Gervais used this paradigm to describe an individual committing horrible acts (serial murders, consensual incest, necrobestiality) and then asked participants to gauge whether the individual were more likely to be: a) a teacher; or b) a teacher and a [fill-in the identifier]. The goal was to see whether participants would be more likely to succumb to the conjunction fallacy when the identifier was “does not believe in God” as compared to the various other identifiers based on religion, race, or sexual orientation.

Without getting into all of the statistical and methodological details, here is the key finding (across several experiments): The likelihood of participants succumbing to the conjunction fallacy was astonishingly higher when option B contained the atheist descriptor. In other words, people construe a portrayal of an individual committing heinous acts or transgressing moral precepts as much more representative of atheists as compared to numerous other groups. Incredibly, atheist participants were also more likely to ascribe such immoral if not illegal acts to atheists! In light of these findings, it is perhaps not too surprising that so few American politicians are ever willing to publicly admit their non-belief in a deity.

I cover this exact study in THE SAAD TRUTH_19 on my YouTube channel.

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