Cross-Cultural Comparison of Values and Nuclear War Attitudes

Abstract

This study investigated the cross-cultural differences between 336 Caucasian and 67 American Indian adolescents in a rural area of the Pacific Northwest. Participants completed the Rokeach Value Survey-Form G, the Modified World Affairs Questionnaire, selected items from a nuclear freeze questionnaire, the Nuclear Attitudes Questionnaire, and selected demographic items. American Indians placed a higher priority on the values of family security, social recognition, helpfulness, and obedience than their Caucasian peers and a lower priority on freedom, ambition, independence, and capability than their Caucasian peers. They also demonstrated less pessimism about the effectiveness of civil defense measures, less hesitancy to escalate in a nuclear confrontation, and less pessimism about the effectiveness of actions to bring about a nuclear freeze.