LaPiere - hospitality study

LaPiere → background → Richard LaPiere

• 1899: Born in USA, Sergeant in WWI

• 1926/7: B.A. in Economics & M.A in Sociology, Stanford

• 1927-28: Studies at London School of Economics

• 1930: Ph.D. in Sociology, Stanford University 

• 1941: California Book Award for fiction work 

LaPiere → background → Attitudes

• LaPiere - attitudes were actions 

  • “A social attitude is a behaviour pattern [exhibited in response to] designated social situations”

• can measure actions simply by asking people about their attitudes?

LaPiere → background → Common assumptions

• people believe attitudes predict behaviour 

• LaPiere disagreed

  • Using questionnaires tested link between symbolic (verbal) & non-symbolic (behavioural) responses to an attitude object

  • Hotel policies reflected public majority

• Found more policies in the UK excluded non-Whites than in France

  • Policies are still verbal responses rather than attitudes

LaPiere → study → US attitudes to chinese in 1930s

• Chinese immigration restricted

  • barred from land ownership

• Intermarriage with other races forbidden

• Strong stereotypes against Chinese immigrants

  • Depicted as untrustworthy characters

LaPiere → study → methods

• LaPiere travelled across the US with Chinese couple

  • visited 251 establishments

• concerned about the group’s treatment → but

  • only refused service once

  • received “more than ordinary consideration” in 72/184

• sent a questionnaire to 250 establishments 6 months after

  • received 128 responses (51%) & 128 not visited by the group

“Will you accept members of the Chinese race as guests in your establishment?”

LaPiere → study → results

• No

  • visited = 118

  • not visited = 113

• Not sure 

  • visited = 9

  • not visited = 1

• Yes

  • visited = 1

  • not visited = 1

LaPiere → study → interpretation

• Only a verbal reaction to a symbolic situation is secured by the questionnaire

  • only indicates behaviour in a hypothetical situation & doesn't guarantee a corresponding action

• survey answers reflected prejudiced attitudes → not actual observed behaviour 

LaPiere → Debate & controversy → Generalisability

• Research from the 1980/2020s shows opposite inconsistency in attitudes & behaviour

  • Many white people say they aren’t prejudiced

  • Discrimination of other ethnic groups is still very evident

• e.g against people with Arab/Black names in the rental market

LaPiere → Debate & controversy → methodological issues

• 6-month gap between observed actions & reported attitudes

  • Attitudes may change over time (not this fast)

• Did responses come from the same person? (waiter/owner)

• LaPiere’s presence → couple served 31 times in LaPiere’s absence

• Chinese couple didn’t conform to stereotype

  • was personable & charming, well-dressed, spoke in unaccented English

• Survey question and observed attitudes were different 

  • Survey: “Will you accept members of the Chinese race”

  • Observed: "Do you accept a “well-dressed/spoken, pleasant, Chinese couple accompanied by educated European/American gentleman”

LaPiere → Debate & controversy → conceptual issues

• Did LaPiere measure an attitude in his survey?

  • Attitude is positive or negative evaluation of an attitude object  

  • Attitude rating: Rate the item “Serving a Chinese couple” on a scale from very negative/positive  

  • Behavioural intention: Would you accept a Chinese couple

• Norms of politeness

  • Do norms of politeness in face-to-face interactions outweigh social norms that express societal prejudice?

  • Were norms of politeness salient when the letter was answered?

LaPiere → Debate & controversy → ethics

• Lack of informed consent by

  • Chinese couple

  • service providers 

• When is it possible to observe behaviour without announcing that it is being observed?

LaPiere → impact & legacy → impact

• Attitude-behaviour relationship is not a simple

• Other variables influence the relationship between attitudes and behaviour (moderator variables)

  • Theory of Reasoned Action

    • attitudes towards behaviour & subjective norms result in behaviour based on relative importance

  • Theory of Planned Behavior

    • attitudes toward the behaviour, subjective norms & perceived behavioural control results in intentions & behaviour

LaPiere → impact & legacy → measuring attitudes

• The Principle of Compatibility or Correspondence

  • have to specify what an action is

  • who is Target

  • what is the context to the behaviour

    • Attitude & behaviour need to be measured at the same level of specificity or generality

LaPiere → impact & legacy → Principle of Compatibility or Correspondence example

• Analysis of the correlation between married women's attitudes towards birth control & their actual use of oral contraceptives during the 2 years following the study

  • ‘Attitude on birth control‘: r = .08

  • ‘Attitudes on using oral contraceptives‘: r = .53

  • ‘Attitudes on using oral contraceptives during the next two years‘: r = .57

• must specify the behaviour to get a better response

LaPiere → impact & legacy → privacy paradox

• Attitude - Most people think formal websites (e.g. organisations) are more secure than informal websites (e.g., bloggers).

• Behaviour - People are more likely to disclose private information (e.g., sex life, drug taking, cheating) on informal websites than on formal ones.

LaPiere → impact & legacy → explicit vs implicit attitudes

• Explicit vs implicit attitudes

  • Explicit attitudes → “what people state out loud”

    • Thought to be in conscious awareness and under conscious control 

    • Assessed directly via surveys

  • Implicit attitudes → “what people feel inside” 

    • Thought to be outside of conscious awareness and conscious control

    •  Assessed directly via surveys Assessed indirectly via reaction time tasks (e.g. Implicit Association Test (IAT)

LaPiere → conclusion

• LaPiere was disappointed by the lack of impact of his research

  • didn't discourage the use of paper-and-pencil tests in social investigation

• continues to shape the field's direction

• Efforts persist in developing measures to capture attitudes more comprehensively

• Focus on understanding when and why attitudes predict behaviour

• The emphasis remains on behavioural measures