politics, demographyWe often hear - or say - that atheists are more socially and economically liberal than the average population. While that is not hard to believe in the slightest, are there any studies demonstrating that?
The ideal answer will have a global perspective rather than be limited to a single country.
There is quite a lot of research which shows that the countries of Europe, particularly the Scandinavian countries, which are the most secular/atheist are also the most socially liberal and economically balanced (ie less distance between rich and poor)
links between atheism, IQ and liberalism (and sex)
This is true.
It is, because in most places of the world, to become an atheist means to break from convention. This requires personal liberties. That is what liberalism is in support of. Once you accept that people can be different without harming society, then you are a liberal.
There was a study done in Switzerland that showed a positive correlation between liberal political view and atheism.
http://jsri.ro/ojs/index.php/jsri/article/viewArticle/48
Nick Clegg, leader of the UK liberal party, famously outed himself as an ‘Atheist’ during the prime minister’s TV debates just before the general election last year, but of course the plural of anecdote is not data!
I remember reading something in New Scientist about liberal and non-thesis thinking is ‘evolutionarily novel’ which may be way there is appears to be a connection between the two. Richard Dawkins’ TED talk about aggressive atheism touches on this. Proving causation rather than simple corrolation in always the tough part.
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