"You Don't Believe in God? You ain't Black": Identifying as Atheist Elicits Identity Denial From Black Ingroup Members

Objective: Anecdotal narratives and recent qualitative research with Black atheists document experiences of racial identity denial from the target's perspective. However, no research to date has examined whether Black perceivers perceive Black atheists as being weakly identified with their race. Because belief in God is often inextricably linked with Black racial identity in the Black community, we hypothesized that Black atheists would be perceived as less Black than nonatheists. Method: Black/African American adults (n = 343) were randomly assigned to view one of three Black individual's social networking profiles (i.e., a Christian, an atheist, and religion not explicitly mentioned). After, they reported their perceptions of the targets' perceived racial identity and trustworthiness. Results: Black participants, regardless of how strongly they identified racially, perceived a Black Atheist as less racially identified than a Black Christian or someone whose religious affiliation was unknown. Additionally, a Black atheist was perceived as less trustworthy than a Black Christian. Conclusions: Black atheists experience general anti-atheist bias (e.g., perceived as untrustworthy), as well as unique anti-atheist bias in the form of racial identity denial. These findings extend previous research on identity denial and intragroup dynamics and advance our understanding of the relationship between religious identification and racial identity denial within the Black community. Public Significance Statement Anecdotal narratives suggest that atheism in the Black community is something that authentically Black people do not do. The results from this study support that notion by finding that Black people perceive Black atheists as being less racially identified compared to Black people who do not identify as atheists. Black atheists in the United States, who are a minority within a minority, face unique anti-atheist bias due to the intersections of their racial and religious identities.