The Unitarian Stereotype Mystery

Why do the people hanging around outside the local Unitarian-Universalist church look not at all like my stereotype of Unitarians?

One of the most important findings of social science is that, although academics are always pooh-poohing belief in stereotypes, most stereotypes turn out to be true on average.

So, I’m curious when I see something that doesn’t accord with my stereotype.

When I walk my dog here in the North Hollywood area of the San Fernando Valley, we sometimes go past a Unitarian-Universalist church. There are usually groups of people out front standing around talking and smoking who don’t look much at all like my conception of Unitarians.

My stereotype of Unitarians is that they tend ethnically to be upscale WASPs or from part WASP-part Jewish families. Four Presidents have been Unitarians: John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Millard Fillmore, and William Howard Taft. The last Unitarian to be a candidate was Adlai Stevenson. Politically, Unitarians tend to be very liberal and behaviorally quite genteel.

In contrast, the people I see hanging around outside the Unitarian church don’t look like heirs of the Adams dynasty.

First, they love to smoke, which I’d imagine that if there’s anything Unitarians believe is a sin, it’s got to be lighting up a Camel the moment you step out of church.

Also, they are mostly but not all men, generally white, typically in mid-life, with the look of a lot of wind-burn from hard living. And they have more tattoos than I’d associate with Unitarians.

The Unitarian church displays a lot of rainbow gay pride regalia, but these guys don’t seem gay — their body language is friendly, but they often look like they have thrown a punch or two in their day.

Not my stereotype of Unitarians

Overall, they tend to resemble extras in a Quentin Tarantino movie about his favorite people: middle-aged Hollywood tough guys: stunt men, movie crew Teamsters, set armorers who learned about guns as NCOs in the Marines, aging actors with drinking problems who, these days, specialize in playing villains and henchmen, and so forth.

An artist’s conception of the guys hanging around outside the Unitarian church

So I finally stopped in and read the church’s schedule and the mystery was solved.

I’ll put the paywall here although the solution is pretty easy to guess: