The Scottish Government

« Previous | Contents | Next »

Listen

CHAPTER SEVEN ARE ATTITUDES CHANGING?

Introduction

7.1 So far we have simply looked at the incidence and pattern of attitudes as revealed by our 2006 survey. But how far is the picture we have painted consistent with previous findings? Fortunately, we are in a position to address this question, as a number of the questions included in our survey were either previously included in our 2002 research on attitudes to discrimination, or else in research conducted in 2003 on Islamophobia in Scotland (Hussain and Miller, 2006).

7.2 Long-term social changes in attitudes often occur at a gradual, if not indeed glacial, pace (Park et al, 2003). They may in part at least be occasioned by a process of 'generational change' - older people with one set of views are replaced by younger generations of people with rather different views. Four years is of course too short a period to uncover such gradual long-term changes. However, attitudes can sometimes shift over a shorter period, in reaction to particular events and developments. For example, public attitudes towards nuclear power became more cautious than they had been previously in the wake of the major nuclear disaster in Chernobyl in 1986 (Heath and McMahon, 1992). Equally, there was an increase in the proportion of people who said sex between people of the same sex was wrong in the wake of the initial discovery of AIDS/ HIV (Heath and McMahon, 1992).

7.3 As suggested in Chapter One, some recent developments may well have influenced the incidence of some of the discriminatory attitudes considered in this report. Terrorist attacks linked to members of the Islamic faith may have meant that people have become more inclined to express discriminatory attitudes towards Muslims. The relatively high levels of immigration into the UK in recent years might have had the same effect on attitudes towards ethnic minorities in general. In contrast, the recent changes in the law in respect of same sex couples, including most notably the introduction of civil partnerships in December 2005, might have helped reduce discriminatory attitudes towards gay men and lesbians.

7.4 This chapter therefore begins by looking at recent trends in attitudes towards Muslims and ethnic minorities as revealed by our 2006 survey. It then examines attitudes towards gay men and lesbians. It finally considers attitudes towards the role of women, and towards prejudice in general, where we do not necessarily expect much change to have occurred.

Trends in attitudes towards Muslims and ethnic minorities

7.5 Our 2006 survey included two questions about attitudes towards Muslims that were previously carried on the 2003 Scottish Social Attitudes survey. The first of these was whether someone would be unhappy if a close relative formed a long-term relationship with a Muslim, a question we introduced initially in Chapter Three. The second is one that we will consider in more detail in Chapter Nine. It asked whether people agreed or disagreed with the following statement:

Scotland would begin to lose its identity if more Muslims came to live in Scotland

Table 7.1 Trends in discriminatory attitudes towards Muslims and ethnic minorities

7.6 As Table 7.1 shows, it appears that there has indeed been an increase in discriminatory attitudes towards Muslims. This is most evident in respect of concerns about what would happen to Scotland's identity if more Muslims were to come to live in the country. As many as half (50%) now feel that such a development would threaten Scotland's identity, compared with fewer than two in five (38%) in 2003. Meanwhile there has been a smaller, but still notable, four point increase in the proportion who say they would be unhappy if a close relative formed a long-term relationship with a Muslim. It seems likely that recent developments have indeed resulted in an increase in the incidence of discriminatory attitudes towards Muslims.

7.7 Meanwhile the question that we first discussed in Chapter Four about whether or not ethnic minorities take jobs away from other people in Scotland was also asked in 2002. It appears from this measure at least that there is increased concern that competition from members of Scotland's ethnic minority communities is having an adverse impact on the labour market position of other sections of Scottish society. Now over a quarter (27%) say that ethnic minorities take jobs away from other people in Scotland, compared with a fifth (20%) in 2002. The increase has been particularly marked - as much as 16 points - amongst those aged 18-24. It therefore seems likely that recent debates about immigration have affected attitudes on this subject, and particularly so amongst younger people who are far less likely to have a secure job. This is despite the fact that, of course, many of those who belong to one of Scotland's ethnic minority communities are not recent migrants to the country, if indeed they are migrants at all.

Trends in attitudes towards gay men and lesbians

7.8 Four of the questions about gay men and lesbians included in our 2006 survey were previously asked in 2002. These consist of two questions about whether same sex sexual relations are or are not 'wrong', one about whether same sex couples should have the right to marry, and one about the suitability of a gay man or lesbian to be a primary school teacher. All have already been introduced in previous chapters.

Table 7.2 Trends in discriminatory attitudes towards gay men and lesbians

7.9 Table 7.2 reveals that on each and every measure the incidence of discriminatory attitudes is lower now than it was four years previously. In particular, there has been an eleven point drop in the proportion of people who think that sexual relations between two men, or between two women, are 'always' or 'mostly' wrong. Irrespective of the gender of the relationship, in 2002 slightly more people thought that same sex relations were 'always' or 'mostly' wrong than thought they were 'rarely' or 'not wrong at all'. Now, in contrast the latter group clearly outnumbers the former (see Figure 3.2 above). Meanwhile there have also been clear, if less dramatic, drops in the proportion of people who disagree that gay men and lesbians should have the right to marry (a drop of eight points), and in the proportion who say that a gay man or lesbian would be unsuitable as a primary school teacher (a drop of seven points).

7.10 It would therefore seem that recent legislative developments may have helped to change attitudes towards gay men and lesbians. However, we should bear in mind that there has been a long-term trend towards less discriminatory attitudes towards gay men and lesbians. This can be seen in Figure 7.1, which shows trends in attitudes towards sexual relations between people of the same sex (the gender is not specified in these questions) in British Social Attitudes surveys conducted since 1983. Attitudes have clearly changed very sharply indeed since concern about HIV/ AIDS was at its height in 1987. Then nearly three quarters (74%) felt that sex between people of the same sex was 'always' or 'mostly' wrong, compared with just under two in five (39%) just before the introduction of the civil partnership legislation in 2005. Although these data are for Great Britain as a whole, it seems likely that much the same trend has occurred in Scotland. This suggests that some of the change we have observed in Scotland since 2002 may well have occurred anyway. However, the British data also show that in 2006, after the introduction of civil partnerships, there was a further drop in the proportion saying that same sex relations were always or mostly wrong to just 32%. This strongly suggests that much of the change between 2005 and 2006 observed in Table 7.1 could indeed be a consequence of the introduction of civil partnerships.

Figure 7.1 Attitudes to same sex sexual relations, 1983-2006, Great Britain

Source: British Social Attitudes survey, National Centre for Social Research

Trends in attitudes towards gender roles and prejudice in general

7.11 Two sets of questions in our 2006 survey that tap the degree to which people have traditional or stereotypical views about gender roles were also included in our earlier research conducted in 2002. The first of these asks whether people feel that it is a man's job to earn money while women should look after the home and the family. The second taps people's perceptions of whether men and women are suitable as primary school teachers, and in particular the degree to which people feel that women are more suitable for that job than men. There is no particular reason to believe that either measure should have moved in a particular direction over recent years.

7.12 In practice, as Table 7.3 shows, trends on the two questions are contradictory. On the one hand there has been a six point drop in the proportion who say that women are more suitable than men as primary school teachers. On the other hand there has been a three point increase in those who agree that women should look after home and the family. Perhaps the most we can say is that gender stereotyping of those women who are in employment may have declined somewhat, but that this has not been accompanied by any decline in support for the already decidedly minority view that women should not go out to work at all.

Table 7.3 Indicators of gender stereotyping, 2002 and 2006

7.13 Finally, our overall measure of a discriminatory outlook first discussed in Chapter Two - that is, whether Scotland should get rid of all prejudice or whether sometimes there is good reason to be prejudiced - was also asked in 2002. As we have already seen, in 2006 29% said that sometimes there is good reason to be prejudiced. That figure is a little higher than the 26% recorded four years earlier, though the difference is not statistically significant. We certainly cannot argue from this that a discriminatory outlook is gradually becoming less commonplace in Scotland.

Conclusion

7.14 As we had anticipated, there is some evidence of an increase over the last four years in discriminatory attitudes towards Muslims and, perhaps, ethnic minorities, while they have declined in respect of gay men and lesbians. Both trends suggest that events and legislative initiatives can have an impact on the incidence of discriminatory attitudes. The decline of discriminatory attitudes towards gay men and lesbians is though a continuation of a well established long-term trend, and may in part at least have occurred anyway. As a result, we should not exaggerate the impact of recent legislative change in respect of same sex couples. But at the same time, the apparent increase in discriminatory attitudes towards Muslims and, perhaps, ethnic minorities is a reminder that however low the incidence of discriminatory attitudes might appear to be at any one point in time, there is no guarantee that this will always remain the case.

Key points:

• Discriminatory attitudes towards Muslims and, perhaps also, ethnic minorities have become more common in recent years.
• For example, in 2003 38% said that Scotland would lose its identity if more Muslims came to live in Scotland; by 2006 50% said this. The proportion who say that ethnic minorities take jobs away from other people in Scotland increased from 20% in 2002 to 27% in 2006.
• It is likely that concerns about immigration and international terrorism have affected views about Muslims and ethnic minorities.
• Discriminatory attitudes towards gay men and lesbians have, in contrast, declined since 2002. For example, the proportion who say that sex between people of the same sex is 'always' or 'mostly wrong' dropped by 11 points from around four in ten in 2002 to just three in ten in 2006.
• At the same time the proportion who disagree that same sex couples should have the right to marry fell from 29% to 21%.
• Although recent legislative changes, such as the introduction of civil partnerships, are likely to have had an influence, discriminatory attitudes towards gay people have been in decline for some time.
• There was no significant change between 2002 and 2006 in the proportion who say that sometimes there is good reason to be prejudiced, so it cannot be argued that a discriminatory outlook is gradually becoming less commonplace in Scotland.

« Previous | Contents | Next »