The religious-atheist trust gap is not symmetric ingroup-outgroup prejudice

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. (Matters might be different when it comes to liking or admiring individual believers.) 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

• XREF: The asymmetry reveals the Big God mechanism works as a trust signal to believers — relevant to how the Japanese authorities’ fumi-e ritual weaponizes visible apostasy to destroy exactly that signal. — connects to: Religiosity does not moderate fear of atheists the way it moderates racial views — Andrew L. Whitehead; Samuel L. Perry, Taking America Back for God, 370
• DEFINE: Defines ‘believing in belief’ — the attitude that belief is worth preserving for its moral function even if false, central to understanding the asymmetric distrust.