Symbolic and Instrumental Values as Predictors of AIDS Policy Attitudes

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

12-1992

Publication Title

Social Science Quarterly

Volume

73

Issue

4

First page number:

737

Last page number:

749

Abstract

This article presents a study which is conducted to offer an assessment of the relative importance of public health and homophobic attitudes in explaining public opinion about the Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). The findings reported in this study suggest that symbolic and instrumental values both play important roles in accounting for public attitudes toward people with AIDS and policies designed to deal with the AIDS problem. The relative explanatory power of these two sets of variables seems to depend on the precise manner in which the issue is framed. The main finding of this study is very general: public attitudes about AIDS are apparently rather differentiated, and are related to a number of other values and opinions. While attitude towards AIDS is usually related to cultural conservatism in general, and to attitude about homosexuality in particular, there are important senses in which AIDS attitude is related to general attitudes about public health or the appropriate role of government as helper of disadvantaged citizens.

Keywords

AIDS (Disease); AIDS (Disease)--Public opinion; Homophobia; Public health

Disciplines

Gender and Sexuality | Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies | Political Science

Language

English

Permissions

Use Find in Your Library, contact the author, or interlibrary loan to garner a copy of the item. Publisher policy does not allow archiving the final published version. If a post-print (author's peer-reviewed manuscript) is allowed and available, or publisher policy changes, the item will be deposited.


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