The study may be flawed, I'm still looking at things---but the points made in BTS's link are also flawed.
The second study recruited 105 UBC undergrads —they purposely targeted a more liberal sample from a less-religious nation — to test whether distrust of atheists is more pronounced than distrust of other groups, including Muslims. The students read a description of an untrustworthy man who pretended to leave insurance information after backing his car into a parked vehicle and were asked to say whether it was more likely the man was either a Christian, Muslim, rapist or an atheist. People were far more likely to say he was either an atheist or a rapist and not part of a religious group. They did not significantly differentiate atheists from rapists, something Mr. Gervais found disconcerting.
1, it doesn't seem odd to me that Christians would assume he's not a Christian. It may be irrational, but it is perfectly understandable to assume that "Someone Like Me" wouldn't be up to some funky business.
They targeted a sample from a less-religous nation. It's not clear what nation, or what liberal means---however it also is not clear that they chose Christians. The response makes the claim that Christians would not distrust their own---but who said those questioned were their own either?
The resulting paper, published in the current online issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, includes six studies all designed to measure people’s perception of an atheist’s trustworthiness. The first study asked 351 Americans from across the country to compare the trustworthiness of an atheist and a gay man, since both represent groups often described as threatening to majority religious values. MThey rated atheists significantly higher than gay men on distrust, though lower on levels of disgust.
What? This seems like a very strange way to do things. "Compare atheists to gays"?
Again with the "Are you kidding? At least we're not homos!" stuff.
Another nonsense response. The original statement was using a compare and contrast model---gay men are traditionally targetted by religious groups---atheists also are---how do they compare?
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The research began a few years ago, when a series of polls revealed atheists to be some of the least liked people in areas with religious majorities, which is to say, much of the world. In one poll, only 45% of American respondents said they would vote for a qualified atheist presidential candidate and overwhelmingly preferred to vote for African American, Jewish and female candidates. Americans also rated atheists as the group that least agrees with their vision for the country and the group they’d most disapprove of their child marrying.
This is a funny statement. It's almost like they're saying, "Seriously, you trust us less than those darkies and sheenies? Come on! At least we're white!"
Again, more hyperbolic nonsense. They were NOT saying anything of the kind. They were simply reporting that Americans would vote for an African American, a woman, or a Jew before they would vote for an atheist. That is 100% true. They weren't commenting that those 3 groups were poor choices--or good choices---they were simply measuring and comparing how deep the distrust ran against atheists. An atheist could not win the presidency today. That is a fact. Obama didn't mention God in his Thanksgiving greeting, and you'd think the sky had fallen in. Even though Bush and Clinton both failed to mention God in some of their Thanksgiving greetings.
This link does not discredit the study. This link imputes false motives to what the researchers are saying. The researchers give information on the data they have, and this guy freaks and says they are saying "At least we aren't homos!"
