactly what we would expect if this is not an ingroup–outgroup antagonism analogous to ethnic divides or clashes between different religious denominations. Most atheists do not see themselves as a “group,” nor do they see themselves having a “worldview” in opposition to religious groups. … In fact, some atheists appear to endorse Benjamin Franklin’s intuition that belief in supernatural monitoring, even if false, is a good thing that keeps people in line. And this might be the basis of what philosopher Daniel Dennett laments as “believing in belief.” This is the attitude, held among some nonbelievers and atheists, which says that belief is a good thing worth preserving, because it keeps some people moral, or gives some people a sense of meaning, and so on. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 285

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: Genile explanation of why distrust flows asymmetrically: it is functional partner-choice monitoring aimed at those who drop out of supernatural accountability, not group hatred — a dense point that reframes prejudice debates.
• XREF: The ‘atheists believe in belief’ mechanism is load-bearing for the reader’s fumi-e analysis: Rodrigues the missionary assumes belief’s moral power, yet the state destroys belief displays without killing believers. — connects to: Abandoning conspiracist belief carries a reputational cost among the group — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying: The New…, 342