PANA Institute for Leadership Development

Jerry Z.Park, Baylor University:  jerry_park@baylor.edu

This paper examines the effect of religion and transnational experience on an important feature of American social life: prejudice and ethnocentrism. Previous research suggests that foreign travel tends to increase racial tolerance, whereas some forms of religiosity tends to increase prejudiced attitudes among white Americans. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Freshmen, I investigate the relationship between foreign travel prior to college and its effecton racial prejudice and ethnocentrism among Asian Americans of different religions. Analyses on nearly 20 different measures of prejudice and ethnocentrism suggest that Asian American college students do not vary on levels of prejudice across religious affiliations. And while Asian American Protestants, Catholics, and Buddhists travel less compared to Asian American Muslims, Hindus, and the nonaffiliated while growing up, such travel had no significant impact on their attitudes toward whites, African Americans and Latinos. Mere identification with a majority or minority faith, and exposure tointernational travel are not sufficient explanations for understanding contemporary racial tolerance. Suggestions for future directions include the need for qualitative and comparative study of the type of travel and its interpretive significance in the lives of religious and non-religious Asian Americans.