Moral boundaries and deviant music: public attitudes toward heavy metal and rap

Since the mid-1980s, collective efforts to define deviant music have focused increasingly on two genres-heavy metal and rap music. Most of these claims assert that heavy metal and rap music represent a type of audio pornography that endorses sexist, violent, and anti-religious behaviors. While scholarly research has addressed a number of issues related to this controversy, few, if any, have examined negative attitudes toward heavy metal and rap music within the general public. Our research uses data from the 1993 General Social Survey to examine the determinants of public attitudes against heavy metal and rap music. Along with selected control variables, we include a number of measures that reflect the claims-making rhetoric of social movement organizations and other moral entrepreneurs. Our analysis focuses on evaluating the degree to which these claims are related to shared attitudes within the general population.     

Humility attenuates negative attitudes and behaviors toward religious out-group members

Humility is marked by the regulation of selfish impulses for the sake of others, including holding a modest view of one’s beliefs (and their relative strengths and weaknesses). In three studies, we evaluated the extent to which humility attenuates negative attitudes, behavioral intentions, and behaviors toward religious out-group members. In Study 1 (N = 159), humility regarding religious beliefs was associated with positive attitudes toward religiously different individuals. In Study 2 (N = 149), relational and intellectual humility were associated with less aggressive behavioral intentions in a hypothetical situation in which their cherished beliefs were criticized. In Study 3 (N = 62), participants implicitly primed with humility administered significantly less hot sauce (a behavioral measure of aggression) to a religious out-group member who criticized their cherished views relative to participants in the neutral prime condition. We highlight the importance of humility in promoting positive attitudes and behaviors toward religious out-group members.     

Young adults' media use and attitudes toward interpersonal and institutional forms of aggression

Links between media violence exposure and favorable attitudes toward interpersonal violence are well established, but few studies have examined whether associations extend to include favorable attitudes toward institutional forms of aggression. Studies on this topic have not assessed multiple forms of media use and statistically controlled for individual characteristics likely to influence attitudes beyond sociodemographic information. In this study, undergraduate students (N=319) aged 18-20 years (56% male) completed a survey assessing media use (number of hours per week spent playing videogames, watching movies/TV shows, watching TV sports) and attitudes toward interpersonal violence, punitive criminal justice policies, and different types of military activities (preparedness/defense and aggressive intervention). Greater number of hours spent watching TV contact sports was associated with more favorable attitudes toward military preparedness/defense, aggressive military intervention, and punitive criminal justice policies among men independently of parental education, lifetime violence exposure within the home and community, aggressive personality, and constrained problem solving style. Greater number of hours spent watching violent movies/TV was associated with more favorable attitudes toward military preparedness/defense among men and with more favorable attitudes toward interpersonal violence and punitive criminal justice policies among women, but these associations became non-significant when adjusting for covariates.     

Group identification moderates attitudes toward ingroup members who confront discrimination

Three studies examined the hypothesis that group identification moderates African Americans’, Asian Americans’, and women’s attitudes toward fellow ingroup members who challenge an outgroup member’s discriminatory comments or who do not speak up about the comments. Highly identified racial minorities expressed more positive attitudes toward ingroup members who confronted discriminatory comments compared to those who did not confront; whereas weakly identified minorities did not express different attitudes across the two conditions. Among women, the weakly identified expressed more negative attitudes toward other women who confronted discrimination relative to those who did not confront; whereas highly identified women did not differentially evaluate ingroup members in the two conditions. The less women identified with their group, the more negatively they evaluated ingroup members who confronted sexism. This research highlights the important role of group identification in understanding how members of devalued groups respond toward ingroup members who take a stand against discrimination.     

The relative importance of gender role attitudes to male and female attitudes toward lesbians

Previous studies suggest that gender role attitudes, parental attitudes, authoritarianism, religiosity, contact with homosexuals, and exposure to educational influences are associated with attitudes toward homosexuals. Few studies have been conducted on attitudes toward lesbians specifically. This study investigated the pattern of predictors for male and female attitudes toward lesbians. The regression analysis on males revealed that gender role attitudes were the only significant predictor, while gender role attitudes, parental attitudes, authoritarianism, and educational and media influences made a contribution to female attitudes toward lesbians. Despite more liberal gender role attitudes expressed by female respondents, there was no difference between male and female attitudes toward lesbians. This finding and the additional contribution to female attitudes toward lesbians made by the other predictors besides gender role attitudes suggests that the female respondents' development of attitudes toward lesbians is a product of a wider array of variables, with gender role attitudes playing a more central role in the development of male attitudes toward lesbians. Nevertheless, the importance of gender role attitudes to both male and female attitudes toward lesbians suggests that stratification by sex might be an underlying variable for both gender role attitudes and attitudes toward lesbians.The author wishes to thank Esther Sales, Gary Koeske, Barbara Shore, and Randi Koeske for their guidance with the research study. Much thanks also to Katherine M. Bezak for assistance with editing this and earlier drafts of this article.     

Influence of value predispositions,interpersonal contact,and mediated exposure on public attitudes toward homosexuals in Singapore

This national survey tracks changes in Singaporeans' attitudes toward lesbians and gay men (ATLG) and examines value predispositions, interpersonal contact, and mediated exposure as predictors of ATLG and acceptance of homosexuals. The study replicates and extends research done previously and addresses temporal shifts in values and views. Findings indicate that the relatively small positive change in ATLG from 2005 to 2010 was mainly due to values and demographic factors. The addition of several new predictive variables increased the variance explained for why people hold certain ATLG and their acceptance. Conformity to norms, intrinsic religiosity, Western orientation, interpersonal contact, and mediated exposure were significantly associated with both ATLG and acceptance of homosexuals. Perception of homosexuality as a choice was significantly associated with ATLG but not with acceptance of homosexuals. Asian orientation and extrinsic religiosity showed no significant association with either dependent variable. The findings are discussed in the context of a multicultural Asian society and future directions for research.     

Perceived intergroup threat and attitudes of host community members toward immigrant acculturation

The authors expected the extent to which host community members (a) perceive immigrants as threatening, (b) believe that the immigrants are able to assimilate to the host community (permeability), and (c) consider their presence in the host community as legitimate to predict attitudes towards immigrant acculturation. The authors designed Study 1 to examine attitudes of Germans toward Turkish immigrants. Participants were 227 German white-collar and blue-collar workers. As expected, ethnocentric acculturation attitudes positively correlated with perceived threat and negatively correlated with perceived legitimacy and perceived permeability. However, only perceived threat contributed uniquely to the prediction of the attitudes. In Study 2, the authors applied an experimental manipulation of perceived threat. Before answering attitude questions, participants read magazine articles with a threatening, enriching, or irrelevant content. The manipulation had the predicted impact on the self-reported attitudes toward immigrants. However, the salience of threatening or enriching aspects of the Turkish culture did not affect implicitly measured attitudes.     

Sports ideology,attitudes toward women,and anti-homosexual attitudes

The present work tests the associations of sports ideology with sexist and anti-homosexual attitudes in a sample of 304 college students. It was found that sports ideology is positively associated with sexist and anti-homosexual attitudes, but only among males. Among females only sexist attitudes were associated with negative attitudes toward gays and lesbians. Among males, the link of sports ideology to anti-homosexual attitudes was independent of sexist beliefs. Reciprocal causal influences between sexist attitudes and sports ideology are discussed.     

Motives to (not) forgive deviant group members: A comparison within and between cultures

This study examines people's motives to (not) forgive group members who violate an important group norm. More specifically, we attempt to determine what is the primary focus in such a situation (the group, the offender, the relationship, or the self), and whether this depends on how important the group is and on the cultural context (more individualist or more collectivist). Our sample includes Moluccans living in Indonesia (more collectivist) and Moluccans in the Netherlands (more individualist). Participants were asked to evaluate a scenario in which a group member (close or nonclose other) violated an important group norm. We find that Indonesian Moluccans are more likely not to forgive group members who violate a group norm than Dutch Moluccans. This finding suggests that the group is more important to Indonesian Moluccans. Across the two samples, however, participants were more inclined to forgive an ingroup deviant for the benefit of this person or their relationship than for the benefit of the group. Interestingly, self‐focused concerns were more important among Indonesian Moluccans and differences between the samples in the relative importance of the different motives could not be explained by people's self‐definition (i.e., more independent or interdependent). Implications of these findings for the literature on forgiveness and on individualism–collectivism are discussed.     

Cultural evolution: interpersonal influence, issue importance, and the development of shared attitudes in college residence halls

This article investigates cultural evolution in four college residence halls. Up to four attitude surveys were completed by 1,252 participants in a semester. Participants' attitudes became more similar to those living closest to them over time as a result of localized interpersonal influence processes. Correlations between attitudes also increased with time as these cultural attributes grew increasingly interdependent. These basic findings support the predictions of dynamic social impact theory. However, these effects were stronger for more important issues even when controlling for discussion. These findings are likely the result of (a) individual-level selective attention to personally important information, (b) greater attitude-behavior consistency for important issues, and/or (c) nonlinear attitude change processes for important issues as suggested by the catastrophe theory of attitudes. These results suggest that intrapsychic processes as well as interpersonal processes contribute to cultural evolution.     

Patterns and determinants of attitudes of psychiatric residents toward group therapy

The nature and origins of psychiatric residents' attitudes toward group psychotherapy were assessed by means of a semistructured interview. Subjects were 10 PGY-4 residents from five different residency training programs. Questions focused on subjects' perceptions of the possibilities and limitations of group therapy as a treatment modality, the efficacy and dangers of combined and conjoint treatment, the nature and extent of their training experiences in group approaches, the salient characteristics of their group therapy teachers and supervisors, and the attitudes of faculty about group psychotherapy that they were able to infer. Results suggest enormous variability of residents' attitudes. Hypotheses about the reasons for such variability are offered.     

Predicting negative spousal attitudes toward depressed persons: a test of Coyne's interpersonal model

The utility of Coyne's (1976a) interactional model in predicting negative spousal attitudes toward depressed patients was examined. Eighty-nine couples with at least 1 member in treatment for depression were selected on the basis of semistructured diagnostic interviews. Overall, spouses living with a depressed patient reported significantly more distress than population norms. Consistent with prediction, patients' reassurance seeking and spouses' mood contributed to negative spousal attitudes. Additional analyses demonstrated that these effects persisted even after controlling for spouse marital adjustment, suggesting that negative spousal attitudes were more than a simple reflection of marital maladjustment.     

Family,gender, and attitudes toward retirement

The relationships between marital status, proximity of children, and attitudes toward retirement of 432 men and 373 women on the verge of retirement were studied. Three dimensions of attitudes were examined: attitudes toward losses associated with retirement, toward gains in entering retirement, and toward gains in leaving work. Women hold significantly more positive attitudes toward both types of gains; there are no gender differences concerning attitudes toward losses. The married of both sexes perceive more gains in entering retirement. Proximity of children is curvilinearly related to gain in entering retirement, especially among women. Attitudes toward losses and gains in leaving work are not associated with familial state. The meaning of work and the myth of the primacy of family for women are discussed.This paper draws on research supported by Grant Number 1 R01 AG 05206-01 from the National Institute on Aging.