New 2025 PNAS study finds even atheists show subconscious bias favouring religious belief

Even in highly secular societies, people, including atheists, show an intuitive preference for religious belief, suggesting that belief is perceived as more ‘natural’ than disbelief. Illustraion by the author.

A 2025 study published in PNAS titled “Belief in belief: Even atheists in secular countries show intuitive preferences favouring religious belief” found that even in highly secular societies, people tend to hold an unconscious bias in favour of religious belief. This bias was observed not only among religious individuals but also among self-identified atheists, suggesting that belief itself is seen as more “natural” or preferable than disbelief at an intuitive level .

The researchers surveyed people from eight largely nonreligious countries, including Sweden, Japan, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. Across all these cultures, participants consistently showed subtle, automatic preferences for religious belief over atheism , even when they consciously rejected religion. These patterns appeared to be cross-cultural and independent of personal belief , implying that such intuitions are deeply embedded in human cognition or cultural history.

The study concludes that religious ways of thinking may persist beneath the surface of even the most secular minds. While explicit belief in God may decline, the cultural and psychological framework that favors belief remains. In other words, atheists may reject religion intellectually, yet still intuitively perceive belief as the norm and disbelief as the exception .

Reference:
Gervais, W. M., Malherbe, N., Van Tongeren, D. R., Eidelman, S., Norenzayan, A., & Leman, P. J. (2025). Belief in belief: Even atheists in secular countries show intuitive preferences favoring religious belief. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 122(45), e2404720122. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2404720122