# Any studies showing that atheists and theists tend to behave differently from one another? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 2, 2013, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-studies-showing-that-atheists-and-theists-tend-to-behave-differently-from-one-another/670196 "2013-10-02T17:45:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Steken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Steken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steken)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-studies-showing-that-atheists-and-theists-tend-to-behave-differently-from-one-another/670196/1 "2013-10-02T17:45:59Z")
Spin-off from [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=703724). In the course of that discussion, I mentioned that > [@](#): > > I know of no reliable studies which show that people who self-identify as “atheists” tend to act any more (or less) “morally” than people who self-identify as “theists.” Come to think of it, I know of no studies which show that self-identified atheists tend to behave any differently from self-identified theists at all, with regards to “morality” or anything else. Are there any such studies? ---
**Author:** ![SmartAlecCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/67e7ee/32.png) [@SmartAlecCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAlecCat)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-studies-showing-that-atheists-and-theists-tend-to-behave-differently-from-one-another/670196/2 "2013-10-02T18:12:08Z")
[Atheists are more generous](http://old.richarddawkins.net/articles/643999-atheists-are-the-most-generous-even-without-heavenly-reward) [or they aren’t](http://www.conservapedia.com/Atheism_and_charity) or [maybe they are](http://secularhumanism.org/index.php?section=fi&page=generous_atheists) ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-studies-showing-that-atheists-and-theists-tend-to-behave-differently-from-one-another/670196/3 "2013-10-02T20:19:01Z")
Lots of confounds involved, it seems, like if you compare some New York atheist academic to a Mississippi Baptist farmer. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-studies-showing-that-atheists-and-theists-tend-to-behave-differently-from-one-another/670196/4 "2013-10-02T21:45:30Z")
Atheists go to church far less frequently. ---
**Author:** ![RedSwinglineOne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a9adbd/32.png) [@RedSwinglineOne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedSwinglineOne)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-studies-showing-that-atheists-and-theists-tend-to-behave-differently-from-one-another/670196/5 "2013-10-02T21:55:52Z")
> [@](#): > > Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it, you’d have good people doing good things and evil people doing bad things, but for good people to do bad things, it takes religion. Steven Weinberg > [@](#): > > Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from a religious conviction. Blaise Pascal ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2013, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-studies-showing-that-atheists-and-theists-tend-to-behave-differently-from-one-another/670196/6 "2013-10-03T01:55:15Z")
**thelurkinghorror** ’s point is quite cogent and may be put another way: what differences may be observable between the religious and the non-believers may not be religious belief or non-belief resulting in differences but rather differences that predispose to belief or non-belief. Hence it is [fairly well established](http://psr.sagepub.com/content/early/2013/08/02/1088868313497266.abstract) that higher intelligence is negtively associated with strong religious belief. That association seems however unlikely to be based upon religiosity leading to lower intelligence and more likely, as hypothesized in that abstract: > [@](#): > > First, intelligent people are less likely to conform and, thus, are more likely to resist religious dogma. Second, intelligent people tend to adopt an analytic (as opposed to intuitive) thinking style, which has been shown to undermine religious beliefs. Third, several functions of religiosity, including compensatory control, self-regulation, self-enhancement, and secure attachment, are also conferred by intelligence. Intelligent people may therefore have less need for religious beliefs and practices. Neither strong religiosity nor strong atheism exist in vacuums. They are part of cultural environments that individuals exist within. So the highly religious may be more likely to have particular voting habits (as one easy example) than the relatively areligious let alone the atheists (and check the cross tabs of a wide variety of poitical polls to find evidence for that) but the religious/areligious mindsets and the political behaviors/beliefs are less likely one the cause of the other than both the result of other commmon other causes that result in both. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2013, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-studies-showing-that-atheists-and-theists-tend-to-behave-differently-from-one-another/670196/7 "2013-10-03T01:59:48Z")
**RedSwinglineOne** , nah. Stalinists, Maoists, and Nazis all were capable of cheerlully committing acts that could be held as evil as any Inquistor’s. We humans need no God in either direction and can do both great and horrific all on our own. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2013, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-studies-showing-that-atheists-and-theists-tend-to-behave-differently-from-one-another/670196/8 "2013-10-03T07:15:34Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > **RedSwinglineOne** , nah. Stalinists, Maoists, and Nazis all were capable of cheerlully committing acts that could be held as evil as any Inquistor’s. > > We humans need no God in either direction and can do both great and horrific all on our own. But be careful, all the above were dogmatic belief systems in much the same vein as any religion. Atheism, in and of itself, makes no such demands. It has no ethos and dogma it is merely the absence of a belief in god or gods. What a person does after that is another matter entirely. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2013, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-studies-showing-that-atheists-and-theists-tend-to-behave-differently-from-one-another/670196/9 "2013-10-03T12:27:20Z")
Not quite sure what the point of that comment is, **Novelty Bobble**. I completely agree that there is nothing about atheism that predisposes people to evil … there is also nothing about atheism per se that protects people from doing horrible things. No more and no less so than religious belief does. If your point is that dogmatic belief systems, be they based on a god concept or not, are what sets up people to do horrible things, then I would still debate. Some dogmatic beliefs motivate those things and some motivate great things. Some, for example, believe quite dogmatically that all humans have basic rights and are willing to make great self-sacrifices for others on the basis of that dogmatic belief. Some of those people base that dogma on a god concept; some do not … Excuse the unfortunate expression in this context, but the devil’s in the details. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2013, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-studies-showing-that-atheists-and-theists-tend-to-behave-differently-from-one-another/670196/10 "2013-10-03T14:50:04Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > Not quite sure what the point of that comment is, **Novelty Bobble**. I completely agree that there is nothing about atheism that predisposes people to evil … Sorry, I should have made clear that the “be careful” is not directed at you, your comment was completely correct. It was directed more at those who would make the lazy assumption that to be an atheist means you are buying in to a specific dogma or set of rules. It doesn’t of course. “atheist” and “theist” only really have meaning when used as a suffix but what precedes that suffix gives you far more information. A natural question to someone who says “I’m a theist” would be “what kind?”. The same should hold for atheists as well. i.e. “humanist-atheist”, “humanist theist”, “hard-line marxist atheist”, “fundamentalist shia muslim theist” etc. etc. all give you a better understanding of the values that person is likely to hold. Of course in some cases the theist suffix is superfluous and can safely be dropped but not always. (buddhism, judaism etc.) ---
**Author:** ![Steken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Steken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steken)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2013, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-studies-showing-that-atheists-and-theists-tend-to-behave-differently-from-one-another/670196/11 "2013-10-04T07:04:11Z")
**RedSwinglineOne** , please re-read the OP. Slowly, carefully, and with all the concentration you can muster. Now: Did I ask for nifty quotes, or did I ask for studies? ---
**Author:** ![Truman\_Burbank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@Truman\_Burbank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Truman_Burbank)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2013, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-studies-showing-that-atheists-and-theists-tend-to-behave-differently-from-one-another/670196/12 "2013-10-04T07:36:20Z")
Great question. I’ve never seen such studies, but it wasn’t an area of interest until just now. Great question. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2013, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-studies-showing-that-atheists-and-theists-tend-to-behave-differently-from-one-another/670196/13 "2013-10-04T09:47:12Z")
The numbers are not brilliant but there is an oft-reported statistic that self-identified atheists are under represented in the[US prison system](http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2013/07/16/what-percentage-of-prisoners-are-atheists-its-a-lot-smaller-than-we-ever-imagined/). In the UK the figures are even muddier as the huge “no religion” section covers a multitude of sins (ha!) but even so, 0.7% of prisoners[self indentify as atheist](http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2009/08/12/how-many-atheists-are-in-englands-prisons/) compared with[perhaps 14%](http://www.agreeley.com/articles/hardcore.html)in the general population. I’m not confident of those studies though the self-identified percentage of atheists in the UK certainly rings true when I consider my family, friends and colleagues. ---
**Author:** ![Steken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Steken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steken)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2013, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-studies-showing-that-atheists-and-theists-tend-to-behave-differently-from-one-another/670196/14 "2013-10-04T09:49:47Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > … Hence it is [fairly well established](http://psr.sagepub.com/content/early/2013/08/02/1088868313497266.abstract) that higher intelligence is negtively associated with strong religious belief… Alas, that study seems to be behind a paywall. Do you have a .pdf of the full text, and if so - would you share it? Thanks in advance. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2013, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-studies-showing-that-atheists-and-theists-tend-to-behave-differently-from-one-another/670196/15 "2013-10-04T10:04:54Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > The numbers are not brilliant but there is an oft-reported statistic that self-identified atheists are > under represented in the[US prison system](http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2013/07/16/what-percentage-of-prisoners-are-atheists-its-a-lot-smaller-than-we-ever-imagined/). Could that be a self-reinforcing statistic though, in a “there are no atheists in foxholes” kind of way ? If I had no earthly freedom or control over my existence whatsoever, I might seek it in the stars too, you know ? ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2013, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-studies-showing-that-atheists-and-theists-tend-to-behave-differently-from-one-another/670196/16 "2013-10-04T12:08:50Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > Could that be a self-reinforcing statistic though, in a “there are no atheists in foxholes” kind of way ? If I had no earthly freedom or control over my existence whatsoever, I might seek it in the stars too, you know ? Yep, could well be, though the “not religious” group in UK prison still seems to be around the right ballpark as the population at large. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2013, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-studies-showing-that-atheists-and-theists-tend-to-behave-differently-from-one-another/670196/17 "2013-10-04T13:10:42Z")
> [@Steken](#): > > Alas, that study seems to be behind a paywall. Do you have a .pdf of the full text, and if so - would you share it? > > Thanks in advance. No, sorry. I had found the abstract as a reference for what I read elsewhere multiple times in many forms. Another set of versions are the studies that demonstrate high rates of [non-belief](http://www.concordcoachlines.com/index.php/maine-locations/portland-boston), [among scientists](http://www.pewforum.org/2009/11/05/scientists-and-belief/) especially the more accomplished scientists. > [@](#): > > four-in-ten scientists (41%) say they do not believe in God or a higher power, while the poll of the public finds that only 4% of Americans share this view. Does atheism lead them to become scientists? Does being a scientist lead them to become atheists? Or are both the result of their personality types, information processing styles, and subcultural influences? Another interesting line of analysis is the cross impact/correlation of [group membership and _certainty_ of belief](http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13674676.2010.510829#.Uk67Z2TwKVd) on various measures whether those group memberships and belief certainties are religious _or_ secular. > [@](#): > > The present study examined mental well-being, utilising the full range of certainty of belief or non-belief in God. In the first study, we compared church and secular group members on measures of life satisfaction and emotional stability. The second study used a large survey of the non-religious. A curvilinear relationship was found such that those with higher belief certainty (both confidently religious and atheists) have greater well-being relative to those with low certainty (unsure and agnostics). ---
**Author:** ![Truman\_Burbank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@Truman\_Burbank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Truman_Burbank)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2013, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-studies-showing-that-atheists-and-theists-tend-to-behave-differently-from-one-another/670196/18 "2013-10-04T15:56:45Z")
There are also pretty clearly secondary gains to be had if you ‘get saved’ whilst imprisoned. ---
**Author:** ![RedSwinglineOne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a9adbd/32.png) [@RedSwinglineOne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedSwinglineOne)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2013, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-studies-showing-that-atheists-and-theists-tend-to-behave-differently-from-one-another/670196/19 "2013-10-04T17:26:10Z")
> [@Steken](#): > > **RedSwinglineOne** , please re-read the OP. > > Slowly, carefully, and with all the concentration you can muster. > > Now: Did I ask for nifty quotes, or did I ask for studies? Wow. That seems both unnecessary, and undeservedly condescending. Since you received a factual answer in post 2, and I was not the first (or last) to post without listing a study, I am going to assume that I have accidentally trod on some nerve of yours. For that I apologize. Please consider my post withdrawn. ---
**Author:** ![Steken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Steken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steken)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2013, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-studies-showing-that-atheists-and-theists-tend-to-behave-differently-from-one-another/670196/20 "2013-10-04T17:36:55Z")
> [@RedSwinglineOne](#): > > Wow. That seems both unnecessary, and undeservedly condescending. > > Since you received a factual answer in post 2, and I was not the first (or last) to post without listing a study, I am going to assume that I have accidentally trod on some nerve of yours. For that I apologize. Please consider my post withdrawn. I apologize for what I can now see was an unnecessarily harsh post. Sorry about that. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-studies-showing-that-atheists-and-theists-tend-to-behave-differently-from-one-another/670196.md?page=2)