The Relationship Between Attitude and Information Concerning the Japanese in America

Bibliographic Data

ID5249251
AuthorsGwynne Nettler (corresponding author)
Year1946
Volume11
Issue2
Pages177
Publication date1946-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Sociological Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0003-1224 • E-ISSN: 1939-8271
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/2086707
OpenAlexW1985939421
LanguageEN
Citations received9

K NOWLEDGE of the determination of attitudes can be gained only through an attack on specific, isolable hypotheses. It is the function of the study reported here to investigate one such hypothesis concerning the determination of racial attitudes. It constitutes an inquiry into the nature of the relationship between a category of racial attitudes, those toward the Japanese in America, and information about that minority group. With this group as a reference the investigation seeks to discover the extent to which agreement in factual knowledge will cause people to agree in attitude. Such a problem is of importance, first, because of the common characteristic of humans to believe their attitudes to be a function of knowledge and, second, as a test of that tenet of democratic educational ideology which holds that knowledge frees one from prejudice. The Japanese in America offer a fertile field for the testing of such a hypothesis. Our government has dealt with this minority as it has with no other group in our history and has thus forced upon the public a consciousness of the Japanese in America as an out-group. To be free of an attitude toward these people becomes well nigh impossible. Moreover, this minority was until recently concentrated in the three Pacific Coast states and by this concentration provides a control for estimating the effect of ''contact information. Further, attitudes concerning race relations differ from many other types of attitude in the emotional freight they carry. This high emotional charge usually means high interest value and it is in those intellectual areas where man is most interested that we should expect him to be best informed. It is indeed appropriate, then, to study the relationship between attitude and information in the realm of race relations since there is ample motivation for learning. It must be recognized, however, that the interest-value of which we speak may also motivate ignorance. Myrdall and others have argued that many of our most cherished beliefs serve a purpose and that at times it may be necessary to our purposes to remain ignorant of facts that conflict with these beliefs. But, while motivation may make for ignorance in some instances and knowledge in others, it is certainly an essential for learning and becomes, then, a sine qua non for a study such as this. It would certainly be fruitless to seek to determine the relationship between attitude and information in a sphere where interest was so weak that respondents would scarcely be concerned either to entertain an opinion2 on the subject or to know anything about

Political science · Global Education and Multiculturalism · Psychology · Social Psychology

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub