Before you scroll or click any further, think of the first three adjectives that come to mind when you read the word, Mormon. Toss out any nouns and non-adjectives.
No changing them (after all, this is an exercise in pseudo-free association), and don’t succumb to the temptation to type them in the comments as they come to mind, because then you might be tainted by others’ responses.
Got them? Good. Now do the same for Christian. And when you’ve done that, do it once more for Atheist, and finally once for Quaker. It goes quickly.
My own responses are buried in the comments. Oh, you might want to pad the top of your comment with a longish sentence to keep your words from appearing in the “Recent Comments” in the sidebar.
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I’ll write another post tomorrow (or this weekend, if it takes a while to gather responses), so that we can discuss the results.
16 responses so far ↓
1 John // Apr 26, 2007 at 6:21 am
Here are my free-association responses:
Mormon: clean, strict, sexist.
Christian: diverse, dominant, Western.
Atheist: intelligent, dogmatic, scientific.
Quaker: mystic, spiritual, activist.
What is interesting to me is that I had specific images that popped to mind for Mormon (male missionaries) and Atheist (Richard Dawkins). I couldnt do that for Christians and ended up thinking of it as an ambiguous cultural and political term.
2 pilgrimgirl // Apr 26, 2007 at 7:22 am
Sorry, these aren’t adjectives. Because my brain doesn’t free-associate adjectivally.
Mormon: flowery dresses, BOM, Joseph Smith
Christian: cross, crucifixion, Easter
Atheist: internet, books, nothing
Quaker: oats, Meetinghouse, plain dress
3 Elaine Frei // Apr 26, 2007 at 7:30 am
Okay, here are my responses. A couple of them might take a little more explanation, but for now, just the words:
Mormon: elitist, conditional, narrow.
Christian: diverse, friendly, emotional.
Atheist: secular, skeptical, humanist.
Quaker: quiet, thoughtful, peaceful.
4 Miko // Apr 26, 2007 at 8:07 am
I don’t know if my Mormon words count as “adjectives” but they’re what I first thought if…even after spending a year and a half hanging out here with Mormons & ex-Mormons, so, sorry if any offense is taken: missionary, dead baptism, exclusionary (temple)
For Christian, I immediately thought of two sects: evangelical (hence the first) and Catholic (the second): bible thumping, universal, “normal”
Atheist: scientific, rational, subversive
5 Bored in Vernal // Apr 26, 2007 at 8:08 am
I almost hesitate to share these…they’re just blatant stereotypes that leapt out of my mind. But maybe that’s what you’re after.
Mormon: family-oriented, evangelical, righteous. (Righteous with just a bit of a self-righteous connotation)
Christian: zealous, spiritual, visionary
Atheist: lonely, assertive, empty
Quaker: committed, quiet, practical
Jana–I had a hard time with adjectives, too. My most immediate responses were nouns. For Mormon I got family, commandments and missionary. For Christian I got Jesus. Then I got used to using adjectives.
6 Miko // Apr 26, 2007 at 8:09 am
umm…I missed quaker, so I already read the “oats” comment (LOL!) and will try to go away from that: Pennsylvania, shaker, founding fathers
7 Bored in Vernal // Apr 26, 2007 at 8:11 am
John, you didn’t have Billy Graham or James Dobson pop up in your mind for Christian?
8 John // Apr 26, 2007 at 10:13 am
I guess I should have italicized ‘adjectives’, and explained more clearly how I did the exercise: I, too, thought of nouns mixed in with adjectives, but felt that the discussion would work best if we picked the first adjectives that came to mind (skipping over the nouns).
Descriptors are generalizable–they can apply to all groups, but we associate some more strongly with some groups than with others. For example, ‘violent’ can describe Christians, Jews, Atheists, etc., but in the American mind might be more readily associated with ‘Muslim’ and less so with ‘Buddhist.’ (but not in Sri Lanka!) Oats and Jesus are difficult to apply to non-Quaker or non-Christian groups.
BiV, the first Christian individuals that came to mind were Elise, Jonathan (blogging set the context), MLKjr, and Paul Tillich, the liberal theologian. But “diverse” was definitely the first adjective that sprang to mind, probably because too many Christian images were coming to mind and they were clashing with each other (a theme in the novel I’m working on as well).
9 John // Apr 26, 2007 at 10:14 am
I’ve updated the post for future commenters to encourage adjectives.
10 Tammy Takahashi // Apr 26, 2007 at 12:48 pm
From personal experience here, and after making this list, I realize there are many exceptions.. but here goes my gut reaction to the various religious groups:
Mormon: controlling, unforgiving, earnest
Christian: varied, predominant, outreaching
Atheist: scientific, logical, technological
Quaker: earthy, accepting, unobtrusive
11 Mana // Apr 26, 2007 at 5:35 pm
I am the odd duck here… because I thought:
Mormon: white, blond, short
Christian: nutty, churchy, close-minded
Atheist: scientific, logical, rational
Quaker: mixed, rare, peaceful
I know, some of them don’t make sense and are terrible things to say, but there you have it.
12 Mark // Apr 27, 2007 at 8:52 am
Morman - Family oriented
Christian - Faithful
Quakers - Peaceful
13 mel // Apr 28, 2007 at 7:59 am
I cheated … didn’t come up with mine until now, having read all of yours. Just one of my personality defects. John, I do recognize your personal journey in these words and wonder what the next category might be.
Here’s my cheating heart response:
Mormon: tribe, control, image-projecting
Christian: coalition, morality, incongruous
Atheist: misunderstood, searching, fundamentalist
Quaker: friends, conscientious objector, simplicity (and one honest answer: oatmeal — PG, I was totally surprised by your answers for this one)
And the images that popped into my mind:
Mormon: clean-cut white man in a blue suit
Christian: clean-cut white man in a charcoal-gray suit
Atheist: clean-cut white man in a black mock-turtleneck
Quaker: quaker oats man — prior era clean-cut white man in a black suit and hat
Why no women? Not that there are no significant feminine images in these categories, but that they are unfortunately subordinate in every one. Off the top of my head the only one I can think of where this is not true is Wicca. I’m sure there are others.
14 Miko // Apr 28, 2007 at 8:43 am
okay: adjectives
Mormon: white, male, insular
Christian: holier-than-thou, obsessive, militant (it’s a toss up between that an “mobilizable” which I don’t think is a word, but I think that “militant” also implies it)
Atheist: quiet (I know, there are militant atheists, but they’re not the ones I think of), unfashionable, smart
Quaker: white, Northern, ancient
no offense is meant by any of this…
15 Pandora // Sep 12, 2008 at 12:19 am
These are the things I associate with each one (apologies for the stereotyping and generalization):
Mormon: Clean-cut, conservative, self-righteous
Christian: Zealous, trusting, narrow-minded
Atheist: Academic, cynical/critical, thoughtful
Quaker: old fashioned, friendly, spiritual
16 xJane // Sep 12, 2008 at 7:23 am
Pandora: I have to agree with 33% of your Mormon stereotype. The Mormons in my class are so cute with their shirts and perfectly-kempt hair. They look so corruptible
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