The First Opinion Research in Uruguay and Chile.

The article focuses on the process of opinion research in Uruguay and Chile. The introduction of attitude research and opinion measurement in countries where they have never been used before must be made in terms of local conditions. The geographic situation, the administrative and political aspects of government, and the social institutions constitute a cultural complex which cannot be approached without awareness of its peculiarities. The two experiments reported here concern countries at diverse stages of demographic evolution and economic development. Without overstating the scope of the national stereotypes evoked in such responses, it does not seem to be drawing too much from the data to find in these attitudes, and in their conflicts among various social groups, signs of a transformation in the Chilean mentality. As the processes of urbanization and industrialization continue, the psychology of groups is altered proportionately. It is in any case demonstrated that an immense task is opening to social psychology in countries like Uruguay and Chile, which are well armed for confronting it.