Abstract
DR. LOUIS GUTTMAN, associate professor of sociology at Cornell University, has completed a two-year research programme in Israel as a field Fellow of the Social Science Research Council and has been Largely instrumental in the founding of the recently formed Israel Institute of Public Opinion Research. He has been invited to remain in Israel for another year to serve as chief consultant and direct the activities of the Institute, and associated with him will be Dr. Uriel G. Foa, formerly of the Hebrew University, as executive director. Experimental attitude-studies conducted before, during and after the siege of Jerusalem have shown that American techniques and methods of research are equally appropriate for the diverse populations of Israel. In particular, experiments have been successful with scale and quasi-scale theory, and the intensity component for obtaining unbiased results. A new discovery is that of the third component of scalable attitudes (beyond the intensity component) that oscillates twice with respect to the attitude. Other new discoveries relating to experimental methods are in the process of being consolidated. The Institute is at present under Government auspices, and is engaged in a study of the adjustment of new immigrants to Israel. But, in addition to its continuing surveys of public opinion, the Institute will conduct research for civic and private organisations and will undertake special projects in the fields of market research, consumers’ problems, social and civic problems, industrial psychology, and in other areas of a social psychological nature. Future plans include publication of a periodical bulletin in English on the activities and results of the Institute. Communications should be addressed to the Israel Institute of Public Opinion Research, P.O.B. 49, Jaffa, Israel.
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Israel Institute of Public Opinion Research. Nature 164, 214 (1949). https://doi.org/10.1038/164214d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/164214d0