A new survey ranks the qualities that Americans dislike in a potential leader, discovering that they still give a strong side-eye to atheists.
Prejudice against those who say there’s no god is stronger than ageism, homophobia, and sexism. People would also rather vote for people with admitted moral failings (in the eyes of some), such as those who’ve admitted to an extra-marital affair or the use of weed, than those who claim a perfect record guided by some other force than god.
On the plus side for atheists and their allies, the percent of people who say that they are disinclined to vote for an atheist for president has declined from 63% in 2007 to the 53% we see today.
Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
Comments 14
Mordicai — June 14, 2014
I mean, I'm straight, white, middle classed cis man, & the one time I ever experienced bigotry is when I was kicked out of the Boy Scouts for being an atheist. If folks like me, the most privileged people-- not counting the rich, who play by their own rules-- can feel that discrimination, it must be pretty virulent.
Aname — June 14, 2014
I think you have to keep in mind that this is what people say in a survey! Effects such as social desirability could play a major role in their answers - for example there is a lot of discrimination against homosexuals, but I think not a lot of people would admit to discriminating people based on their sexual preferences openly. That said I still think there is prejudice against atheists...
gasstationwithoutpumps — June 14, 2014
Since this is a blog about "images", shouldn't we be pointing out that the bar chart is badly done? Ordering the items by +, –, don't care, rather than the more sensible +, don't care, – (or –, don't care, +) causes the image to be less interpretable, not taking advantage of automatic visual processing, but requiring us to read the numbers or trust that the image creator has correctly sorted the rows.
Bill R — June 15, 2014
I am an atheist although I rarely push it it public because I believe that just flips the bird to the most fundamental beliefs of others. I also truly believe organized religion is a root of evil, that religion has done more to separate people on the planet than any other force except geography.The more we we cling to in-group, out-group mentality, the more we justify discrimination, hate and war.
I usually feel comfortable discussing such problems with organized religion in public (the Middle East always presents a convenient point of departure) and most people will engage me intelligently when I do, but expressing non-belief in the existence of one or more gods never seems productive...
madmathematicienne — June 23, 2014
While I find it difficult to believe you'd get a reliable answer anyway, I'm very surprised that black people were left out as a category of people who are discriminated against. On the whole, there seem to be a lot of other categories ignored, making calling atheists the "most disliked" a dubious claim based on the data.
That said, I'm an atheist, and it does seem like people are more willing to discriminate based on that publicly than a lot of other categories. I'd still say that people discriminate against me more because I'm a woman, but most people are less willing to say directly discriminatory things about my sex than about my religion.