Research Note: The Sources of Public Feelings towards Religious Groups in Britain: The Role of Social Factors, Religious Characteristics, and Political Attitudes

Abstract

This research note examines public feelings towards religious groups in Britain, using thermometer scores from nationally representative survey data. It first examines whether there are significant differences in feelings by religious characteristics. It then assesses the role of religious factors in a series of regression models accounting for social factors and political attitudes. There are common factors underlying less positive feelings towards religious groups. These include being male, holding no or lower-level qualifications, supporting a minor political party or having no partisan attachment, and lower levels of political engagement. Age, religious affiliation, personal importance of religion, and ideological beliefs show a more complex set of relationships with feelings towards religious groups.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the anonymous reviewers of the Journal of Contemporary Religion for their comments and suggestions on an earlier version of this research note.

Notes

1. The BSA Survey of 2008 also asked about feelings towards three ethnic groups (“black people”, “white people”, “Asian people”), which lie outside the scope of this note. It should be noted that some groups, such as Jews and Sikhs, are officially designated as both ethnic and religious groups in Britain and scholarly research has examined the issue of ethno-religious hierarchies using survey data (Bleich).

2. The models were re-estimated with a scale measuring attendance at religious services, replacing that for religious importance. The attendance and personal importance variables were strongly correlated (.62***). More frequent attendance was positively and significantly related to attitudes towards Catholic people, Muslim people, and people who are deeply religious. There was a significant, negative relationship with attitudes towards people who are not religious. Froese, Bader and Smith found that, in the US, more frequent attendance at religious services was related to less tolerant views of atheists (39). There were no significant effects for the other groups. Results are available on request.