Do Agnostics Resemble Atheists or Religionists on Morality? Evidence from 34 European Countries
(2025) International Association for Psychology of Religion Conference — Location: Birmingham, United Kingdom (19.August.2025)
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- Authors
Karim, Moïse 
- Abstract
- In terms of personality, agnostics are located midway between religionists and atheists, or differ from both. Is morality of agnostics closer to the restrictive, conservative morality of religionists or the permissive, liberal morality of atheists? We analyzed European Values Survey 2017 data (34 countries of Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, and Muslim heritage; N = 56,491), with questions on permissiveness on 15 moral domains: “family-oriented” (e.g., divorce), (2) “hygienic” (e.g., drug use), and (3) “civic” (e.g., tax evasion) morality, along with death penalty, homosexuality, and euthanasia. Agnostics adopt moral positions that lie between religionists and atheists. Society’s religious heritage and level of secularization moderate differences between convictional groups. Agnostics seem to occupy an intermediate position between an existential attitude emphasizing personal order and the preservation of the group, and another valuing autonomy and individuality.
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Clobert, M., Karim, M., & Saroglou, V. (2025). Do Agnostics Resemble Atheists or Religionists on Morality? Evidence from 34 European Countries. International Association for Psychology of Religion Conference, Birmingham, United Kingdom. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/256532