Abstract:

Staerklé, C. (2006).
The individual as the source of progressive thinking: A comment on Liu
and Sibley (2006).
Papers on Social Representations, 15, pages 6.1-6.7
[http://www.psr.jku.at/]

This paper comments on James Liu’s and Chris Sibley’s article “Differential effects of 
societal anchoring and attitude certainty in determining support or opposition to 
(bi)cultural diversity in New Zealand.”  Three issues are discussed, beginning with the 
specificities of the New Zealand context. Second, the epistemological discrepancies 
between attitudes and social representations are highlighted. Finally, the main finding 
according to which sharing information with others gives rise to opposition to 
multiculturalism, whereas individual cognitive activity leads to support for multicultural 
policies, is discussed regarding its normative implications. It is concluded that the paper 
provides an important input for current research on social representations, and that Liu 
and Sibley have taken the issue of the relationship between attitudes and social 
representations a step further.