That ethnocentric attitudes are increasing is one of the discoveries of a survey of almost 25,000 people in 24 countries around the world conducted by the Pew Research Centre as part of their Global Attitudes Project. Since its launch in 2001 the Global Attitudes Project has conducted a series of worldwide public opinion surveys on an array of subjects, from people's assessments of their own lives to their views on the current state of the world and important issues of the day.
Great Britain stands out as the only European country included in the survey where there has not been a substantial increase in anti-Semitic attitudes. Just 9% of the British rate Jews unfavourably, which is largely unchanged from recent years. The survey shows that 46% of the Spanish rates Jews unfavourably, 36% and 34% of Poles and Russians respectively have a negative opinion also. Opinions about Muslims in almost all of these countries are considerably more negative than are views of Jews. Fully half of Spanish (52%) and German respondents (50%) and a quarter of British (23%) rate Muslims unfavourably. In Europe views about Christians have remained largely stable in recent years, although anti-Christian sentiments have been on the rise in Spain – about one-in-four Spanish (24%) now rate Christians negatively, up from 10% in 2005.
When asked about their own religiousness the survey shows a clear relationship between wealth and religiosity: in rich nations fewer people view religion as important than in poor nations. In the current survey, people who live in the poorest nations almost unanimously say religion is important to them, while the citizens of Western Europe and other wealthy nations tend to say it plays a less significant role although Americans – who tend to be religious despite their country's wealth – continue to be a major exception to this pattern.
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