Despite negative vision on atheists, there is a positive view too—preferring atheist partners as party hosts, open-minded conversation partners, and science tutor

Moon, Jordan W., Jaimie Krems, and Adam B. Cohen. 2020. “Is There Anything Good About Atheists? Exploring Positive and Negative Stereotypes of the Religious and Nonreligious.” PsyArXiv. November 29. doi:10.31234/osf.io/8ksnd. Accepted at Social Psychological and Personality Science

Rolf Degen's take: https://twitter.com/DegenRolf/status/1332925681114738691

Abstract: Negative stereotypes about atheists are widespread, robust, rooted in distrust, and linked to discrimination. Here, we examine whether social perceivers in the US might additionally hold any positive stereotypes about atheists (and corresponding negative stereotypes of the religious). Experiments 1 (N = 401) and 2 (N = 398, preregistered) used methods of intuitive stereotypes (the conjunction fallacy). People tended to stereotype atheists as fun, open-minded, and scientific—even as they harbor extreme intuitive anti-atheist prejudice in Experiment 2. Experiment 3 (N = 382) used a quasi-behavioral partner-choice paradigm, finding that most people choose atheist (versus religious) partners in stereotype-relevant domains. Overall, results suggest that people simultaneously possess negative and also positive stereotypes about atheists, but that corresponding negative stereotypes of the religious may be even stronger. These effects are robust among the nonreligious and somewhat religious, but evidence is mixed about whether the highly religious harbor these positive stereotypes.