THE 1964 CIVIL DEFENSE POSTURES: PUBLIC RESPONSE
Abstract
The paper presents an investigation into perceptions of desirability and probability of certain alternative Civil Defense programs. It is one of a series of papers based on data from a University of Pittsburgh national study entitled Civil Defense and Cold War Attitudes, conducted during mid-1964 with a probability sample of 1464 Americans. The focus of the paper is the list of six possible Civil Defense programs, called Postures, presented in the questionnaire. Desirability and probability evaluations were run against other relevant Civil Defense, Cold War and personal characteristic variables in order to attempt to determine the extent and character of support for these differing types of programs. The vast majority of the respondents found all six Postures to be desirable and probable. Between 64.9% and 74.1% assessed each Posture as highly desirable and 42.3% consistently rated every Posture as highly desirable. Although the Postures differed in the type of program suggested, the evaluations given to them were very much the same. Further, fewoof the variables against which these evaluations were run yielded any explanation of the causes of support. It was concluded that these consistently high evaluations reflected a faith in the government and in any program that it might endorse.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 01, 1965
- Accession Number
- AD0622099
Entities
People
- Martha W. Anderson
Organizations
- University of Pittsburgh