Social Trust, Trust in Muslims, and American Religion

Our social groups heavily influence our perceptions
of others. This book analyzes nationally
representative data collected by the Gallup
organization for Baylor University s national study
on the values and beliefs of the American public to
explore associations between religious traditions
and social/generalized trust. Denominational
differences in characteristics such as theological
emphasis, network permeability, and volunteering, to
name a few, might impact members perceptions of
those outside their own congregation or
denomination. Thus, differences in how trustworthy
members of separate religious traditions (e.g.
Evangelical Protestant, Mainline Protestant, and
Catholic) perceive others to be are expected to show
support for the bridging versus bonding social
capital thesis. The perception of the
trustworthiness of Muslims will be the second
dependent variable analyzed, also with respect to
religious tradition differences, to show whether
differences in the perception of this more maligned
group (compared to people in general) emerge as
well. The analysis will be performed in SAS with
OLS and multinomial logistic regressions.

Autorentext

Wesley Martin Hinze, MA: Studied Sociology at Baylor University. Senior Research Analyst at the Center for Community Research and Development, Waco, Texas.

Klappentext

Our social groups heavily influence our perceptions of others. This book analyzes nationally representative data collected by the Gallup organization for Baylor University's national study on the values and beliefs of the American public to explore associations between religious traditions and social/generalized trust. Denominational differences in characteristics such as theological emphasis, network permeability, and volunteering, to name a few, might impact members' perceptions of those outside their own congregation or denomination. Thus, differences in how trustworthy members of separate religious traditions (e.g. Evangelical Protestant, Mainline Protestant, and Catholic) perceive others to be are expected to show support for the bridging versus bonding social capital thesis. The perception of the trustworthiness of Muslims will be the second dependent variable analyzed, also with respect to religious tradition differences, to show whether differences in the perception of this more maligned group (compared to people in general) emerge as well. The analysis will be performed in SAS with OLS and multinomial logistic regressions.