Public Opinion Quarterly Advance Access originally published online on May 28, 2009
Public Opinion Quarterly 2009 73(2):404-431; doi:10.1093/poq/nfp022
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Trends—Tolerance in the United States
Address correspondence to Greg Shaw; e-mail: gshaw{at}iwu.edu.
Recent survey data illustrate growing tolerance of various traditionally unpopular groups and their rights to teach, speak publicly, live near us as neighbors, and have their books reside in public libraries. Gay and lesbian people perhaps have enjoyed the largest shift in tolerance during the past decade and a half, though other groups have come to enjoy greater acceptance as well. This article presents trend data regarding public attitudes toward feminists, Jews, atheists, persons with strong religious beliefs, immigrants, Muslims, militarists, and AIDS sufferers since 1990. Groups that have recently experienced poorer acceptance include Muslims since 9/11 and immigrants more broadly over the past decade. Most other groups asked about in surveys have come to enjoy more acceptance. Despite the broad patterns of growing tolerance toward people who are unlike most respondents, it remains quite possible that Americans have shifted their intolerance toward other least-liked groups.
CHELSEA E. SCHAFER is a PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania, 208 S. 37th Street, Room 217, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. GREG M. SHAW is associate professor of Political Science at Illinois Wesleyan University, 303 E. Emerson Street, Bloomington, IL 61701, USA. The authors thank Peter Miller and Jamie Druckman for helpful comments on this article. The authors also thank Maura Strausberg at Gallup, Christine Kraus and Chris Melchiorre at the Center for Research and Analysis at the University of Connecticut, Jonathan Best at Princeton Survey Research Associates International, Sarah Dutton at CBS, and David Yalof at the University of Connecticut for assistance with documentation.