Hock Chapter 10:
Not Practicing
What You Preach
Background

Social Psychology: the study of
interaction (how people treat each
other)
It gave way to new insights, research, and
controversy
 After LaPiere’s study, it was recognized that
people’s attitudes about a person or object do
not always reflect how they will behave toward
that person or object in a given situation.

Richard LaPiere



Most work produced during 1930s—this
study done in 1934
He was a Stanford psychologist
He focused on the study of social
attitudes, specifically, the
correspondence between attitudes and
behaviors
Before LaPiere


Previous studies had used
questionnaires and assumed behaviors
would match the responses
LaPiere believed the idea
of correspondence between
symbolic behavior and real
behavior was wrong and too
simple.
Social Attitudes of the 1930s

It is very important to note that:


Racial and ethnic discrimination existed
It was very widespread, blatant, and socially
accepted
The Beginning…
LaPiere traveled with a young Chinese
couple
 They stayed at the best hotel in a small
town and were politely accommodated
 Two months later he called the hotel
and asked if they would accommodate an
“important Chinese gentleman”
 The answer, which led to
LaPiere’s study, was:

Method

The experiment took place in two parts:


Actual behavior
Assessment of related symbolic attitudes
(questionnaire response)
Real Behavior Phase



LaPiere traveled with the Chinese couple
across the US and up and down the
Pacific coast
He observed the attitudes of bellboys,
elevator operators, hotel clerks, and
waitresses
The couple did not know he was making
observations
Symbolic Behavior Phase


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He mailed questionnaires to all the
places visited, and other places in the
same areas that were not visited
There was a 6 month interval between
the visit and the mailing
Only 51% of the visited establishments
responded
What Happened During Their
Travels?



Of the 251 hotels and restaurants they
patronized, only ONE denied them service.
Most experiences involved average or aboveaverage treatment.
Sometimes treatment was altered due to
curiosity about the couple.
LaPiere’s Ratings of Service
Received at Lodgings
11



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Blue = Above expected
Plum = Good but curious
Yellow = Normal
Green = Racially hesitant
Purple = Embarrassing
Peach = Not accepted
4
11
25
25
LaPiere’s Ratings of Service Received
at Restaurants and Cafes
1
24
5


72
82




Blue = Above expected
Plum = Good but curious
Yellow = Normal
Green = Racially hesitant
Purple = Embarrassing
Peach = Not accepted
Six Months Later…

The responses to a mailed
questionnaire with the
question: “Will you
accept members of the
Chinese race as guests in
your establishment?”
were as follows:
76
75
No
Undecided
43
Yes
30
3 1
6 0
Lodgings
Restaurants
Visited
Visited
2 0
Lodgings
7 1
Restaurants
Not Visited Not Visited
Questionnaire Results and
Comparison

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The results of the questionnaire—what people SAY
they would do—seem to have little to no impact on
how they ACTUALLY behave.
While 90-94% of those surveyed—lodging or
restaurant, visited or not visited—gave unequivocal
NO’s as to whether they would allow Chinese people in
their establishment…
91-97% of those establishments visited gave average
or above-average service!!!
Discussion

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Questionnaires are not a valid method to
assess a person’s true attitude
They are useful to determine people’s
hypothetical attitudes
Field study is a valid method to measure
human behavior in actual social situations
Questionnaires are valid when measuring
symbolic beliefs

i.e. Existence of God
Warnings To Other Researchers

1. Questionnaires are:
Cheap
 Easy to use
 Give quantitative results
 Objective

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2. The study of human behavior is:
Time consuming
 Mentally challenging
 Dependant on observer skills
 Gives qualitative results

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3. It is important to
judge something as
worthy of investigation
and to pursue it rather
than waste valuable time
and effort researching
irrelevant hypotheses.
Criticisms of LaPiere’s Study


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A simple yes/no questionnaire is not a valid
measurement of a person’s attitude regarding
a group of people.
Only half of the places visited responded to
the questionnaire.
After six months, it was possible that the
person responding to the letter was not the
person who met the travelers.
Research Prompted by the Study

Psychologists worked to determine why
attitude assessment fails to predict
behavior.
There are many competing attitudes.
 People may behave in ways that are contrary to
their attitudes because they have no other
choice.
 Social pressure and desire to avoid
embarrassment can influence behavior.

Behavioral Scientists Get
Involved

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They wanted to know under which
conditions would attitude measurements
reliably predict behavior.
They came up with five different
indicators:

Strength of the attitude

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Stability of the attitude

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The stronger you feel about something, the
more likely you are to behave accordingly. The
opposite is also true.
Attitudes that are stable over time better
predict behavior than those that change.
Relevance of the attitude to behavior

Attitude predicts behavior better if the
attitude relates exactly to the behavior of
interest

Salience of the attitude

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The more salient the attitude, the more likely it
is to predict behavior.
Situational pressure

External pressure is so
strong that internal
attitude has little effect
on behavior.
Continuing LaPiere’s Research in
the Present

Testing the effects of psychic readings on
people’s belief in paranormal or extrasensory
phenomena:

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More than 300 subjects were surveyed about personal
experience with psychics.
Nearly 1/3 reported they had attended at least one
psychic reading
Most respondents were impressed with the psychic and
found the information to be accurate, specific, and
personally valuable.
BUT, very few made significant changes in their
behaviors or attitudes based on the psychic’s prediction
NIMBY?!?!?!
It’s a new word related to attitudebehavior research.
 Stands for:

Not
In
My
Back
Yard

What it means is that when an issue receives
widespread support, many people agree that
the project will serve the public good, but
once affected personally they become
opposed to it.
Conclusion

As time has passed and research
methods have become more refined…
There is no longer a question of whether
attitude predicts behavior
 It has been narrowed to exactly how and when
they do so


The beginning of research of the
attitude-behavior connection began with
LaPiere 70 years ago!
Questions

1. How do the behavioral scientists’
conclusions (concerning strength,
stability, relevance, salience of attitude,
and situational pressure) explain
LaPiere’s findings?


2. How could the questionnaire method
be further enhanced for it to be an
accurate tool to study human behavior?
3. What would a questionnaire be able
to measure accurately besides religious
beliefs?

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4. Do you feel this was a well-done
study? Why or why not?
5. What could LaPiere have done
differently for the results of the study
to be more significant?