In U.S., familiarity with religious groups is associated with warmer feelings toward them
Americans who personally know someone in a different religious group are more likely to feel positively about members of that group.
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David Masci is a former senior writer/editor at Pew Research Center, where he is the in-house expert on church-state issues, culture war issues, and religion and science. In this capacity, Masci conducts research and writing and gives public presentations and media interviews on various topics, including gay marriage, abortion, physician-assisted suicide, the controversy surrounding teaching evolution, religious displays (Ten Commandments, Christmas crèches, etc.) and stem cell research. Before joining Pew Research Center, Masci worked for 14 years as a journalist for Congressional Quarterly, writing for many of the company’s publications, including The Daily Monitor, CQ Weekly and, most recently, The CQ Researcher. His work has been published in The Washington Post, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times and a host of other national and regional newspapers. Masci has a bachelor’s in medieval history, magna cum laude, from Syracuse University, and a J.D. from The George Washington University Law School. He has given interviews to most major American newspapers, including the The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post and has appeared on media outlets such as CNN, ABC News, NBC News and NPR.
