The study is based on 350 replies from members of the American Association for the Advancement of Atheism. The most common causes given for anti-religious attitudes were: wide reading of history, science and religion (75 times); disgust with religious hypocrisy (60); influence of particular author or book (55); a byproduct of Socialist materialism (30); effects of college education (25); effects of study of sciences (25); and others in lesser numbers. Less frequently emotional factors were mentioned, such as: illness and death in family, the horrors of war, the futility of prayer, the evils and unhappiness in the world, etc. 36% of the atheists were oldest children, while only 15% were youngest children; about 9% were only children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)
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Vetter et al. (1932) studied this question.