The effects of affective and cognitive treatment on attitude change toward ethnic minority groups

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of cognitive and affective treatments on the attitudes of white university students in Hawaii (a place where many ethnic minority groups live with little overt discrimination and where no one racial group, such as the whites, is in the majority) toward ethnic minority groups. It was hypothesized that the rank order of the groups from most favorable to least favorable in social distance and attitude for and against ethnic minority groups, would be: Affective Treatment, Cognitive Treatment, Hawaii Control, and Mainland Comparison Group. The Social Distance Scale and Prejudice and Rationality Scale were used as pretest and posttest instruments in the Fall, 1980 with 94 Brigham Young University—Hawaii Campus (BYU—HC)and30 Brigham Young University (BYU) in Utah undergraduate students. Analysis of covariance led to supporting the three hypotheses at the 0.01 significance level. It was found that the Affective Treatment Group consistently had a greater change in attitude toward ethnic minorities followed by the Cognitive, Hawaii Control, and Mainland Comparison Groups. It was concluded that the affective treatment was the most effective in changing attitudes toward ethnic minority groups.