Motion Pictures and the Social Attitudes of Children

 Chapter 1: Preliminary Studies

Ruth C. Peterson & L.L. Thurstone

Table of Contents | Next | Previous

THE first experiment was conducted in April, 1929, with the coöperation of Hyde Park High School and the Tower Theater of Chicago. The experiment was set up to study the effect of motion pictures on the children's attitudes toward race and nationality. The attitudes of the high school students toward a number of nationalities were measured by a paired comparison schedule given on April 22, 1929. The directions and a sample of the schedule appear below.

AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF RACIAL ATTITUDES
Write your name here  
Boy or girl  
Father born in (Name of country)
Mother born in (Name of country)
This is an experimental study of attitudes toward races and nationalities. You are asked merely to underline the one nationality, or race, of each pair that you would rather associate with.
For example, the first pair is:
Englishman-South American
If, in general, you prefer to associate with Englishmen rather than with South Americans, underline Englishman. If you prefer, in general, to associate with South Americans, underline South Americans.


(2)

South American. If you find it difficult to decide for any pair, simply underline one of them anyway. If two nationalities are about equally well liked, they will have about the same number of underlinings in all of the papers. Be sure to underline one of each pair even if you have to make a sort of guess.
Englishman-South American Negro-Pole
Japanese-Jew Hollander-Scotchman
Swede-Belgian Irishman-Russian
Russian-Armenian Austrian- Pole
Belgian-Negro Greek-Jew
Japanese-Spaniard Frenchman-Russian
Spaniard-Chinaman Austrian-Japanese
Jew-Hindu Jew-Italian

There were 23 nationalities in the list and a total of 237 comparisons of the type indicated above.

During the following week, which was the week of spring vacation, four motion pictures were shown at special performances at the Tower Theater. The children had been given tickets which were to be signed and presented for admittance to the theater. The films shown were

(1) "The Jazz-Singer," chosen as a picture which might affect the children's attitudes toward the Jews, shown on April 29.

(2) "Michael Strogoff," chosen as a picture which might affect the children's attitudes toward the Russians, shown on April 30.

(3 & 4) "Four Sons" and "The Emden," two pictures which might affect attitude toward the Germans, shown on May 1 and May 2 respectively.

The paired comparison schedule was given again at the school the following Monday, May 6. As indicated in the directions, the children were asked to underline the nationality of each pair which they preferred to associate with. The results were tabulated, and the proportion of students who preferred nationality A to nationality B was calculated for each pair. With these proportions, the scale value of


( 3) each nationality was calculated by the law of comparative judgment. These scale values, representing the attitudes of the children toward each nationality before they saw the motion pictures, were compared with scale values similarly calculated for the group after they saw the motion pictures. The shifts in attitude were in general in the expected direction, but the differences were not statistically significant.

Considering the fact that it was difficult to obtain pictures which had not previously played in theaters which were available to the students in a Chicago high school, it was thought advisable to carry on the subsequent experiments in small towns where the children are less sophisticated as far as motion pictures are concerned and where the population is more homogeneous. With the exception of the study at Thomas Aquinas High School, the rest of the experiments were carried on in small towns in Illinois.

In the second experiment, a group of children from Thomas Aquinas High School were invited to the Burton Holmes lecture on Italy which was given in Orchestra Hall, Chicago, on March 15, 1930. A paired comparison of nationalities, of which the following is a sample, was given in the school the week previous to the lecture and was given in Orchestra Hall immediately after the lecture. In this case each of the 14 nationalities was paired with every other, making a total of 91 comparisons.

A STUDY OF NATIONALITY PREFERENCES
Write your name here  
Boy or girl  
Father born in (Name of country)
 Mother born in (Name of country)
This is a study of attitudes toward nationalities. You are asked to underline the one nationality of each pair that you would rather associate with. For example, the first pair is:


(4)

Englishman-Armenian
If, in general, you prefer to associate with Englishmen rather than with Armenians, underline Englishman. If you prefer, in general, to associate with Armenians, underline Armenian. If you find it difficult to decide for any pair, be sure to underline one of them anyway. If two nationalities are about equally well liked, they will have about the same number of underlinings in all of the papers. Be sure to underline one of each pair even if you have to guess.
Englishman-Armenian Greek- Pole
Swede-Belgian German-Austrian
Russian-Armenian Irishman-German
Armenian-Italian Irishman-Belgian
Armenian-Irish Swede-Armenian
Swede-Russian Greek-Irishman
Russian-Austrian Irishman-Frenchman
Armenian-Spaniard German-Armenian

The experiment showed a slight change in attitude favorable to Italians, but the change was not statistically significant. The experiment was incidental, but was carried on because the subjects and lecture were readily available.

Notes

No notes

Valid HTML 4.01 Strict Valid CSS2