Nihilist stereotypes are overwhelmingly negative.

https://doi.org/10.1080/00224545.2021.1902922

Explanation

In today's society, where existential nihilism is believed to be on the rise, previous studies have not investigated the social psychology of a lack of meaning in life, so this study was designed to investigate those issues.

In this study, five studies (N = 1,634) show that participants' existential nihilist beliefs elicit a variety of negative stereotypes about personality traits, commonly valued social characteristics, and the target's ability to perform basic adaptive social tasks. As a consequence, we show that these negative stereotypes are mediated more by beliefs that the target is depressed than by beliefs that the target is nonreligious, or that the target is not planning for the future.

Unlike atheists, who are seen as competent, no positive stereotypes emerged for nihilists, suggesting both future research and interventions aimed at updating false beliefs about nihilists.

A nihilist is a person who is a nihilist. Nihilists are said to be people who believe that everything in the world is worthless and meaningless.