Is There Anything Good About Atheists? Exploring Positive and Negative Stereotypes of the Religious and Nonreligious

Negative stereotypes about atheists are widespread, robust, rooted in distrust, and linked to discrimination. Here, we examine whether social perceivers the United States might additionally hold any positive (and corresponding negative of religious). Experiments 1 ( N = 401) 2 398, preregistered) used methods intuitive (the conjunction fallacy). People tended stereotype as fun, open-minded, scientific—even they harbor extreme anti-atheist prejudice Experiment 2. 3 382) a quasi-behavioral partner-choice paradigm, finding that most people choose atheist (vs. religious) partners stereotype-relevant domains. Overall, results suggest simultaneously possess also atheists, but religious may be even stronger. These effects robust among nonreligious somewhat religious, evidence is mixed highly these stereotypes.