Research shows
that an attitude is not just a single feeling.
More realistically, research shows that an
attitude is actually a range of feelings,
covering several points of view within the
overall scale. So a person may believe several
or even many beliefs about an issue. The
breakthrough in measurement came when the
researchers developed and tested the concept of
Latitudes
Latitude of
Acceptance is the position on an issue that is
most acceptable, plus other acceptable
positions.
Latitude of
Rejection is the most objectionable position on
the same issue, plus other objectionable
positions.
Latitude of
Noncommitment is all of those positions
not
judged either way.
The sizes of
these tell us how much radical hearing is going
on. In any unbiased judgments, they should be
about equal in how often the person uses them to
judge attitudes and opinions. But when the
latitude of noncommitment is small (because
radical hearers feel that they have to judge
everything) and the latitude of rejection is
large (because nothing pleases them), then you
can see the closed-mindedness and intolerance
typical of radical hearing. The
next page
provides the scientific evidence for how these
latitudes appear in radical hearing. The
bars can go from zero percent to 100% of the
judgments in each lattitude.
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