America is becoming more secular, but citizens still see political candidates’ religion as a mark of trustworthiness

American politicians have always had a close relationship with religion, and despite the increasingly secular nature of US society, it is nearly unthinkable that a politician would openly identify themselves as an atheist. In new research, Scott Clifford and Ben Gaskins find that voters perceive religious candidates as being more trustworthy and moral and atheist candidates as less trustworthy and less moral. They write that when politicians remind people that they are religious, they are playing on Americans’ bias towards trusting and favoring the religious.