The Relative Influences of Ethnicity, Social Class and Religion of Stimulus Person on Social Distance

Abstract

Of the three major components of attitudes as generally conceptualised, the behavioural component is the most difficult to predict using conventional attitude questionnaire techniques. There are two main causes of this. Firstly, attitude questionnaire items are usually rather general whereas behaviour occurs in specific contexts and towards specific stimuli. Secondly, although attitude measurement has the prediction of behaviour as a major aim, statements on such scales rarely ask about behavioural intentions but tend to concentrate on theoretically antecedent cognitive and affective components. For instance, subjects are often asked in studies of ethnic attitudes to indicate how far they agree with statements concerning the living habits, intellectual capabilities, etc., of others but are hardly ever asked how they would behave towards some specific other in some specific situation. For studies of ethnic attitudes Bagley (1973c) claims that there is no better a candidate as a measuring instrument than the Social Distance scale which actually poses questions concerning the individual’s behavioural intentions.