Southern Intolerance: A Fundamentalist Effect?

For many years, social scientists have reported that southerners express lower levels of tolerance vis-à-vis unpopular groups than nonsoutherners. Some researchers have suggested that these widely observed regional variations are due to the prominence of fundamentalist Protestantism in the South. In analyses of data from the 1988 General Social Survey, however, this hypothesis receives only partial support. Substantial regional differences in tolerance of left-wing groups, including communists, atheists, and homosexuals, persist despite controls for a range of religious variables. We suggest that future research on regional differences in public attitudes should consider contextual as well as individual religious factors.