THE BACKGROUND OF PUBLIC OPINION IN COSTA RICA.

This article focuses on the background of public opinion in Costa Rica. Costa Rica, a nation about the size of West Virginia, lies on the Central American mainland, between Panama and Nicaragua. The reaction of an individual to a new object in the social environment is dependent not merely upon the objective nature of that event but upon how the individual perceives it, what he relates it to in his previous experience, and what it means to him personally. To Costa Ricans, then, Pan-Americanism or Inter-Americanism is a real psychological fact, much more of a real fact than it is to people in the US. The future historian may find it surprising, though commendable, that the government of the U.S. has so earnestly promoted a doctrine of Pan-Americanism, for that doctrine does not flow so readily from the attitudes of the general public in this country as it may elsewhere. With respect to the Costa Ricans' stereotyped impressions about members of other nationalities, there is one point that is especially worth mentioning because of its pertinence to the possible training of Americans who go to work abroad.