Choosing Equality: The Correspondence Between Attitudes About Race and the Value of Equality

In the last 25 years Americans have changed many of the beliefs they hold about racial equality. Schuman, Steeh, and Bobo (1985) have noted that Americans seem to have become increasingly supportive of racial integration during the 1970s and early 1980s, but that their support of specific policies to bring about integration has been ambiguous. Rokeach and Ball‐Rokeach (1988) have observed that the priority that Americans assign to equality as a terminal value fell throughout the 1970s. We argue that to more fully understand beliefs about race that seem paradoxical it is important to understand the way that beliefs are conceptualized and measured. This is especially true if one wishes to use attitudes or values as indicators of future behavior. We conclude that the concept of values developed by Rokeach (1973) offers a better basis for gauging public sentiment toward social policies and toward day‐to‐day living in an integrated society.