Syracuse University Self-Survey Opinion Battery

Sending letters and telegrams to congressmen has little influence on legislation.

Political parties are run by insiders who are not concerned with public opinion.

When the public is really concerned about an issue, its judgment is usually correct and unassailable, no matter how complex the issue.

In some elections there is not much point in voting because the outcome is fairly certain.

Pressure groups are useful and important features of representative government.

On most issues we should expect our representatives to vote according to their convictions, even though they may not always reflect the opinion of their constituents.

The best government is one which governs least.

Democracy depends fundamentally on the existence of free business enterprise.

Communism and Fascism are basically and historically similar.

The most serious danger to democracy in this country comes from Communists and Communist-dominated organizations.

Government planning should be strictly limited, for it almost inevitably results in the loss of essential liberties and freedom.

Individual liberty and justice under law are not possible in Socialist countries.

All Americans—Negroes, Jews, the foreign born, and others—should have equal opportunity in social, economic, and political affairs.

Familiarity breeds contempt.

Foreigners usually have peculiar and annoying habits.

Children of minority groups or other races should play among themselves.

Most children, these days, need more discipline.

Agitators and trouble-makers are more likely to be foreign born than native Americans.

We are not likely to have lasting peace until the U. S. and the Allies are stronger than all the other countries.

If we lower our tariffs to permit more foreign goods in this country, we will lower our standard of living.

Deep ideological differences between countries are irreconcilable.

If we allow more immigrants into this country, we will lower our standards of culture.

The United Nations should have the right to make conclusions which would bind members to a course of action.

Over the next decade, we must try to make the standard of living in the rest of the world rise more rapidly than in our own country.

The predictions of economists about the future are no better than guesses.

Doctors’ diagnoses of illnesses turn out to be wrong almost as often as right.

Parents know as much about how to teach children as public school teachers know.

The findings of psychologists are not helpful in fitting workers to jobs.

Contemporary painters, designers, playwrights, and musicians are engaged in work as important as my own.

A person in a skilled trade is worth as much to society as one in a profession.

There are many worthwhile and important concepts which can not be proved scientifically.

The harnessing of atomic energy will bring about fundamental changes in our economic and social order.

The government should promote and subsidize research in the social sciences.

There will be as many or more scientific discoveries, inventions, and technological changes in the world during the next fifty years as there were during the past fifty years.

We now have enough scientific and technological knowledge to substantially eliminate poverty, disease, and ignorance in the world, if we would only apply our knowledge.

The government should promote and subsidize research in the physical and biological sciences.

What one does with his life is not very important, except to oneself.

If the goal is worthwhile, almost any method is justified in attaining it.

Personal integrity of conduct and continuous searching for truth are the most important goals in life for me.

A contract is morally binding; one should never default on his pledged word.

Religion has little to offer intelligent, scientific people today.

The greatest satisfactions in life for me come from financial success, influence, and prestige.

What is good and bad in music is a matter of personal taste.

The tendency of some modern composers to use strange harmonies and discords makes poor music.

Music is a form of expression which normal people are not capable of understanding.

The main thing about good music is its lovely melodies.

There has been little or no outstanding music composed in the 20th century.

Radio should give people much more opportunity to hear good serious music.

What is good and bad in art is a matter of personal taste.

Art is a side line, not part of the main business of life.

Modern painting—impressionism, expressionism, cubism, surrealism and the rest—is mostly the work of crackpots.

Many paintings which were considered radical at the first are regarded as classics today.

New houses should be built of modern design rather than Colonial, Cape Cod, Spanish or some older style.

Electric lighting fixtures should not look like candles.

Writers who use a different and cryptic style such as Gertrude Stein or James Joyce—should not be taken seriously.

Good writing by promising young writers is more likely to be found in Harpers or the Atlantic Monthly than in Colliers or The Saturday Evening Post.

Literature should not question the basic moral concept of society.

Hollywood versions of novels or plays are usually as good as the originals.

The current list of best sellers in fiction and non-fiction does not provide a very good index of literary merit.

Literature should be judged primarily by its contribution to our understanding of the social order.