Impressions of American and Soviet Behaviour: RWA Images in a Mirror

Abstract

Thirty years ago Bronfenbrenner described how Russians and Americans appeared to view the world in diametrically opposed fashion. Americans saw Russians as aggressors on the international scene who could not be trusted and who exploited and deluded their people. Russians seemed to mirror this in their image of Americans. The current research, which was conducted in the early years of glasnost, investigated these perceptions in American and Russian students. The findings revealed little evidence of nationalist bias in these subjects. They did, however, show that right-wing authoritarians on both sides were markedly biased. Ironically therefore it seems that in this sense anti-communist Americans and anti-capitalist Russians are the same people. When right-wing authoritarians are standing on each side of the glass, the mirror image still appears. But the reflection they see is their own.