Are Meta-ethical Beliefs the Key to Understanding Anti-atheist Prejudice?

Anti-atheist prejudice is one of the most scientifically neglected types of discrimination. After all, atheists do not form a coherent group nor are they visible in the society. Yet, there is evidence that nonbelievers suffer mostly from social exclusion and distrust (e.g. Edgell, Gerteis, & Hartmann, 2006), especially in countries with religious majorities, Poland being one of the main examples (81% of the population are theists, according to Global Index of Religiosity and Atheism, 2012).

It has been established that distrust is one of the core components of anti-atheist prejudice (Gervais, Shariff, & Norenzayan, 2011). Although the presented study confirms that lack of trust partially mediates the relationship between religious orientation and anti-atheist prejudice, we will offer further explanation by introducing the concept of meta-ethical beliefs (i.e. beliefs about morality and its origins; Miller, 2013). We argue that meta-ethical beliefs are a stronger mediator of the mentioned relationship, and thus, the possible origin of distrust towards atheists. Moreover, we present a scale for measuring meta-ethical beliefs (on dimensions of Divine Authority and secular humanism) and discuss the implications of our findings.