The Scottish Government

« Previous | Contents | Next »

Listen

CHAPTER TWO ATTITUDES TOWARDS PREJUDICE

Introduction

2.1 Before looking at attitudes in the specific fields of family relationships, employment and the provision of goods and services, we look first at responses to a question designed to tap whether an individual is inclined towards a discriminatory point of view in general. The answers to this question will give us an initial indication of the extent to which a discriminatory outlook appears to be common place in Scotland, and the kinds of people amongst whom such a point of view appears to be more common. In subsequent chapters we will find this question particularly useful in helping us to understand the character of some of the more specific discriminatory attitudes that we examine.

Is prejudice acceptable?

2.2 The question asked people to choose which of the following two options was closest to their point of view:

Scotland should do everything it can to get rid of all kinds of prejudice
or
Sometimes there is good reason for people to be prejudiced against certain groups.

2.3 In indicating that they feel that sometimes someone might have reasonable cause to be prejudiced against a particular group or groups of people, those who give the latter response are taken to be indicating that they are inclined in some circumstances at least to adopt a discriminatory attitude as defined in the previous chapter.

2.4 Only a minority of people in Scotland (29%) support that latter response. Nearly two-thirds (65%) take the view that Scotland should attempt to eradicate all prejudice. It would seem that the majority of people in Scotland do not hold a discriminatory outlook, and that the tenor of Great Britain's anti-discrimination legislation is in tune with majority public opinion north of the border. On the other hand, the minority that does avowedly support the right of people to be prejudiced against certain groups is sufficiently large that we cannot rule out the possibility that some groups at least may in some circumstances be the objects of quite widespread discriminatory attitudes.

2.5 One characteristic above all stands out as distinguishing between those who are most likely and those who are least likely to say that sometimes there is good reason to be prejudiced (see Table 2.1). Less than one in five (17%) of those who have a university degree say that sometimes there is good reason. In contrast amongst those with no education, more than twice as many support that view.

Table 2.1 Attitudes to prejudice by highest educational qualification

2.6 This finding is not only in line with what we found when we asked this question in the 2002 social attitudes survey (Bromley and Curtice, 2003), but also accords with a wider body of research that finds that the more highly educated someone is, the more likely it is that they are to adopt a 'liberal' attitude to social and moral issues (see, for example, Evans 2002). Higher levels of education both widen the range of experiences that an individual encounters and also foster a 'critical' approach to thinking that probably discourages belief in moral absolutes; both these characteristics would seem more likely to encourage someone to be more 'tolerant' of difference, if not indeed to welcome it.

2.7 Nevertheless, we should note that the higher levels of support for prejudice recorded amongst those with fewer or no qualifications are only relative. Even amongst those with no qualifications at all, a majority (55%) say that Scotland should try to get rid of all kinds of prejudice. It therefore might be argued that there is something approaching a consensus across Scottish society that prejudice - and by implication discriminatory attitudes - are unacceptable.

2.8 Indeed, in other respects there are few differences in the pattern of response to our question across different sections of Scottish society. As we might anticipate, given that younger people are more likely to have been in receipt of higher education, those in younger age groups (though not those in the very youngest) are for the most part slightly less likely to say that sometimes there is good reason to be prejudiced. The differences though are small; one in four (25%) of those aged between 25 and 44 say that sometimes there is reason to be prejudiced, compared with one in three (33%) of those aged 65 or over. Meanwhile there is no clear evidence that those who attend a religious service regularly (irrespective of religion or denomination) have different views from those who do not. At the same time there is no more than the slightest hint that women may be less likely than men to hold a discriminatory outlook; there is a three point difference between them, but this is not statistically significant, that is we cannot rule out the possibility that it exists in our survey by chance, rather than because men and women in Scotland really do hold somewhat different views.

Table 2.2 Attitudes to prejudice by age, gender, and religion

Conclusion

2.9 It appears that only a minority of people in Scotland hold an avowedly discriminatory outlook. However, such an outlook is not particularly the preserve of one section of Scottish society, but rather is held in much the same proportions across all sections of Scottish society. The only clear exception to this is that those who have received less education are noticeably more likely to say that sometimes prejudice is acceptable; though even amongst this group this view is still upheld by only a minority.

2.10 In the chapters that follow, where we look at a wide range of measures of people's attitudes towards particular groups in specific circumstances, we would usually expect to find that those who say that there is good reason to be prejudiced are more likely than those who do not to express discriminatory attitudes. Where that is the case, this will suggest that the attitude in question is in part at least the product of a more general discriminatory outlook. If, however, we should find in some instances that this is not the case then we might conclude that the character of that attitude is distinctive and perhaps arises for rather different reasons.

2.11 Equally, we would expect to find that those in receipt of less education will usually be particularly likely to express a discriminatory attitude in response to our more specific questions. In contrast, if we find differences of attitude between other kinds of group, it is more likely that they will reflect a specific attitude towards a particular group or set of circumstances. As a result we might conclude that the character of the attitude in question is again at least somewhat distinctive.

Key points

• Only a minority of people - 29% - believe that sometimes there is good reason to be prejudiced against certain groups.
• The pattern varies little across most groups in society. The one exception is that the fewer educational qualifications someone has, the more likely they are to say there is sometimes good reason to be prejudiced.
• In later chapters looking at how people's general attitude to prejudice is linked to their views on more specific topics will prove a helpful way of gauging whether their views on those topics are part of an underlying discriminatory outlook or arise for different reasons.

« Previous | Contents | Next »