Atheists are more likely to be viewed as immoral and capable of evil deeds than religious people, even by other atheists, a study has revealed.
The new report, which appeared in the journal Nature Human Behaviour, included more than 3,000 people in 13 countries, ranging from secular states like the Netherlands and Finland, to deeply religious ones like the United Arab Emirates and India. The findings show that an anti-atheist bias is still alive and well, in spite of dwindling church and mosque attendance figures.
Credit: Flickr/Jon Worth (Creative Commons)
Advert
Even other atheists and people who denied having a bias were found to perceive non-religious individuals as being more likely to commit atrocities.
Participants in the study were given a description of a fictional serial killer, who tortured animals as a child, then grows up to become a teacher who murders and mutilates five homeless people. Half of the group were then asked whether they thought the murder was likely to be religious, while the other half were asked whether it was likely that they were an atheist. The results showed that participants were about twice as likely to think that the hypothetical killer was an atheist.
"It is striking that even atheists appear to hold the same intuitive anti-atheist bias," said the study's co-author, Will Gervais, a psychology professor at the University of Kentucky in Lexington.
"I suspect that this stems from the prevalence of deeply entrenched pro-religious norms. Even in places that are currently quite overtly secular, people still seem to intuitively hold on to the believe that religion is a moral safeguard."
Credit: Flickr/Eli Christman (Creative Commons)
Advert
The only two countries whose results didn't show evidence of an anti-atheist bias were Finland and New Zealand, while Gervais said distrust of atheists was "very strong in the most highly religious states like the United States, United Arab Emirates and India."
However, in spite of the overwhelming results, the relationship between moral behaviour and religious belief is in fact not very well understood. Some studies have found that devout believers live more moral lives, compared with nonbelievers, while others have found no differences at all.
Some mass killers ascribe their crimes to their religious beliefs, others kill due to mental health issues and other reasons. An analysis of more than 200 killers by Dr. Michael Stone, a New York forensic psychiatrist, found around 25 percent, in his estimation, showed evidence of paranoid schizophrenia, characterised by delusional thinking. Those delusions were often based around religious symbolism.
Advert
Source: BBC News, The Guardian
Featured Image Credit: Flickr/Welsh Photographs (Creative Commons)