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The Misdirected Letter and the Quasi‐Questionnaire: Unobtrusive Measures of Prejudice in Northern Ireland
Author(s) -
Kremer John,
Barry Robert,
McNally Andrew
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/j.1559-1816.1986.tb01142.x
Subject(s) - prejudice (legal term) , communication source , northern ireland , social psychology , psychology , sociology , ethnology , telecommunications , computer science
This paper reports on the use of devices derived from the Lost Letter Technique as measures of religious prejudice in sensitive areas within Northern Ireland. Studies were carried out in six urban areas using the Misdirected Letter Technique (Howitt, Craven, Iveson, Kremer, McCabe, & Rolph, 1977), and a further development dubbed the Quasi‐Questionnaire Technique. It was found that return rates of letters/questionnaires from traditionally violent Catholic areas were influenced by the assumed religion of the intended recipient/sender, but return rates from other areas were unaffected by these religious considerations. The work is taken as adding further support to the contention that the incidence of forms of religious prejudice in Northern Ireland is highly variable and dependent on the interplay of a range of factors. Further, it is argued that only by using unobtrusive measures such as employed here can these complexities be understood more completely.