Survey Results: Religion and College

Results released from a survey on college faculty attitudes toward religion have attracted a bit of attention. According to the survey conducted by the Institute for Jewish and Community Research, college and university faculty tend to hold negative views toward evangelical Christians and Mormons. They hold more favorable perceptions of Jews, Buddhists, Catholics, non-Evangelical Christians, and atheists.

It appears that much of this trend is associated with evangelical involvement in politics, given that:
- more favorable views of evangelicals were held by faculty who assert that religion is important to them, and who describe themselves as Republicans;
- and that over 70% of faculty agreed with the statement that "This country would be better off if Christian fundamentalists kept their religious beliefs out of politics."

You can read more about the survey at The Washington Post or you can download the entire report. If you are interested specifically in a focus on Mormons, see this Deseret News article.

So, in case you hadn't noticed, it appears that college faculty are people, too. Surprised? You shouldn't be. We're subject to the same kinds of biases as others are. As a group, we tend to be more liberal than the rest of the populace, and like normal human beings, we tend to look more favorably on members of our own ingroups.