The first two studies involved 429 American atheists and theists, and the second batch involved 4,193 atheists and theists from America and Sweden. Stahl notes in his research that being religious in the U.S. is more common than it is in Sweden, one of the most secular countries in the world. However, based on this research, it seems that the major difference is that theists are more apt to value “group cohesion,” or “binding moral foundations,” as Stahl calls it. Meanwhile, atheists are more likely to judge the morality of an action based on its consequences, as opposed to what the group thinks. He offers a potential explanation for this: Nonbelievers may not be as exposed to the same group dynamics as believers are, and so they might not feel the same “existential threats” that can come with potentially disagreeing with the group. “This data suggests that the cross-cultural stereotype of atheists as lacking a moral compass is inaccurate,” Stahl writes in his research. He adds that disbelievers are just “less inclined to endorse the binding moral foundations and more inclined to judge the morality of actions that inflict harm on a consequentialist, case-by-case basis.”
