COGNITIVE CONSISTENCY AND THE PERCEPTION OF OTHERS' OPINIONS: A METHODOLOGICAL NOTE
In: Public opinion quarterly: journal of the American Association for Public Opinion Research, Band 33, Heft 1, S. 130-131
ISSN: 0033-362X
A rejoinder to SA 0312/D5774. The experiment presented by Don D. Smith is found to not really demonstrate an association between knowledge & opinion. By the laws of logic, awareness of facts must have an association with the honest expression by an individual of his awareness of an existing state of affairs. Smith's exp only demonstrates that the concepts of facts, knowledge, & opinion can properly, from a sci'fic standpoint, be applied to man. These concepts constitute a model which was tested exp'ly in a manner identical to the testing of any logical or mathematical model & found useful. It is implied that this is not a very important discovery. REPLY, by Don D. Smith (Florida State U, Talahassee) states that Jordan misinterpreted the question Smith had asked in his res. Jordan's definition of the key concepts-facts, knowledge, & opinion-is diff from the definition given to these concepts in Smith's res. 'Opinion' in the res is not defined as the 'expression by an individual of his awareness of an existing state of affairs,' as contended by Jordan, but is both theoretically & operationally defined as the individual's pro or con evaluation of some issue. Therefore 'opinion' & 'knowledge' are not necessarily related by definition. Disagreement is voiced with Jordan's apparent proposition that some questions are 'not legitimate' for empirical investigation. M. Maxfield.