In a recent survey by the Pew Research Center, 3,217 Americans were asked to rate religious groups on a 0-100 "feeling thermometer," with 0 representing the coldest and 100 the warmest. Hindus received a lukewarm rating of 50.
There are several reasons for this, I believe. The first is obvious, and not terribly surprising: in a related Pew poll, only 22 percent of Americans said they know a Hindu. This makes sense, since almost all self-identified Hindus are of Indian descent, and while theirs is a hugely successful immigrant story, they've been trickling in only since immigration laws were changed in 1965 and they constitute less than 1 percent of the population.
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