Religious believers distrust atheists more than any other religious group, according to a study done by researchers at University of British Columbia.
“A description of a criminally untrustworthy individual was seen as comparably representative of atheists and rapists but not representative of Christians, Muslims, Jewish people, feminists, or homosexuals,” according to a study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
Distrust of atheists isn’t exclusively a Christian phenomenon, according to Will Gervais, one of the authors of the study.
“We found that even people who do not identify with a religious group distrust atheists,” Gervais said. “In fact, belief in a watchful God (rather than identification with any particular religious group, per se) consistently predicted distrust of atheists.”
The link between believing in God and distrusting atheists is meditated by the belief that people behave better if they feel that God is watching them, according to the study.
The study also revealed that this distrust leads to discriminatory decision-making.
Atheists aren’t happy with being portrayed this way.
“The bias is shocking,” said Patrick Bonne, a first-year atheist student at Carleton University. “As an atheist, I do my best to respect everyone’s beliefs and it’s quite unfair that they wouldn’t return the same.”
The idea for this study came a few years ago when research found that atheists are one of the least accepted groups in the U.S. today, according to Gervais.
“We were puzzled, because atheists are not conspicuous, powerful, or cohesive,” Gervais said. “It seems like an odd group to have strong negative feelings towards, so we set out to figure out what kind of a negative reaction might lead people to reject atheists. And we found that distrust really lies at the core of anti-atheist prejudice.”