Degrees of Religious Tolerance: Higher Education and College Major’s Impact on Religious Tolerance

• In Event: 1580 - Section on Sociology of Religion Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 04. Religion and Attitudes

Abstract

Over the last fifty years, America’s religious and ethnic landscape has undergone significant changes. These include an increased number of non-Judeo-Christian immigrants (Chaves 2017), a rise in the religiously unaffiliated (Hout 2017), and heightened fears of terrorist attacks carried out by religious extremists (Bail 2015). Coupled with a growth in anti-immigration political rhetoric and policy proposals, debates regarding tolerance toward minority religious groups in American civil life has become increasingly relevant. Indeed, recently the President of the United States Donald Trump has proposed a travel ban on predominately Muslim countries—a sentiment consistent with data finding that Americans hold serious reservations toward minority religious groups, especially Muslims, in the United States. Prior research exploring determinants of political tolerance has found education to be a consistent and positive predictor of tolerance. However, little research has been done investigating how education relates to tolerance of religious others in the United States. This is surprising, given the long-held expectation that higher education may secularize individuals. To addresses this gap, this study uses the 2008 General Social Survey to explore how college education and one’s field of study relates to religious tolerance. We find that holding a higher educational degree is positively related to religious tolerance. However, the magnitude of this relationship varies across different college majors. To our surprise, STEM fields show the greatest positive impact on levels of religious tolerance while Education/Social Science degrees demonstrate the weakest effect. We conclude by discussion the implications of our findings for the sociology of religion, education, and tolerance.

Authors

• Zachary Cramer, University of Oklahoma

• Cyrus J. Schleifer, University of Oklahoma