Religious Belief‐Based Workplace Discrimination in the UK: The Importance of Intergroup Threat

ABSTRACT On the basis of intergroup threat theory, we tested whether atheists' requests in the workplace are less likely to be accommodated than those of other religious groups in the United Kingdom (UK). Across three studies, participants responded to vignettes describing a Christian, Muslim, Hindu or atheist employee who requested to express his/her (lack of) religious beliefs at work. Participants were least willing to accommodate atheist employees' belief‐based requests because of the symbolic (i.e., attempts to impose their beliefs on others) and realistic (i.e., jeopardising the organisation's economic status) threats they perceived atheists to pose. Surprisingly, participants were most willing to accommodate Hindu employees' belief‐based requests because Hindus were perceived as invoking relatively low levels of symbolic and realistic threat. These effects mostly remained significant both amongst religious and nonreligious participants and were not driven by stereotypes of competence or warmth, nor by motivations to control prejudice against the employees.