For example, a 2014 survey by the Pew Research Center found that only 27 percent of white evangelicals in America claimed to know anyone who is a Muslim (with even fewer evangelicals claiming to know someone who is a Hindu or Buddhist). That same Pew study found that nearly half (49 percent) of black evangelicals (like the aforementioned Professor Larycia Hawkins) confirmed that they actually do personally know a Muslim in their everyday lives. Following suit, when Pew asked these people to rate their (positive or negative) feelings about people of other faiths, it should come as little surprise that black Protestants gave Muslims higher ratings than other American religious minority groups like Mormons, atheists, Hindus, or Buddhists. At the other end of the spectrum, this Pew study found that white evangelicals gave atheists and Muslims the lowest favorability ratings possible.

XREF: This echoes the social-contact hypothesis—familiarity via personal relationships tends to improve out-group attitudes.

XREF: Connects to contact hypothesis research in social psychology, which holds that intergroup contact reduces prejudice—this Pew data seems to illustrate that dynamic.

Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Gl…, loc. 400