Assumed Attitude Similarity and Perceived Intrafamilial Communication and Understanding

It was hypothesized that offspring assume greater similarity of attitudes between themselves and their parents than is actually present and that degree of assumed similarity correlates positively with the amount of communication and understanding offspring perceive to have with their parents. College students filled out questionnaires assessing their own attitudes for a variety of issues, their beliefs about the attitudes held by their parents on the same issues, and rating-scales for the communication and understanding existing between themselves and each parent. To ascertain the level of actual attitude similarity, parents were mailed questionnaires and asked to return them after indicating their own opinions on each issue. The results showed that both male and female college-age offspring tend to assume more similarity between themselves and parents than there is and that variance in assumed similarity is positively correlated with ratings of communication-understanding with parents. The relevance of these predictions and findings to Newcomb's cognitive-symmetry theory was discussed.