Supplementary Analyses: Mental Representations of Atheists and Theists 1
Supplementary Analyses
Study 1: Rating the Atheist and Theist Images created
by Atheist and Religious Participants
Image Processing
Using the R package rcicr 0.3.0 (Dotsch, 2015), we computed the average atheist and
theist image separately for participants who did and did not report believing in God or a higher
power. In the theist condition, we had 28 participants report not believing in God and 49
participants report believing in God. In the atheist condition, we had 54 participants report not
believing in God and 92 participants report believing in God. Participants who declined to report
their religious belief were dropped from these analyses. In the religious condition, all of the
selected images across all participants were averaged together to create the average religious
person image. The resulting average images are displayed in Figure S1.
Figures S1. Average classification images split by participants’ reported religious belief.
Image Rating
We had a separate sample rate the average atheist and religious images. Participants were
randomly assigned to one of two conditions: the demographics condition rated features related to
the face’s appearance (e.g., race, gender, likability, attractiveness, and happiness) and the
Supplementary Analyses: Mental Representations of Atheists and Theists 2
stereotypes condition rated traits related to deservingness (e.g., laziness, competence,
humanness, and agency). We chose to measure these features separately so that participants did
not experience mental fatigue.
Results
We investigated whether the ratings of the atheist image differed from the religious
image using repeated measures ANOVAs. Table S3 presents the means and 95% confidence
intervals for the ratings of each image. In general, the religious images were rated as more
religious, trustworthy, moral, competent, warm, gentle, human, and hardworking than the atheist
images, regardless of which group generated the image. In addition, the religious images were
rated as more likeable, happy, and attractive than the atheist image, regardless of which group
generated the images.
Study 2: Investigating Moderation by Participants’ Belief in God or a Higher Power
For exploratory purposes, we investigated whether participants’ judgements of who did
the moral and immoral act was moderated by their belief in God (or a higher power). To
investigate this question, we used a mixed-model ANOVA with scenario type (moral vs.
immoral) as the within subjects factor, and belief as the between subjects factor (coded such that
1 = belief in God). The results revealed a main effect of scenario type such that participants
thought the atheist image was more likely to have done the immoral acts, F(1, 271) = 298.25, p
<.001. However, this main effect was not moderated by participants’ theist beliefs, F (1, 271) =
.01, p = .91.
Supplementary Analyses: Mental Representations of Atheists and Theists 3
Table S3. Mean, 95% confidence intervals for Study 1 subgroup classification image ratings.
Atheist-Atheist Image
Religious-Atheist Image
Atheist-Religious Image
Religious-Religious Image
Rating
Mean SE
95% CI
Mean
SE
95% CI
Mean
SE
95% CI
Mean
SE
95% CI
Attract
3.26 0.10 [3.06, 3.47] 2.67
0.10 [2.47, 2.88] 4.12
0.09
[3.95, 4.30] 4.54
0.08
[4.38, 4.70]
Competent
3.67 0.09 [3.50, 3.85] 3.30
0.10 [3.10, 3.50] 4.34
0.08
[4.18, 4.51] 4.52
0.06
[4.40, 4.64]
Female
1.47 0.08 [1.30, 1.63] 1.92
0.10 [1.72, 2.11] 5.15
0.09
[4.98, 5.32] 5.32
0.09
[5.14, 5.49]
Gentle
2.62 0.10 [2.43, 2.81] 2.62
0.10 [2.43, 2.81] 4.27
0.09
[4.08, 4.46] 5.07
0.08
[4.91, 5.22]
Happy
2.09 0.08 [1.93, 2.25] 2.55
0.09 [2.37, 2.72] 3.75
0.08
[3.59, 3.91] 4.85
0.07
[4.72, 4.98]
Hardworking 3.63 0.09 [3.45, 3.81] 3.51
0.10 [3.31, 3.70] 4.23
0.08
[4.08, 4.29] 4.34
0.06
[4.22, 4.46]
Human
4.70 0.12 [4.46, 4.95] 3.31
0.14 [3.02, 3.60] 4.72
0.11
[4.49, 4.95] 4.97
0.11
[4.75, 5.18]
Likeable
2.68 0.09 [2.49, 2.87] 2.86
0.10 [2.66, 3.06] 4.36
0.07
[4.21, 4.50] 4.84
0.07
[4.71, 4.98]
Moral
2.95 0.12 [2.71, 3.18] 2.77
0.11 [2.54, 3.00] 4.29
0.09
[4.10, 4.48] 4.92
0.08
[4.76, 5.07]
Religious
2.80 0.11 [2.58, 3.03] 2.53
0.11 [2.31, 2.75] 3.89
0.10
[3.69, 4.09] 4.20
0.09
[4.02, 4.37]
Trustworthy
2.66 0.11 [2.44, 2.88] 2.47
0.11 [2.26, 2.69] 4.07
0.10
[3.87, 4.26] 4.72
0.08
[4.56, 4.88]
Warm
2.36 0.10 [2.16, 2.56] 2.80
0.11 [2.58, 3.02] 4.27
0.08
[4.11, 4.44] 4.97
0.07
[4.83, 5.12]
White
5.36 0.07 [5.22, 5.50] 2.26
0.11 [2.04, 2.47] 2.37
0.10
[2.17, 2.58] 4.42
0.13
[4.17, 4.70]