COHORT TRENDS IN ATTITUDES ABOUT LAW AND ORDER: WHO'S LEADING THE CONSERVATIVE WAVE?

Aging is commonly assumed to be associated with the adoptionof increasingly conservative social and political attitudes.Empirical tests of this assumption have provided little support,but most analyses have focused on attitude domains where publicopinion was shifting in a liberal direction. Using three itemsabout law and order, a domain marked by conservative trends,this paper evaluates the aging-conservatism hypothesis withdata drawn from 18 national surveys covering the period 1959–85.Attitude changes in four cohorts are analyzed with Tay lor'shierarchical goodness-of-fit procedures for evaluating trendsin public opinion. The findings show that each of the cohortshas participated in the shift toward more conservative opinionson law and order issues, and that either constant or zero differencescharacterize the trends in percentage differences between theoldest and the other cohorts. In the absence of differentialrates of change, we conclude that older cohorts are no morelikely than younger cohorts to adopt conservative law and orderattitudes and that period effects are influencing each of thecohorts equally.     

Contagion in social attitudes about prejudice

Members of the same household share similar social attitudes, but the source of the similarity in attitudes may be attributed to many processes. This study uses data from a randomized field experiment to identify contagion in attitude change about anti-transgender prejudice. During a face-to-face canvassing experiment, registered voters who answered the door were exposed to either a message encouraging active perspective taking intended to reduce transphobia or a recycling message. Here, I show that the messages delivered to one household member are likely to reduce anti-transgender prejudice in the cohabitants as well. This finding suggests that door-to-door canvassing messages intended to elicit attitude change are likely to be socially transmitted.     

The Effect of Nonviolent Action on Social Attitudes*

Nonviolent action will produce attitude change to the exlent that it satisfies either or both of two prerequisites. It must either interfere with the functions served by the attitudes or it must produce some inconsistency between the attitudes and other orientations of the persons affected by the action. The three major functions served by attitudes are object orientation, ego-support, and ego-defense. For many social attitudes the ego-support provided by attitudes which help define a person's relation to a reference group is especially powerful, Functions may be blocked by a particular set of conditions, which may have little in common with one another. Inconsistencies may occur among different attitudes or among the components of a single attitude. One class of inconsistencies that is of particular importance occurs when people are persuaded or mildly pressured into action contrary to their attitudes. Each of the sources of attitude change pressure carries its own requirements for producing change and its own mechanisms for protecting attitudes against change pressures. Nonviolent action does not necessarily meet these requirements or overcome the defenses. However, with knowledge of the functional bases and conceptual contexts of the attitudes being challenged it may be possible to utilize the resources present in nonviolent action to increase the likelihood of a desirable impact.     

Increasing implicit and explicit attitudes toward an organic food brand by referencing to oneself

In the last decades, theoretical and empirical work has been devoted to implicit attitudes toward a large range of food items. Despite the increasing development of green labels in the food market, to our knowledge no study has investigated implicit attitudes toward organic food nor has tried to change them. Capitalizing on the important role of the self in consumer or pro-environmental behavior, we aim to change or form implicit and explicit attitudes toward organic food brands using the self. Moreover, we investigate the possibility of changing hypothetical shopping behavior, brand identification, and attitude change persistence. Targeting two fictitious brands of organic food in two studies, we use the Self-Referencing (SR) task, an evaluative learning paradigm that relies on both the use of the self as a positive source of evaluation and the common action to classify the self and a target. We assess its effects on implicit attitudes, using one of the most common indirect measure (Implicit Association Test), as well as on explicit attitudes. We show that the SR manipulation results in more positive implicit attitudes, explicit attitudes, and to more frequent hypothetical choice of products for the eco-brand paired with the self compared to the other eco-brand. SR manipulation also results in higher level of brand identification. Moreover, changes in implicit attitude mediate changes in explicit attitude, identification, and hypothetical choice. Finally, we provide evidence for the persistence of the effect: Participants liked and identified more with the brand originally paired with the self even after removing the pairing with the self. The discussion is organized around the importance of taking into account implicit attitudes toward organic food brands and the usefulness of the self in changing or forming these attitudes.     

Generations and Ideological Change: Some Observations

The recollections of 28 cohorts of college graduates—allof them former recipients of Woodrow Wilson Fellowships forgraduate study—of historical events between 1945 and 1971and their participation in activities specifically associatedwith the peace movement and student activism of the 1960s werebrought to bear on Mannheim's theory of generations. The analysissuggests proportionately greater sensitivity to the events ofthe 1960s among those who reached the age of 20 near the middleof the decade, a finding that bears out generational theory.But despite this apparently heightened sensitivity among thosethe fight age at the right time, the effect of these recollectionsand experiences on attitudes expressed in 1973 was consistentlyovershadowed by even stronger attitudinal effects attributableto an early commitment to activism. The latter was more closelyrelated to the family milieu than to having come of age politicallyin a particular historical period. The data were obtained froma mail survey of 1321 former Wilson Fellows.     

The Role of Contact and Information in Racial Attitude Change among White College Students*

While much research has been done on the determinants of change in prejudice among whites, relatively little is known about the process of change in contemporary racial attitudes, variously described as symbolic racism, laissez‐faire racism, or color‐blind racism. This article uses data from a sample of white college students to examine the impact of intergroup contact and exposure to information about racial issues on changes in contemporary racial attitudes and feelings toward blacks (a key component of prejudice), using Pettigrew's (1998) model of the process by which contact produces change in racial attitudes. Results provide support for Pettigrew's model, showing while contact is important in changing whites’ feelings about blacks, both contact and exposure to information about race are important predictors of changes in contemporary racial attitudes. A comparison of longitudinal and cross‐sectional models of contemporary racial attitudes suggests that contact, especially in setting with “friendship potential,” has an impact on attitudes both directly and indirectly, through providing avenues through which racial information can be obtained as well as by providing motivation to pay attention to it.     

Women's work, cohort change, and health

Rapid changes in women's labor force participation, access to good jobs, and changing work-family pressures have altered the landscape of work and family life. We use logit negative binomial hurdle models to examine whether these countervailing trends have affected the physical health of women across four birth cohorts. Longitudinal data are used to compare successive cohorts of U.S. women when they are between the ages 44 and 50. While the health of women overall did not change across cohorts, we find an increase in health problems among employed women, explained by increases in the ability of women with physical limitations to become and remain employed. Health problems among housewives decline across cohorts, resulting in better health among housewives than among employed women in the most recent cohort. These findings provide further evidence of the importance of selection processes in understanding health effects of roles, and they highlight the need for greater attention to the health effects of unpaid work.     

A psychoanalytic study of contraception

The purpose of this study was to evaluate three sets of predictors of attitudes toward homosexuality: (a) anti‐black and orthodox religious attitudes, (b) sexual permissiveness, and (c) the effect of an introductory human sexuality course. Significantly more positive attitudes were expected for those holding more positive attitudes toward blacks and those who were more sexually permissive. A negative relationship was expected for those holding orthodox religious attitudes. Furthermore, information from a college course in human sexuality was expected to produce positive attitude change toward homosexuality. A survey instrument consisting of several scales and indexes measuring the aforementioned variables, as well as several indexes of sexual behavior, was administered to 194 students in a human sexuality course and 120 students in an introductory psychology course. Results showed significant regression coefficients for anti‐black attitudes and religious orthodoxy, confirming the predictions. Sexual permissiveness did not significantly add to the prediction of attitudes toward homosexuality, although the Pearson correlation was significant, r = .19 (p < .05). The experimental group showed significantly greater change in attitude toward homosexuality than the control group, F(1, 291) = 23.70, p < .001. A fourth objective was to assess sex differences on a series of sexual behavioral indexes. Results show a number of significant differences suggesting that sexual behavior still reflects a double standard in U.S. society.     

Explaining the Decline in Women's Household Labor: Individual Change and Cohort Differences

Women's hours of housework have declined, but does this change represent shifts in the behavior of individuals or differences across cohorts? Using data from the National Longitudinal Surveys, individual and cohort change in housework are examined over a 13‐year period. Responsibility for household tasks declined 10% from 1974–75 to 1987–88. For individual women, changes in housework are associated with life course shifts in time availability as well as with changes in gender attitudes and marital status, but are not related to changes in relative earnings. Cohort differences exist in responsibility for housework in the mid‐1970s and they persist over the 13‐year period. Overall, these findings suggest that aggregate changes in women's household labor reflect both individual change and cohort differences.     

An Examination of Gender Role Attitude Change Patterns Among Continuously Married,Divorced, and Remarried Individuals

Gender role attitudes influence marital satisfaction and stability and are typically treated as stable traits in adulthood. Theory and retrospective studies suggest changes in the life course based on relationship histories; however, tests of these assumptions are virtually nonexistent. Analyses from a longitudinal, nationally representative U.S. sample of 590 married individuals who vary in their marital experiences revealed both period effects and distinct within-group change patterns. Over a 20-year time period all demonstrate a shift toward more egalitarian attitudes. However, contrary to retrospective accounts asserting a steep increase in egalitarian attitudes in remarriages, prospective data from men and women indicate a curvilinear pattern over time that is distinct from patterns observed for continuously married and divorced/not remarried individuals.     

TRENDS IN TOLERANCE TOWARD RIGHTIST AND LEFTIST GROUPS, 1976-1988: EFFECTS OF ATTITUDE CHANGE AND COHORT SUCCESSION

Trends in tolerance are tested for groups on the Right and onthe Left of the political spectrum with 1976–88 GeneralSocial Survey data. Findings are that (1) tolerance increasedtoward leftist groups but not toward rightist groups; (2) succession,the replacement of older cohorts by more recent cohorts, increased tolerance toward leftists and rightists alike, partiallyon account of more recent cohorts' higher levels of education;and (3) attitude change within cohorts reduced tolerance butonly toward rightists. Overall, trends toward greater toleranceseem not to be mere reflections of reduced opposition to unpopulargroups but instead reflect changes in willingness to allow expressionof opposed ideas.     

College students' living arrangements and attitudes toward family roles: Demographic and value correlates

Using data from the college population, Pearson correlations and regression were used to examine three hypotheses. The major hypothesis was that “conformity-oriented” values are associated with college students' traditional living arrangements and family-related attitudes, while “self-directed” values are associated with nontraditional attitudes and behavior. Two other hypotheses focused on interrelationships among demographic variables, values, family-related attitudes, and living arrangements. General support was found for the major value-orientation hypothesis and mixed support for the secondary hypotheses. Comparing these findings with those of several other studies, we propose that there may be a subset of human values associated with general tendencies toward confomity and resistance to change on the one hand, and experimentation and receptivity to change on the other. A typology of such value orientations is put forward for future research in areas of sex roles, social change, sociopolitical conflict, and attitude and/or behavior change.     

A generational comparison of problem gambling and gambling attitudes among older adult gambling venue patrons

Gambling is a popular leisure activity for older adults (55+), and existing research suggests that overall older adults are less prone to problem gambling compared to younger cohorts. People born after World War II are now beginning to reach retirement age. The purpose of this article was to explore age-related cohort differences between people born from 1943 to 1960 compared to those born from 1925 to 1942 in their attitudes and behaviours related to gambling. This study employs a large sample (2103) of older adults collected at gambling locations across Southern Ontario, Canada in 2013. Comparisons were made using Pearson’s chi-squared tests for categorical variables and independent samples t-tests for continuous variables with logarithmic transformations for highly-skewed variables. Those of the 1943 to 1960 cohort showed significantly higher problem gambling scores and per visit spending, but lower numbers of visits per year. There was no discernible pattern between cohorts in terms of attitudes toward gambling. Assumptions of lower risk of problem gambling among older adults will have to be re-evaluated as the post-war generation becomes an ever greater proportion of older adults.     

Effect of instructional videotapes on AIDS knowledge and attitudes

The effectiveness of four commercial videotape presentations in changing AIDS knowledge and attitudes among 584 college students was evaluated in a pre-post design with control group and follow-up. AIDS knowledge and attitudes were measured prior to, immediately after, and 4 to 6 weeks following presentation of the informational videotapes. In addition, subjects rated each videotape on several specific dimensions, including overall quality. The effects of age, sex, prior exposure to AIDS information, and presence v absence of post-presentation discussion were measured as covariates. In general, there was a significant immediate increase in AIDS knowledge attributable to all four videotapes (p less than .001). These gains persisted until follow-up, with no erosion for three of the four tapes. With the exception of perceived effectiveness of AIDS prevention methods (p less than .001), attitudes toward AIDS showed no change as a result of exposure to any of the videotapes (p greater than .05). Viewer ratings showed two of the videotapes to be superior in terms of perceived overall quality (p less than .05). There were also differences in ratings of videos on other dimensions. Among the covariates, there was no relationship at time of follow-up between post-presentation discussion v no discussion and either knowledge gain or attitude change. Sex was related to one attitude component, with women perceiving the AIDS epidemic as more severe than men (p less than .001).     

The Impact of Voluntary Association Characteristics on Selective Attraction and Socialization*

The voluntary organization literature has viewed the processes of selective attraction and socialization almost exclusively as a function of individual characteristics rather than organizational characteristics. Using data from two voluntary associations. we found that organizational characteristics (goal specificity, change orientation, and restrictiveness) were associated with the degree of selective attraction and socialization of attitudes. After controlling for the compositional characteristics of the membership, these data suggest both an organizational and an individual effect on socialization and selectivity. We concluded that the organizations studied here were more of a means for the support of attitudes held prior to joining than a means for developing or changing attitudes through membership. Further research might examine what role different voluntary associations play in the structuring of attitudes, providing a greater understanding of both individual and organizations.     

SEX-ROLE ATTITUDE CHANGE AND REPORTING OF RAPE VICTIMIZATION, 1973–1985

This article examines the relationship between sex-role attitude change and female victims' reports of rape incidents to police in an analysis of time-series data from national attitude surveys of college freshmen and adults, and from annual victimization surveys. Declining support for traditional sex-role attitudes among both college women and men is strongly related to an increase in the proportion of rapes by nonstranger assailants that were reported to police from 1973 to 1985. However, victims' reports of rapes by strangers are more closely related to offenders' use of weapons during sexual assaults. These findings and other evidence against alternative explanations suggest that the cultural bases for "rape myths" have eroded during the 1970s and 1980s, and that broader definitions of rape have contributed to increased reporting of certain forms of sexual assault to police.     

Shifting categories,changing attitudes: A boundary work approach in the study of attitudes toward migrants

Considerable research exists that examines attitudes toward migrants. Most studies are quantitative, relying on surveys or survey experiments, but a growing body of literature explores such attitudes from a qualitative perspective. At the same time, the study of symbolic boundaries and how people use cultural repertoires of meanings to draw distinctions between “us” and “them” is increasing. This review looks at research, both quantitative and qualitative, which has put these two streams of work into conversation with one another. We organize this work along three dimensions: (1) the micro-level of individuals and their life-worlds; (2) the meso-level of negotiation among the moral communities of civil society; and (3) the macro-level of institutions and policy. We also highlight those studies that cut across levels. By doing so, we help bridge the quantitative/qualitative divide. Studying attitudes toward migrants through the concept of symbolic boundaries allows us to apply a more sensitive and meaning-centered approach toward attitude formation, contestation and change and to explore the linkages to available cultural repertoires.     

Do Millennials Care About NPOs? Intergenerational Differences in Attitudes Towards Nonprofit Organizations

In this study, we analyse whether there are differences in attitudes towards nonprofit organizations (NPOs) between the generational cohorts of Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Millennials. We do so by analysing survey data from Switzerland in two steps, a Bayesian estimation as well as a cluster analysis. The overall results suggest that there are, at best, only few and small intergenerational differences: the only consistent effect we find are the more negative attitudes of the Baby Boomer cohort towards professional associations and towards sports NPOs, but those differences could be due to life cycle rather than intergenerational effects. Overall, our results suggest that the Millennial generational cohort is at least as interested in and willing to engage with NPOs as previous generational cohorts.     

COMMUNITY INFLUENCES ON WHITE RACIAL ATTITUDES: What Matters and Why?

Tracing the roots of racial attitudes in historical events and individual biographies has been a long-standing goal of race relations scholars. Recent years have seen a new development in racial attitude research: Local community context has entered the spotlight as a potential influence on racial views. The race composition of the locality has been the most common focus; evidence from earlier decades suggests that white Americans are more likely to hold anti-black attitudes if they live in areas where the African-American population is relatively large. However, an influential 2000 article argued that the socioeconomic composition of the white community is a more powerful influence on white attitudes: In low-socioeconomic status (SES) locales, “stress-inducing” deprivations and hardships in whites' own lives purportedly lead them to disparage blacks. The study reported here reassesses this “scapegoating” claim, using data from the 1998 to 2002 General Social Surveys linked to 2000 census information about communities. Across many dimensions of racial attitudes, there is pronounced influence of both local racial proportions and college completion rates among white residents. However, the economic dimension of SES exerts negligible influence on white racial attitudes, suggesting that local processes other than scapegoating must be at work.