Abstract

At the end of the last chapter the degree of reality assessment characteristic attitudes was briefly discussed. It was concluded that the beliefs characteristic of an attitude are sometimes demonstrably false as in the belief that, for example, most barbers are Italian, and sometimes demonstrably true as in the belief that, for example, Chinese eat more rice per capita than do Norwegians. This raises the more general issue of how to assess the reality of social perception and how that reality is perceived by the social scientist who would explain it in predictive terms. In short, not only the validity of social perception, but the way we explain social perception is challenged by what we know about the way attitudes function, since social scientists function within the same social perceptive milieu. The most severe challenge derived from those who espoused what came to be called "deconstruction."