Researchers Create Survey to Gauge Microaggressions Against Atheists

Researchers Create Survey to Gauge Microaggressions Against Atheists

Microaggressions are no longer just something social justice warriors on campus are talking about. They’re becoming the subject of studies.

Campus Reform reports:

Researchers identify 31 types of anti-atheist microaggressions

Three researchers recently created a psychological survey to help therapists gauge how often atheist clients may suffer from microaggressions.

The Microaggressions Against Non-Religious Individuals Scale (MANIRS) was created by researchers Louis Pagano, Azim Shariff, and Zhen Cheng, and published for the first time last week in a journal run by the American Psychological Association.

According to the MANIRS scale, there are 31 microaggressions that are unique to atheists, many of which involve incidents during which an atheist is accidently assumed to be religious, or when an atheist overhears stereotypes.

Examples of microaggressions the MANIRS assesses include: “Others have assumed that I am religious,” “Others have acted surprised that I do not believe in God,” and “Others have included a blessing or prayer in a public social gathering.”

Microaggressions are also said to occur if “Others have teased me because of my non-religious identity,” “Others have assumed I have no morals,” or “Others have suggested I am too sensitive about discrimination to against non-religious people.”

“Having this microaggression scale can empower non-religious individuals to talk about their experience with prejudice,” the researchers assert, suggesting that it could help clinicians to “better understand the types of prejudices that their non-religious client experience in their everyday lives” while also making clients feel more comfortable “discussing these subtle experiences of bias with their therapists.”

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