Attribution Style and Public Policy Attitudes Toward Gay Rights*

Objective. This study examines the influence of beliefs about the cause of homo‐sexuality on public policy attitudes concerning gay rights. Methods. Using data from the 1995 Oklahoma City Survey, we examine how beliefs about homosexuality as either a lifestyle choice or biological predisposition affect levels of support for gay rights. Results. Consistent with current debates over gay rights, our study reveals a strong positive association between biological attributions of homosexuality and support for gay rights. Opposition to gay rights is most pronounced among political conservatives, fundamentalist Protestants, persons with little or no favorable contact with gays, individuals who embrace negative stereotypes about gays, and persons with high scores on an index of homophobia. Conclusions. Etiological beliefs about homosexuality have a strong influence on public policy attitudes toward gay rights.     

Racial Contexts' Enduring Influence on Attitudes Toward Poverty*

Objective. This article's objective is to reply to Rodgers (2009) and to expand on the claim that living near poor African Americans influences Americans' views of poverty. Methods. It first presents additional analyses of the 2001 Poverty in America Survey demonstrating that respondents' racial contexts are consistent predictors of attitudes toward poverty. Other contextual variables are not. Results. The article then presents results from an exogenous shock—the post‐Katrina migration—to reinforce its claims. Despite the widespread understanding that the evacuees were not to blame for their situation, their arrival in Houston and Baton Rouge led to more individualistic explanations of poverty. Conclusion. This article concludes that even in unlikely cases, racial contexts influence attitudes toward poverty.     

Public Opinion and Dynamic Representation in the American States: The Case of Environmental Attitudes*

Objective. We investigate causal processes linking environmental conditions, attitudes, and policies in the American states: Is public opinion about ecology shaped by environmental conditions? Are state policymakers responsive to environmental opinions? Does public opinion respond to policy adoption? Methods. Using public opinion data from the DDB Worldwide Life Style Survey to measure aggregate state attitudes about the environment, as well as measures of water quality and policy intervention, we capture the dynamics of representation in the American states on the environment during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Results. Our findings support a thermostatic model of representation—state environmental opinions are influenced by environmental conditions and are responsive to policy outputs alongside improved environmental conditions. Conclusions. This model of the opinion‐policy linkage refines our understanding of representation and focuses us not just on the passage of public policy to address public desires, but the effectiveness of that policy as well.     

What Shapes Attitudes Toward Paying Taxes? Evidence from Multicultural European Countries*

Objectives. Considerable evidence suggests that enforcement efforts cannot fully explain the high degree of tax compliance. To resolve this puzzle of tax compliance, several researchers have argued that citizens' attitudes toward paying taxes, defined as tax morale, helps to explain the high degree of tax compliance. However, most studies have treated tax morale as a black box, without discussing which factors shape it. Additionally, the tax compliance literature provides little empirical research that investigates attitudes toward paying taxes in Europe. Methods. Thus, this article is unique in its examination of citizen tax morale within three multicultural European countries, Switzerland, Belgium, and Spain, a choice that allows far more detailed examination of the impact of culture and institutions using data sets from the World Values Survey and the European Values Survey. Results. The results indicate the tendency that cultural and regional differences affect tax morale. Conclusion. The findings suggest that higher legitimacy for political institutions leads to higher tax morale.     

Attitudes Toward the Poor and Attributions for Poverty

Prior psychological research on attitudes toward the poor has focused almost exclusively on the attributions people make to explain why individuals are poor (e.g., Smith & Stone, 1989; Zucker & Weiner, 1993). The goal of the current study was to investigate the relationships among feelings about the poor and poverty, stereotypes of the poor, attributions for poverty, and sociopolitical ideologies (as assessed by the Protestant Ethic, Belief in a Just World, and Right Wing Authoritarianism Scales). In our Midwestern college sample (n = 209), attitudes toward the poor were found to be significantly more negative than attitudes toward the middle class. In addition, participants were most likely to blame poor people them-selves for their poverty. However, attitudes toward the poor and attributions for the causes of poverty were found to vary among individuals from different sociodemographic backgrounds and by degree of endorsement of Protestant ethic, just world, and authoritarianism beliefs. Few gender differences were obtained.     

Tobacco Farming and Public Health: Attitudes of the General Public and Farmers

The tobacco industry remains a formidable influence in thwarting tobacco control efforts, in part because industry leaders have raised policymaker and public concern about how tobacco control might negatively impact tobacco farmers. In this study, we interviewed a random, stratified sample of 528 tobacco farmers in the Southeast and 991 U.S. residents about issues related to tobacco farmers. We found that a majority of the U.S. public expressed the belief that U.S. taxpayers subsidized tobacco farmers. This belief, combined with the strong opposition to tobacco farmer subsidies (15 percent thought there should be subsidies), likely play a role in public attitudes toward tobacco farmers. At the same time, however, we found reasonably strong public support for efforts to help tobacco farmers transition to new enterprises, although the public underestimates tobacco farmer interest in diversification. For example, two of three Americans believe that the government should help farmers make a living other than growing tobacco and over half thought that taxpayers should help pay for such programs. These data illustrate potential common ground for elected officials to consider as they attempt to concomitantly address the needs of farmers and the interests of the public. Ultimately, if the interests of tobacco farmers can be made clearly to the general public, and vice versa, pro-health and pro-farmer policies might well become a reality     

Sacred Rites and Civil Rights: Religion's Effect on Attitudes Toward Same‐Sex Unions and the Perceived Cause of Homosexuality*

Objective. Past research reveals how religion and opinions about the cause of homosexuality influence attitudes concerning same‐sex unions. No study to date contains a comprehensive collection of religion measures while also accounting for views of the cause of homosexuality. Therefore, this study investigates the extent to which religion predicts certain attribution beliefs as well as attitudes toward same‐sex unions while controlling for attribution beliefs. Method. The Baylor Religion Survey (2007 ) is used to estimate binary logistic models predicting the effects of religion and attribution beliefs on attitudes toward same‐sex unions. Findings. First, religion is strongly associated with the belief that homosexuals choose their sexual orientation. Second, religion maintains a significant association with attitudes toward same‐sex unions despite inclusion of an attribution variable. Conclusion. Even if a biological explanation for homosexuality is ultimately proven, unfavorable attitudes toward same‐sex unions will most likely endure due to religion's persistent effect.     

American Indian Ethnic Identity: Tribal Nonresponse in the 1990 Census*

Objectives. About 11 percent of American Indians did not report their tribal affiliation on the 1990 U.S. Census form. I use several theoretical perspectives as tools to explore the reasons behind this surprising omission. Method. Logistic regression analysis is the method employed. Results. American Indians living with someone who speaks an American Indian language are very likely to report a tribal affiliation, as are those living in “Indian states” (states with historically high numbers of American Indians). Those who are least likely to report a tribal affiliation are Hispanic women with low education who report no American Indian ancestry, do not live with other American Indians, and live in a metropolitan area of a “non‐Indian state.” Conclusions. Lack of knowledge of family history appears to be one of the primary causes of tribal nonresponse. Salience of tribal identity also affects responses.     

Positive Attitudes Toward Disabled People: Disabled and Nondisabled Persons' Perspectives

This article addresses the differing perceptions that disabled and nondisabled persons may have of what constitutes '"positive" attitudes and behaviors toward people with physical disabilities. Quantitative and qualitative data are presented to suggest that the strain that frequently occurs during interactions between disabled and nondisabled individuals may derive more from misunderstandings of one another's expectations than from negative intentions. Suggestions are made, methodologically, for ways that these areas of misunderstanding can be isolated empirically, and conceptually, for ways that information can be exchanged to correct these misunderstandings.     

Attitudes Toward Younger and Older Adults: An Updated Meta-Analytic Review

This meta-analytic review of 232 effect sizes showed that, across five categories, attitudes were more negative toward older than younger adults. Perceived age differences were largest for age stereotypes and smallest for evaluations. As predicted by social role theory ( Eagly, 1987 ), effect sizes were reduced when detailed information was provided about the person being rated. The double standard of aging emerged for evaluations and behavior/behavioral intentions, but was reversed for the competence category. Perceptions depended on respondent age also. Results demonstrated both the multi-dimensionality and the complexity of attitudes toward older adults ( Hummert, 1999 ; Kite & Wagner, 2002 ).     

School and College Students' Attitudes Toward Military Service

Efforts to do away with the old conformity and uniformity in the organization of the educational process and to develop pedagogical creativity broadly have fostered the formation of didactic innovations in the mass practice of instruction. Among the most important conditions of effectiveness in pedagogical innovations we include that of enhancing the concern and preparedness of instructors to change their activities, selecting didactic innovations, and providing teachers and school administrators with information about new tools for transforming practice and about experience in their use. The realization of these conditions is within the powers of any pedagogical collective that is concerned for improving teaching-upbringing work.