Polls have enhanced significantly the state of knowledge about the nature and degree of change in opinions of the American public on race relations. Notably they have documented a steady and sharp decline in intolerant racial attitudes among whites in all regions of this nation over the past 40 years. Nevertheless opinion polls on ethnic affairs are characterized by some deficiencies. The views of blacks are usually presented for the group as a whole without any breakdown by subgroup. Data on the attitudes of Hispanics, Asians, and Native Americans are sparse or nonexistent. Distinctions between beliefs and values are obscured. Indices of actual intolerant behavior are lacking. Shifts in relationships between prejudice and discrimination are not monitored. The assessment of the impact of factors in the family, community, and wider society on racial attitudes and the actions of individuals is inadequate.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
see also the classification of opinion polls in Daniel Day, “Methods in Attitude Research,”American Sociological Review, 5(3):395-410 (June 1940).
2.
2. Our use of the concept of ethnic minority does not encompass white ethnics; it is restricted to the four ethnic groups that have been designated by the federal government as “disadvantaged”: blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans, and Asian Americans.
3.
3. For an early assessment of research on race relations, see W. E. B. DuBois, “The Study of the Negro Problems,”The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 11:1-23 (Jan. 1898).
4.
see also Hazel Gaudet Erskine, “The Polls: Race Relations,”Public Opinion Quarterly26(1):137-145 (Spring 1962).
6. National Opinion Research Center, “General Social Surveys, 1972-1982: Cumulative Codebook,”University of Chicago, July 1982.
7.
7. Angus Campbell, White Attitudes Toward Black People (Ann Arbor: Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, 1971); Howard Schuman and Shirley Hatchett, Black Racial Attitudes: Trends and Complexities (Ann Arbor: Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, 1974); William Brink and Louis Harris, The Negro Revolution in America (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1964); idem, Black and White: A Study of U.S. Racial Attitudes Today (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1966).
8.
8. See especially the in-depth survey of race relations by ABC News/Washington Post released 23 Mar. 1981.
9.
9. Data Black Public Opinion Polls, which is administered by Dressner, Morris and Tortorello, Inc., has its 1980 survey archived at the Roper Center. The Black Omnibus Survey is conducted by EVAAX, Inc.
10.
and Robert B. Hill and Carol J. Godley, “An Inventory of Selected National Data Sources on the Social and Economic Characteristics of Black Families” (Washington, DC: Bureau of Social Science Research, 1982).
11.
For a description of questions related to racial issues used in Louis Harris surveys, see Elizabeth Martinet al., Sourcebook of Harris National Surveys: Repeated Questions, 1963-1976 (Chapel Hill: Institute for Research in Social Sciences, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1981).
12.
and Albert H. Cantril, ed., Polling on the Issues (Washington, DC: Seven Locks Press, 1980).
13.
Also see The Impact of Minority Presence in Girl Scouting on White and Minority Communities (New York: Girl Scouts of the U.S.A., 1981), in which the Roper Organization oversampled 536 blacks and 439 Hispanics in a national general-public survey of more than 2000 respondents.
14.
14. Ibid.
15.
15. Schwartz, Trends in White Attitudes Toward Negroes, p. 6.
16.
16. Gunnar Myrdal, An American Dilemma (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964), 2:1138.
17.
17. Ibid., pp. 1137-38.
18.
18. Herbert H. Hyman and Paul B. Sheatsley, “Attitudes Toward Desegregation,”Scientific American, 195(6):35-39 (Dec. 1956).
19.
and in Andrew M. Greeley and Paul B. Sheatsley, “Attitudes Toward Racial Integration,”Scientific American, 225(6):13-19 (Dec. 1971).
20.
20. For a general critique of the inadequate treatment of overt behavior in attitude research, see Richard T. LaPiere, “The Sociological Significance of Measurable Attitudes,”American Sociological Review, 3(2):175-182 (Apr. 1938).
21.
21. Hadley Cantril, Gauging Public Opinion (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1947). For an example of validation technique, see chap. 17.
22.
22. Robert K. Merton, “Fact and Factitiousness in Ethnic Opinionnaires,”American Sociological Review, 5(1):21 (Feb. 1940).
23.
Paul B. Sheatsley , “White Attitudes Toward the Negro,”Daedalus, 95(1):217-238 (Winter 1966).
24.
24. A. C. Rosander, “An Attitude Scale Based upon Behavior Situations,”Journal of Social Psychology, 8:3-15 (1937).
25.
25. Robert N. Ford, “Some Major Problems in the Quantification of Social Attitudes,”Journal of Negro Education, 11(2):121-134 (Apr. 1942).
26.
26. Everett C. Ladd, “Opinion Roundup: The State of Race Relations—1981,”Public Opinion (Apr.-May 1981), pp. 32-40; The Gallup Report, “Treatment of Blacks Viewed Differently by Two Races,” no. 185 (Feb. 1981); Louis Harris and Associates, A Study of Attitudes Toward Racial and Religious Minorities and Toward Women (New York: National Conference of Christians and Jews, 1978); and Robert B. Hill, Economic Policies and Black Progress (Washington, DC: National Urban League Research Department, 1981).
27.
27. Gordon W. Allport, The Nature of Prejudice (Garden City, NY: Doubleday Anchor Books, 1958).
28.
28. ABC News/Washington Post, the 23 Mar. 1981 survey.
29.
29. See especially “A Question of Race: How Have Americans Changed?”The Gallup Opinion Index, report no. 160 (Nov. 1978), p. 25.
30.
30. National Opinion Research Center, “General Social Surveys, 1972-1982.”
31.
31. Angus Campbell and Howard Schuman, Racial Attitudes in Fifteen American Cities: Supplemental Studies for the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1968), p. 33, fn.
32.
see also the behavioral scales in Samuel A. Stoufferet al., Measurement and Prediction, American Soldier Series (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1950), vol. 4, chap. 12.
33.
and Black and White (1966).
34.
34. Hyman and Sheatsley, “Attitudes Toward Desegregation.”
35.
35. Robert K. Merton, “Discrimination and the American Creed,” in Merton, Sociological Ambivalence and Other Essays (New York: Free Press, 1976).
36.
36. Leo P. Crespi, “Is Gunnar Myrdal on the Right Track?”Public Opinion Quarterly, 9:204 (1945); see also Oliver C. Cox, “An American Dilemma: A Mystical Approach to the Study of Race Relations,”Journal of Negro Education, 14:132-148 (1945).
37.
37. Bruno Bettelheim and Morris Janowitz, Social Change and Prejudice (New York: Free Press, 1964).
