A study by Ryotaro Uemura, sociology doctoral student at Indiana University Bloomington, found that people who had no religious affiliation have significantly less favorable views of the U.S. However, to be an ethnic minority does not necessarily have significant effects on national attitudes.

"Perhaps, people just assume there would be a strong ethnic difference," said Uemura, who discussed his findings on August 17 at the American Sociological Association 2010 Annual Meeting.

Background: Uemura was interested in conducting the study, "Minority Statuses and Positive National Attitude," because as a citizen of Japan, he said, he was used to people having a low level of national pride. In fact, there is an emerging concern about the low level of national pride among Japanese citizens. He wanted to find out what Americans think about the U.S. His study focused on nationality, religion and ethnicity. "What makes this study unique is that I focus on three demographic characteristics, while most of the research just studied ethnicity," Uemura said.

Uemura also found that to be non-citizens does not have a significant effect on national pride; this suggests that non-citizens are as proud of the U.S. as are citizens. However, the analysis implies that the U.S. citizens who have at least one non-U.S. citizen parent seem to have a higher sense of pride in the U.S. "Perhaps, first-generation parents tell their children how great the U.S. is since they come to the U.S. and hope to be better off," Uemura said. As for ethnic subgroups, blacks tend to have less favorable views compared to their white counterparts.

Uemura's study was entitled, "Minority Statuses and Positive National Attitudes."