New Pew Poll -- Latter-day Saints still not generally liked

[Nofear]

https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2023/03/15/americans-feel-more-positive-than-negative-about-jews-mainline-protestants-catholics/

May not have the "most disliked" largest section, but we have the smallest percentage of "Very/somewhat favorable".

 

 

[Nofear]

Interestingly, we Latter-day Saints have a more favorable view of everybody else.
Favorable view - unfavorable view = % difference (e.g. % Mormons with favorable view of evangelicals - % Mormons with unfavorable view of evangelicals = 43%).
 

Edited March 15 by Nofear

[MustardSeed]

 Gee I wonder why people don’t like us? We are practically perfect in every way, after all.  Carry on I guess - 

[bluebell]

1 hour ago, MustardSeed said:

 Gee I wonder why people don’t like us? We are practically perfect in every way, after all.  Carry on I guess - 

I think that if we accepted SSM and transgender people with as equal fervor as we currently don't, that we would be well-liked in an instant.  

[MustardSeed]

13 minutes ago, bluebell said:

I think that if we accepted SSM and transgender people with as equal fervor as we currently don't, that we would be well-liked in an instant.  

I think if we facilitated more understanding, people would LOVE us. Certainly on the lgbtq front that would change a lot as well.  People have thought we were odd for a hundred years.  I think sometimes we celebrate that to some degree with how pleased we are that we are peculiar

[InCognitus]

3 hours ago, Nofear said:

Interestingly, we Latter-day Saints have a more favorable view of everybody else.
Favorable view - unfavorable view = % difference (e.g. % Mormons with favorable view of evangelicals - % Mormons with unfavorable view of evangelicals = 43%).
 

One would think that based on the lack of any blue (negative) on the "Mormons (Latter-day Saints)" line above, that people would like us back better than that.  And we're the only entry on the list that has no negatives going across.

[Calm]

Previous polls have us as well liked if they actually know a Mormon (or know they know a Mormon rather).  And people still don’t know much about us in general.

https://www.deseret.com/2022/11/5/23433846/survey-latter-day-saints-are-everywhere-in-media-but-americans-still-know-little-about-them

Quote

“The biggest takeaway for me is that the more you know about Latter-day Saints, the more you like them. The less you know about Latter-day Saints, the more you dislike them,” Coates said.…

The problem for Latter-day Saints, Coates said, is that the survey’s other big finding is that most people don’t know much about Latter-day Saints. For example, 84% earned an F on a short quiz about Latter-day Saints beliefs and practices.

I am happier we do well in liking others (no negative and high numbers for likes).  Feels like we are working on the second great commandment.

Edited March 16 by Calm

[Tacenda]

20 hours ago, MustardSeed said:

I think if we facilitated more understanding, people would LOVE us. Certainly on the lgbtq front that would change a lot as well.  People have thought we were odd for a hundred years.  I think sometimes we celebrate that to some degree with how pleased we are that we are peculiar

And the racist history perhaps.

[The Nehor]

On 3/15/2023 at 5:33 PM, MustardSeed said:

I think if we facilitated more understanding, people would LOVE us. Certainly on the lgbtq front that would change a lot as well.  People have thought we were odd for a hundred years.  I think sometimes we celebrate that to some degree with how pleased we are that we are peculiar

Are we still peculiar? Seems like we are rapidly being lumped in with the rest of American Christianity.

[rodheadlee]

6 hours ago, Tacenda said:

And the racist history perhaps.

Everyone has a racist history, including POC.

[carbon dioxide]

On 3/15/2023 at 3:17 PM, bluebell said:

I think that if we accepted SSM and transgender people with as equal fervor as we currently don't, that we would be well-liked in an instant.  

Accepted by some people, mocked by others.  It is impossible to be accepted by 100% of the population. 

[carbon dioxide]

8 hours ago, Tacenda said:

And the racist history perhaps.

I am sure most of the people who give a negative score have no clue on the racist issues of the church in history.  I think if one was to see most articles on LDS in the media its either on gay issues,some member accused of molesting kids, or another negative story that is contemporary to our times today.

[california boy]

What I find the most interesting about the Pew survey is, not only is the Church the least liked church in America

 

 

[california boy]

When someone actually knows a member of the Church they like the Church even less.   Any idea why?  Or am I reading this chart wrong.

 

[Calm]

2 hours ago, california boy said:

When someone actually knows a member of the Church they like the Church even less.   Any idea why?  Or am I reading this chart wrong.

 

They also are more likely to like them (19 vs 10 for likes; 31 vs 22 for dislikes), iow, less undecided or no opinion (49 vs 68)

Which makes sense.  You are less likely to care about something you don’t know about than if you are familiar with them.  Greater caring can mean either liking or disliking versus indifference.

All groups increase in likes if someone knows them vs does not know them.  Everyone but Muslims and atheists also increase in dislikes if you know them.  I think those two are the interesting ones.  It suggests to me there is a greater impact of incorrect information that is corrected with experience rather than more likely a shift from indifference to interest/investment once one knows someone.

I would be interested to know how many of the dislike/know a member group are former members vs how many are never members.

Edited Saturday at 09:18 PM by Calm

[Calm]

2 hours ago, california boy said:

What I find the most interesting about the Pew survey is, not only is the Church the least liked church in America

 

 

It is not the most disliked though.  That award goes to Evangelical Christians, which is also the least unknown or indifferent group (middling like).  I would really like to know the division of indifferent and ignorance on this chart.  I think which one it is makes a difference as the two imply very different reasons for the response.

[rodheadlee]

3 hours ago, california boy said:

When someone actually knows a member of the Church they like the Church even less.   Any idea why?  Or am I reading this chart wrong.

 

You cannot generalize. It matters demographically from small town to large town to Big City.

[california boy]

2 hours ago, Calm said:

They also are more likely to like them (19 vs 10 for likes; 31 vs 22 for dislikes), iow, less undecided or no opinion (49 vs 68)

Which makes sense.  You are less likely to care about something you don’t know about than if you are familiar with them.  Greater caring can mean either liking or disliking versus indifference.

All groups increase in likes if someone knows them vs does not know them.  Everyone but Muslims and atheists also increase in dislikes if you know them.  I think those two are the interesting ones.  It suggests to me there is a greater impact of incorrect information that is corrected with experience rather than more likely a shift from indifference to interest/investment once one knows someone.

I would be interested to know how many of the dislike/know a member group are former members vs how many are never members.

The numbers I was comparing between the two charts shows 31% dislike Mormons if they know someone that is Mormon and only 22% dislike Mormons when they don't know any personally.  That is what surprised me.  How do you read those two numbers on disliking Mormons going up when they know a member of the Church?  

But you are right.  A higher percentage also said they like Mormons better when they actually know someone who is Mormon.  Like you said, that makes more sense.  And there are less in the don't know enough, which also makes sense. Everyone's numbers went up in the favorable category when they knew someone of that religion.

 

[california boy]

2 hours ago, Calm said:

It is not the most disliked though.  That award goes to Evangelical Christians, which is also the least unknown or indifferent group (middling like).  I would really like to know the division of indifferent and ignorance on this chart.  I think which one it is makes a difference as the two imply very different reasons for the response.

I was going by the averaging percentage when you balance favorable rating with unfavorable rating looking at the data as a whole.  Evangelics get a +2 rating because they have a strong favorable rating to counter balance the unfavorable ratings.  Mormons have a -10.   Significantly lower than anyone else.

[california boy]

1 hour ago, rodheadlee said:

You cannot generalize. It matters demographically from small town to large town to Big City.

I am just looking at the data, so it is not me generalizing.  Why would demographics of a small town compared to a big city make a difference? And how do you not know that the sampling came from both small towns and large cites?

[Calm]

1 hour ago, california boy said:

I was going by the averaging percentage when you balance favorable rating with unfavorable rating looking at the data as a whole.  Evangelics get a +2 rating because they have a strong favorable rating to counter balance the unfavorable ratings.  Mormons have a -10.   Significantly lower than anyone else.

Got it.  Yes, it is interesting there there is no difference in the balance number between knowing and not knowing, while everyone else gets a shift in balance to the more positive.  I would have thought it the political issues tied to its often conservative identity, but EC are at least as tightly identified, are they not?  Most people I know hear “Fundamental” when they hear “Evangelical”, but perhaps this isn’t as common in other places (I might assume it is just a Mormon assumption, but Canadian nonmembers used the two interchangeably in my experience).  And yet ECs improve by 8 points and we don’t. 

Do Evangelicals tend to proselytize their neighbors like we often do?  I assume they do given their name, but perhaps not or there is a different style that seems less offensive to some. I could see moving from a neutral position to a dislike if one perceived one is a project of one’s neighbour, etc.

Maybe later I will pull up Pew’s older similar polls and see if there has been a change that might help narrow down what is going on. 

[california boy]

2 hours ago, Calm said:

Got it.  Yes, it is interesting there there is no difference in the balance number between knowing and not knowing, while everyone else gets a shift in balance to the more positive.  I would have thought it the political issues tied to its often conservative identity, but EC are at least as tightly identified, are they not?  Most people I know hear “Fundamental” when they hear “Evangelical”, but perhaps this isn’t as common in other places (I might assume it is just a Mormon assumption, but Canadian nonmembers used the two interchangeably in my experience).  And yet ECs improve by 8 points and we don’t. 

Do Evangelicals tend to proselytize their neighbors like we often do?  I assume they do given their name, but perhaps not or there is a different style that seems less offensive to some. I could see moving from a neutral position to a dislike if one perceived one is a project of one’s neighbour, etc.

Maybe later I will pull up Pew’s older similar polls and see if there has been a change that might help narrow down what is going on. 

I found this earlier Pew poll from 2017.  Hard to do a direct comparison between the two polls.  The scope of questions is a little different.  What is similar is that Mormons were rated at the bottom of any Christian religion in both polls.  Take a look.  You are much better at analyzing data than I am.  

 

 

Edited Sunday at 04:23 AM by california boy

[Hamilton Porter]

The favorable % doubles when one knows an LDS.

The unfavorable increases by 50%.

[Hamilton Porter]

In my area there are quite a few people who love hanging out with Mormons but don't want to convert.

[Tacenda]

4 hours ago, Hamilton Porter said:

In my area there are quite a few people who love hanging out with Mormons but don't want to convert.

I know that they make pretty good neighbors as far as their yards too. Or maybe I've just always had a lot of LDS neighbors all my life.