Everything is permitted? People intuitively judge immorality as representative of atheists.
Scientific research yields inconsistent and contradictory evidence relating religion to moral judgments and outcomes, yet most people on earth nonetheless view belief in God (or gods) as central to morality, and many view atheists with suspicion and scorn. To evaluate intuitions regarding a causal l...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2014-01-01
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| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3981659?pdf=render |
| _version_ | 1818468585839788032 |
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| author | Will M Gervais |
| author_facet | Will M Gervais |
| author_sort | Will M Gervais |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Scientific research yields inconsistent and contradictory evidence relating religion to moral judgments and outcomes, yet most people on earth nonetheless view belief in God (or gods) as central to morality, and many view atheists with suspicion and scorn. To evaluate intuitions regarding a causal link between religion and morality, this paper tested intuitive moral judgments of atheists and other groups. Across five experiments (N = 1,152), American participants intuitively judged a wide variety of immoral acts (e.g., serial murder, consensual incest, necrobestiality, cannibalism) as representative of atheists, but not of eleven other religious, ethnic, and cultural groups. Even atheist participants judged immoral acts as more representative of atheists than of other groups. These findings demonstrate a prevalent intuition that belief in God serves a necessary function in inhibiting immoral conduct, and may help explain persistent negative perceptions of atheists. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-13T21:13:50Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-3b282c3e55aa4841a97af4f0ac39f579 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1932-6203 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-13T21:13:50Z |
| publishDate | 2014-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS ONE |
| spelling | doaj.art-3b282c3e55aa4841a97af4f0ac39f5792022-12-22T02:29:45ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032014-01-0194e9230210.1371/journal.pone.0092302Everything is permitted? People intuitively judge immorality as representative of atheists.Will M GervaisScientific research yields inconsistent and contradictory evidence relating religion to moral judgments and outcomes, yet most people on earth nonetheless view belief in God (or gods) as central to morality, and many view atheists with suspicion and scorn. To evaluate intuitions regarding a causal link between religion and morality, this paper tested intuitive moral judgments of atheists and other groups. Across five experiments (N = 1,152), American participants intuitively judged a wide variety of immoral acts (e.g., serial murder, consensual incest, necrobestiality, cannibalism) as representative of atheists, but not of eleven other religious, ethnic, and cultural groups. Even atheist participants judged immoral acts as more representative of atheists than of other groups. These findings demonstrate a prevalent intuition that belief in God serves a necessary function in inhibiting immoral conduct, and may help explain persistent negative perceptions of atheists.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3981659?pdf=render |
| spellingShingle | Will M Gervais Everything is permitted? People intuitively judge immorality as representative of atheists. PLoS ONE |
| title | Everything is permitted? People intuitively judge immorality as representative of atheists. |
| title_full | Everything is permitted? People intuitively judge immorality as representative of atheists. |
| title_fullStr | Everything is permitted? People intuitively judge immorality as representative of atheists. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Everything is permitted? People intuitively judge immorality as representative of atheists. |
| title_short | Everything is permitted? People intuitively judge immorality as representative of atheists. |
| title_sort | everything is permitted people intuitively judge immorality as representative of atheists |
| url | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3981659?pdf=render |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT willmgervais everythingispermittedpeopleintuitivelyjudgeimmoralityasrepresentativeofatheists |