Would you vote for an open atheist for national political office?

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American politicians have always had a close relationship with religion, and despite the increasingly secular nature of US society, it is nearly unthinkable that a politician would openly identify themselves as an atheist. In new research, Scott Clifford and Ben Gaskins find that voters perceive religious candidates as being more trustworthy and moral and atheist candidates as less trustworthy and less moral. They write that when politicians remind people that they are religious, they are playing on Americans’ bias towards trusting and favoring the religious. In American politics, it is almost unheard of for a politician to identify as an atheist. Politicians of both major political parties have a long tradition of using religious language, imagery, and personal religious narratives in making their appeal to voters. Barack Obama does it. So do Hillary Clinton, Ted Cruz, George W. Bush, and even Donald Trump.

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The answer, we believe, has to do with implicit biases Americans have against the non-religious—specifically that religion implies trustworthiness. Those who explicitly reject religion —atheists—are among the most disliked social groups in America and recent research in psychology demonstrates that prejudice towards atheists is rooted in perceptions of their fundamental untrustworthiness and immorality.

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First, among respondents who were at least mildly religious and/or not extremely liberal, the religious candidate was perceived as significantly more trustworthy and moral than when no information was provided about the candidate’s religion. These respondents were also more willing to vote for the religious candidate, an effect that was again explained by perceptions of the candidate’s trustworthiness and moral character. The only respondents who view the religious candidate significantly less favorably were respondents who were both non-religious and politically to the extreme left, which represents a small swath of the electorate. The atheist candidate, on the other hand, was viewed less favorably and as less trustworthy among all respondents except for non-religious left-wingers.

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