The tolerance of the despised: Atheists, the non-religious, and the value of pluralism
| Author | Charles Devellennes,Paul Matthew Loveless |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/01925121211034148 |
| Published date | 01 September 2022 |
| Date | 01 September 2022 |
| Subject Matter | Original Research Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/01925121211034148
International Political Science Review
2022, Vol. 43(4) 580 –594
© The Author(s) 2022
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DOI: 10.1177/01925121211034148
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The tolerance of the despised:
Atheists, the non-religious,
and the value of pluralism
Charles Devellennes
University of Kent, UK
Paul Matthew Loveless
University of Bologna, Italy
Abstract
Central to the debate of what constitutes tolerance has been what is tolerable—and who is tolerant. While
the existing literature has engaged with the role of religion in tolerance, there is almost no empirical work
on individuals without religion. Not surprisingly, theory relevant to this question is largely absent in the
current literature. Therefore, using extensive work in political theory, we derive the notion that the non-
religious and atheists will show greater tolerance given a stronger adherence to the value of pluralism. We
merge this theory with the modern empirical literature and use four waves of the World Values Survey
(waves 3, 4, 5, and 6) to provide a substantive test using a novel measure of tolerance as a crucial individual
value. We find that the value of pluralism does distinguish tolerance levels among the self-identified non-
religious, although less so for atheists.
Keywords
Tolerance, atheists, political behavior, religion, pluralism
L’enfer, c’est les autres.
Jean-Paul Sartre (1944, Huis Clos)
Introduction
What drives individuals’ levels of tolerance? The modern empirical literature suggests that indi-
viduals’ levels of tolerance are driven by generic normative democratic values and individual dem-
ocratic activity or are explained by the dynamics of national ethnic competition. We argue that in
Corresponding author:
Charles Devellennes, School of Politics and International Relations, Rutherford College, University of Kent, Canterbury,
CT2 7NX, UK.
Email: C.Devellennes@kent.ac.uk
1034148IPS0010.1177/01925121211034148International Political Science ReviewDevellennes and Loveless
research-article2022
Original Research Article
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