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A study undertaken during the height of the controversy surrounding the loyalty oath requirement at the U of Calif, to determine the reactions of the student body to the crisis situation. It was assumed that a person's stand on the loyalty oath did not change his general political predispositions, signif group affiliations, newspaper reading habits or participation in the U community. From the Registrar's files every 40th S was selected systematically and interviewed concerning opinions about the loyalty and the non-Communist hiring policy. The study indicates anew that opinion formation tends in large part to be a product of the activation of previous experience and attitudes. S's reacted to the crisis situation largely according to their group affiliations and other background characteristics. The deviant cases suggest that deviation in behavior is a result of being exposed to cross pressures. Liberal S's who read pro-oath newspapers were more likely to support the oath requirements than those reading a paper consistent with their basic political attitudes and vice versa. Another effect of S's exposed to conflicting norms was a relatively high level of ignorance regarding the issues and their background, which may have served the function of reducing clarity, and therefore the intensity of the conflict. This may have accounted for greater lack of knowledge among the pro's than among the antiRegents S's. In every category, S's who were against the Regents, but who had characteristics or were exposed to pressures which made for pro-Regents attitudes, were less likely to sign an anti-oath petition than those with homogeneous anti-Regents characteristics. R. Halpern.

Based on a session of the Fifth annual conference on public opinion research, sponsored by the Am. association for public opinion research and the World association for public opinion research, Lake Forest, Ill., June 15-20, 1950.

'Pluralistic ignorance' appears to mean that members of a group can estimate the distribution of opinions in the group on an issue, but the estimate may be wrong, & wrong in the direction of tradition rather than change. These propositions were tested through 2 surveys in New Orleans, one using a church as the group & the other sampling the entire city. The issue studied was desegregation. S's were asked their own opinions, then their estimate of the views of others in the group. The existence of pluralistic ignorance was demonstrated. When R's guessed that others' opinions might be diff from their own, their guess almost always went in the traditional (ie, pro-segregation) direction. Pro-segregationists showed great inability to believe that others could be anything but pro-segregation; those favoring change were better predictors. 2 discrepant findings appeared: the church, the smaller & more homogeneous group of the 2, showed more pluralistic ignorance than the city; & educated persons in the city sample did no better in assessing opinion than the less-educated. Suggested as a variable to explain these findings is 'level of crystallization' - the city being more crystallized than the church, which was still struggling to define its own position. It is suggested that the existence of pluralistic ignorance may be a factor in prolonging resistance to desegregation in the Deep South, but mostly in uncrystallized situations. This probably means situations where new alternatives are emerging, eg, token segregation as against closed Sch's. AA.

A study of the role of influentials (INF's) in 4 Swedish communities - the industrial communities of Vasteras & Kolsva, the city of Malmo, & the Ru community of Bralanda - to discover to what extent the 2-step hypothesis of COMM is applicable in Sweden, & to examine the soc characteristics of Swedish opinion leaders. The communities, & the nature of the INF's therein, are described & the results of 112 personal interviews with INF's are presented. The general hypothesis is upheld, though 'INF' has been used in this case to designate a group which influence; PO in communities, whereas in many US studies it refers to a group which influences policy decisions. 'One feature which seems to distinguish Swedish communities from US communities is the prominent role played by leaders of the labor org's in the power & influence groups.' This reflects a basic diff between Swedish & US pol'al life. I. Taviss.

Discussed are the kinds of information needed to clarify the role of mass media as channels of communication under varying conditions. This role will be a function of their availability and distribution within an area, which raises two questions: (1) the relation between accessibility and exposure, & (2) the restrictions on accessibility and resistance to exposure in various countries. Restricted accessibility may lead to innovations in distributions such as public listening to radios in Turkish coffee houses, wired radio, and newspaper reading to small groups. This may lead to restrictions on the character of exposure, reducing the number of possible interpretations. Comparative studies of accessibility and exposure need to be supplemented by inquiries into the attitudes which people have toward particular media. Since the content of mass media is often transmitted to people unexposed to the media, the role of informal channels must be studied. The relative importance of different channels is determined by accessibility and by content of material being communicated. Research designs should distinguish people for whom communications perform different functions, e.g., within the same primary group, those who experience greater exposure and use this to develop leadership positions. In areas relying largely on oral channels, different kinds of news are likely to have higher currency than in areas well covered by mass media. Inaccessibility of daily news may lead to certain types being assigned a more enduring value and regarded as still worth learning about weeks later. As more news filters in, the traditional communication structure of many communities is likely to undergo continuous change. It is suggested that interdisciplinary cooperation in the study of comparative communication will increase knowledge of communications as well as individual disciplines. R. S. Halpern.

The role of public opinion in the political process is more often justified than explained by political theorists. Insofar as contemporary theory offers an explanation, it replaces the primitive democratic notion of "The People as Legislator" with a neo-idealistic conception of public opinion as the "sense of the community" (A. D. Lindsay), an emergent product of the process of public discussion that enfolds the struggle of private group leaders, public administrators, and political representatives to influence the substance and direction of governmental policy.However, this is not the meaning of the term as used either by the man in the street or by the social scientist. In both popular and scientific language "public opinion" has come to refer to a sort of secular idol, and is a "god-term" to which citizens, scientists, and office-holders alike pay allegiance, partly as an act of faith, partly as a matter of observation, partly as a condition of sanity. The public opinion idol has its high priests, claiming to be expert translators of the oracles of the personified deity. The idol aIso has its heretics, divided like all protestants into many denominations. The least heretical sect, perhaps, consists of those who postulate a conceptual fiction somewhat resembling the legal relation of "principal-and-agent," except that they recognize that political representatives possess the power to act as trustees as well as agents of their amorphous principal.