Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-03T08:26:29.822Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Americans' Views of Muslims and Mormons: A Social Identity Theory Approach

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 April 2009

James M. Penning*
Affiliation:
Calvin College
*
Address correspondence and reprint request to: James Penning, Department of Political Science, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, MI 49546. Email: penn@calvin.edu

Abstract

Although American society is religiously pluralistic, not all religious groups enjoy equal levels of public approval and support. Indeed, America has a history of viewing members of nontraditional religious groups with considerable distrust and suspicion. Two religious groups in particular — Muslims and Mormons — have come under fire in recent years, though not necessarily for the same reasons. Muslims and Mormons have frequently been viewed as outside the mainstream of American culture and, perhaps for that reason, have suffered from discrimination, threats, and violence. This article examines Americans' views of these two important and rapidly growing groups, using social identity theory as the primary vehicle of analysis. The theory proves useful in helping us explain variance in Americans' views of these two groups. While a variety of social, political and religious variables help to explain Americans' views of Muslims and Mormons, religious variables have the greatest impact.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Religion and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Adherents.com. 2007. “Largest Religious Groups in the United States of America.”Google Scholar
Arrington, Leonard J. 1992. The Mormon Experience: A History of the Latter-Day Saints. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Batson, C.D., Chang, J., Orr, R., and Rowland, J.. 2002. “Empathy, Attitudes and Action: Can Feeling for a Member of a Stigmatized Group Motivate One to Help the Group?Personality & Social Psychology 28:16561666.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bellanca, Faye. 2008. “The Social Identity Theory.” http://www.teambuilding.co.uk/social_identiy_theory.html (Accessed December 30 2008).Google Scholar
Boase, Jeffrey, Horrigan, John, and Rainie, Lee. 2004. “Strong Ties, Weak Ties, and ICt ties.Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association. San Francisco, California.Google Scholar
Boldi, Maria. 2007. “Political Knowledge and Political Attitudes and Behavior in Mexico.Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association. Chicago, Illinois.Google Scholar
Busch, Beverly. 1998. “Truth and Tolerance: Religion and Political Tolerance in the United States.Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association. Chicago, Illinois.Google Scholar
Callero, Peter. 2007. “Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology Online.” In Social Identify Theory, ed. Ritzer, G.: New York, NY: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Cimino, R. 2005. “No God in Common: American Evangelical Discourse on Islam after 9/11.” Review of Religious Research 47: 162173.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
CNN. 2008. “How Romney Won: Economy, Evangelicals, Local Ties.” http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/01/15/how-romney-won-economy-evangelicals-localties (Accessed June 26 y2008).Google Scholar
Conover, Pamela Johnston, Mingst, Karen A., and Sigelman, Lee. 1980. “Mirror-Images in Americans' Perceptions of Nations and Leaders during the Iranian Hostage Crisis.” Journal of Peace Research 17: 325337.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deckman, Melissa, Crawford, Sue E.S., and Olson, Laura R.. 2008. “The Politics of Gay Rights and the Gender Gap; A Perspective on the Clergy.Politics and Religion 1:384410.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunn, Julia. 2008. “Which Churches are the Country's Largest?The Washington Times. http://video1.washingtontimes.com/beliefblog/2008/02/which_churches_are_the_country's_largest? (Accessed June 24, 2008).Google Scholar
Eagly, Alice H., and Crowley, Maureen. 1986. “Gender and Helping Behavior: A Meta-Analytic Review of the Social Psychological Literature.Psychological Bulletin 100:283308.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Eisenstein, Marie. 2008. Religion and the Politics of Tolerance: How Christianity Builds Democracy. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press.Google Scholar
Esposito, John. 2008. “The Threat of Internal Extremism.” http://www.brookings.edu/articles/2005/0201islamicworld.khan.aspx?p=1 (Accessed June 30 2008).Google Scholar
Fiske, Susan T., and Taylor, S. E. 1991. Social Cognition, 2nd ed. New York, NY: McGraw Hill.Google Scholar
Gamson, Joshua. 1995. “Must Identity Movements Self-Destruct?Social Problems 42: 390407.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gibson, James L. 2006. “Enigmas of Intolerance: Fifty Years after Stouffer's Communism, Conformity and Civil Liberties.Perspectives on Politics 4:2134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glaser, Robert. 2006. “Education and Thinking: The Role of Knowledge.” http://stinet.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA13 (Accessed December 19 2006).Google Scholar
Godwin, R. Kenneth, Godwin, Jennifer, and Martinez-Ebers, . 2004. “Civic Socialization in Public and Fundamentalist Schools.Social Science Quarterly 85: 10971111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Golebiowska, Ewa A. 1999. “Gender Gap in Political Tolerance.Political Behavior 21: 4366.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodstein, Laurie. 2005. Seeing Islam as “Evil” Faith, Evangelicals Seek Converts. http://www.aarweb.org/awards/journalism/winners/2004Goodstein.asp (Accessed December 28 2005).Google Scholar
Green, John C., Guth, James L. Kellstedt, Lyman A., and Smidt, Corwin E.. 1994. “Uncivil Challenges? Support for Civil Liberties among Religious Activists.The Journal of Political Science 22:2549.Google Scholar
Green, John C., Rozell, Mark J., and Wilcox, Clyde. 2003. The Christian Right in American Politics. Washington D.C.Google Scholar
Greene, Steven. 2004. “Social Identity Theory and Party Identification.Social Science Quarterly 85:136153.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hansen, Mary Elizabeth. 2005. “You Can't Fool All the People All the Time.” http://www.dhimmi.com/YouCantFoolAllthePeopleAllTheTime.htm (Accessed December 23 2005).Google Scholar
Hart, Betsy. 2006. “What Do Women Really Want?” http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/hart110700.asp (Accessed December 19, 2006).Google Scholar
Hill, Kevin A. 1993. “The Domestic Sources of Foreign Policymaking: Congressional Voting and American Mass Attitudes Toward South Africa.International Studies Quarterly 37:195214.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hogg, M.A. 2003. “Social Identity.” In Handbook of Self and Identity, ed. Leary, M.R., and Tangney, J.P.. New York, NY: Guildford Press.Google Scholar
Hogg, M.A., and Vaughan, G.M.. 2002. Social Psychology. 3rd ed. London, UK: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Holah, Mark, and Davies, Jamie. 2008. Social Identity Theory. http://www.learnpsychology.net (Accessed December 30 2008).Google Scholar
Kalkan, Kerem Ozan, and Layman, Geoffrey C.. 2008. “A Muslim by Any Other Name? An Experimental Assessment of Religious, Cultural, and Ethnic Identifiers on Support for Political Candidates.Presented at the Annual meeting of the American Political Science Association. Boston, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Keeter, Scott, and Smith, Gregory. 2008. “How the Public Perceives Romney, Mormons 2007” http://pewforum.org/docs/?Doc1D=267 (Accessed March 24 2008).Google Scholar
Kranish, Michael. 2008. “Evangelical Voters Bolster Huckabee in the South.” http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/02/06/evangelical_voters_bolster_huckabee (Accessed June 26 2008).Google Scholar
Marrero, Diana. 2008. “Mormon Political Clout Grows.” http://usatoday.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title-Mormon+poliitical+clout (Accessed June 24 2008).Google Scholar
Matters, Religion. 2001. “Muslim Americans: An Emerging Voting Bloc in the U.S.?Religion Matters 1:120.Google Scholar
McFarland, Kay F., and Rhoades, Donna R.. 1998. “Gender-related values and medical specialty choice.Academic Psychiatry 22 (December):236–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meernik, James, and Ault, Michael. 2001. “Public opinion and support for U.S. presidents' foreign policies.American Politics Research 3:5273.Google Scholar
Monitor, Militant Islam. 2008. “Black Muslim Group Members Arrested in Terrorism Plot Worshipped and Trained in Warehouse.” http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/2035 (Accessed June 25 2008).Google Scholar
Neff, David. 2008. “What Evangelicals Heard in Romney's Faith Speech.” http://christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/decemberweb-only/149-42.0.hml (Accessed June 26 2008).Google Scholar
Nesdale, Drew, Durkin, K., Maass, K., and Griffiths, J.. 2004. “Group Status, Outgroup Ethnicity and Children's' Ethnic Attitudes.” Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology 25: 237251.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nincic, Miroslav, and Russett, Bruce. 1979. “Effect of Similarity and Interest on Attitudes Toward Foreign Countries.” Public Opinion Quarterly 43: 6878.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oldfield, Duane M. 1996. The Right and the Righteous: The Christian Right Confronts the Republican Party. Washington D.C.: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Penning, James M., and Smidt, Corwin E.. 2006. “Southern and Non-Southern Views of Islam Following 9/11.” In Citadel Conference on Southern Politics. Presented at the Fifteenth Citadel Symposium on Southern Politics, Charleston, S.C.Google Scholar
Pew, . 2008. “Public Expresses Mixed Views of Islam, Mormonism.” http://pewforum.org/surveys/religionviews07 (Accessed March 14 2008).Google Scholar
Pew, . 2009. “Faith on the hill: The Religious Affiliations of Members of Congress.” http://pewforum.org/docs/?DocID=374 (Accessed January 8 2009).Google Scholar
Pew, Forum. 2001. “Post 9/11 Attitudes: Religion More Prominent, Muslim-Americans More Accepted.” Washington D.C.: The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.Google Scholar
Psychology, Simply. 2008. “Social Identity Theory Outline.” http://www.simplyphsychology.pwp.blueyounder.co.uk/social-identity-theory (Accessed December 30 2008).Google Scholar
Relations, Council on American Islamic. 2006. “USA's Muslims Under a Cloud.” http://www.cair-net.org/asp/printthis.asp?id=40418&page=NB (Accessed August 18 2006).Google Scholar
Religious Tolerance. 2008. “How Many Muslims are in the U.S. and the Rest of the World?Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance. http://www.religioustolerance.org/Isl_nuimb.htm (Accessed June 24, 2008).Google Scholar
Rowatt, Wade C., Franklin, Lewis M., and Cotton, Marla. 2005. “Patterns and Personality Correlates of Implicit and Explicit Attitudes Toward Christians and Muslims.Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 44:2943.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shapiro, Robert Y., and Mahajan, Harpreet. 1986. “Gender Differences in Policy Preferences: A Summary of Trends from the 1960s to the 1980s.Public Opinion Quarterly 50:4261.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Siemon-Netto, Uwe. 2005. “Pursuing an Evangelical-Muslim Dialogue.” http://www.religionnewsblog.com/3251-.html (Accessed December 28 2005).Google Scholar
Sinno, Abdulkader, and Lawson, Brian L.. 2008. “Correlates of Bias Toward Minority Candidates in U.S. Elections.Presented at the Annual meeting of the American Political Science Association. Boston, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Stambor, Z. 2006. “Women Report Greater Moral Traditionalism, Social Compassion than Men.” http://www.apa.org/monitor/jan05/traditionalism.html (Accessed December 19 2006).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Statistical Abstract. 2008. Statistical Abstract of the United States. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Sullivan, Amy. 2005. “Mitt Romney's Evangelical Problem.Washington Monthly, September 25, 19.Google Scholar
Tajfel, H. 1982. “Social Psychology of Intergroup Relations.Annual Review of Psychology 33:139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tajfel, Henri, and Turner, J.C.. 1979. “An Integrative Theory of Intergroup Conflict.” In The Social Psychology of Intergroup Relations, eds. Worchel, V., and Austin, W.G.. Monterey, CA: Brooks Cole.Google Scholar
Thatcher, Linda. 2008. “History of Statehood Chronology, Utah.” http://www.onlineutah.com/statehoodchronology.shtml (Accessed June 30 2008).Google Scholar
Twente, Universe of. 2008. “Social Identity Theory.” http://www.tcw.utwente.nl/theorienoverzicht/Theory%20clusters (Accessed December 29, 2008).Google Scholar
Vogt, Paul W. 1997. Tolerance and Education: Learning to Live with Diversity and Difference. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.Google Scholar
Waligorski, Rachel. 2008. Romney “Unlikely” Choice of Evangelicals. http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp/ID=25946 (Accessed June 26 2008).Google Scholar
Walsh, Andrew. 2006. “Muslims in America: Feeling the Pressure.” Religion in the News 19: 45.Google Scholar
Yearbook. 2008. Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches. New York, NY: National Council of Churches USA.Google Scholar