WHAT DOES AMERICA THINK? 373 Go to this website to look further at the data. You can run your own statistics and crosstabs
here: http://sda.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/hsda?harcsda+gss04
REFERENCES:Davis, James A., Tom W. Smith, and Peter V. Marsden. General Social Surveys
1972–2004: [Cumulative file] [Computer file]. 2nd ICPSR version. Chicago, IL: National Opinion Research
Center [producer], 2005; Storrs, CT: Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, University of Connecticut;
Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research; Berkeley, CA: Computer-Assisted
Survey Methods Program, University of California [distributors], 2005.
would try to be fair, and 40 percent thought they would try to take advantage of oth-
ers. Nine percent said it depended. Social class differences in responses were striking,
with those in the lower class being most likely to think people would try to take
advantage and least likely to think people would try to be fair. Those in the middle
class were most likely to think people would try to be fair. When examined by sex,
the range in responses was small, but when examined by race, Black respondents
(58.8 percent) were far more likely than White respondents (34.4 percent) to say
people would try to take advantage of others.CRITICAL THINKING|DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
- Half of all respondents thought most people would be fair. Is that more or less than what you
expected? How do you explain these results? - While gender did not appear to have an effect on respondents’ perceptions of others, social
class and race had a striking effect. Looking at these differences and thinking about positions,
why do you think these differences exist?