EASE OF INDIVIDUAL JUDGMENT-PROCESSES IN RELATION TO POLARIZATION OF ATTITUDES IN THE CULTURE.

In this article the author remarks that although the term, polarization, has been used with slightly varying connotations, the common essence of meaning seems to be action or thought which occurs in extremes. In individual behavior it has signified the tendency for a person to think or act on what might be called an all or none basis. Polarization has been shown to be closely related to emotion, as for example, in the highly affective reaction given today to such stereotypes as communist and fascist. The term has also been used in a more sociological sense, as the tendency for behavior in a group or culture to be restricted to a small portion of a possible range of response. The latter use of the term implies that the majority of the individuals. Although it is obvious that many relationships exist between such sociological patterns and individual thinking, any theories as to the nature of individual thinking based on such data must be rather inferential. The purpose of the present study is to analyze one possible relationship between cultural stereotypes and individual thinking.