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Lumifer comments on Open thread, 9-15 June 2014 - Less Wrong Discussion
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Not quite -- for a counterexample consider whether being a highly religious Muslim signals trustworthiness in the contemporary US.
I think in local terminology this can be generalized as an observation that high-cost precommitment to avoid certain behavior provides a convincing signal :-)
Looking at the whole thing from 10,000 feet I am impressed by how much the high-trust societies are more productive than low-trust societies.
This is a good point, being a member of the dominant religion signals trustworthiness, and most Americans probably assume religious means Christian.
I think being a member of the same religion as you signals trustworthiness. The position of Orthodox Jews in the diamond industry was quoted as an example -- Judaism isn't a dominant religion (in Amsterdam and New York), but Orthodox Jews trust *each other*.
Doesn't it? It might not win you many friends, but I'd think it will still make you a popular business partner.
Why would being a highly religious Muslim make you a popular business partner?
Because it would indicate that you are a person of strong integrity, whose moral convictions mean a lot to you, and thus someone to be trusted.
Interesting. So do you, then, buy into the popular perception of atheists as people without moral convictions and lacking integrity?
There is also the empirical reality of a lot of visibly highly religious people turning out to have serious problems with integrity and honesty.
And, of course, being really religious means the subordination of the mundane life to the pursuit of religious goals. You can trust such a person to be who he is, but you may be mistaken about the ranking of his values :-/
It's more that I'd think of non-practicing religious or "spiritual but not religious" folks as that. Serious, committed atheists, those who sacrifice popularity, time and money for the sake of their atheism, I would accord the same trust (and for the same reasons) as the committed Muslims.