III. SURVEY OF CONSUMER KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDES SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS A study of public attitudes concerning a change from the customary measurement system to a new and unfamiliar system found that a program of planned metrication could be expected to encounter general opposition from the consumer. It is probable that most people have had satisfactory, or at least not adverse, experience with the prevailing system and that few people are knowledgeable about metric measurement. In these circumstances, the findings of this survey are encouraging for proponents of conversion: 33 percent of respondents favored a change to the metric system. The survey confirmed that the vast majority of Americans have little knowledge of metric measures. Only 40 percent of the respondents were able to name even a single metric measure. Less than 20 percent were familiar with either the relationships within the metric system or the relationships of metric measures to measures in the current system. Much resistance to conversion seems to stem from this lack of information. The objections to conversion mentioned most were inconvenience and confusion. Despite widespread opposition to conversion, many agreed with reasons for use of the metric system which were presented during the interview. Thirty-four percent of the respondents agreed that conformity with other countries was desirable; 47 percent thought a decimal measuring system would make price comparisons easier; 55 percent agreed that the metric system would be easier than the customary system for children to learn. What of the probable direction of future changes in public attitudes? Would public opinion be persuaded by an educational program designed to win support for conversion? Some of the survey evidence indicates that the answer is "Yes." Receptivity to a change to metric measurement varied significantly among persons with different levels of knowledge about the metric system. The majority of most knowledgeable persons favored conversion, giving substantive arguments supporting their position. This suggests that much of the opposition is born of a lack of knowledge and that an opportunity exists to develop interest in metrication. PURPOSES OF THE STUDY The major aim of the survey was to provide information with respect to three issues: (1) What is the level of knowledge of the American people concerning the metric system? (2) What problems would be encountered by private households in the event of a national program to increase domestic usage of the metric system? (3) What methods of educating the American public could be used to ease the problems in the event of a national program of metrication? For two decades the Survey Research Center has specialized in the study of attitudes and their relation to behavior. Generally, attitude studies relate to familiar situations or events. Assessing public attitudes concerning the metric system posed some new problems of investigation since it could not be assumed that many people were knowledgeable about metric measurement or the issue of domestic conversion. Therefore, we attempted to make the survey an information-giving as well as an information-gathering device. Throughout the interview the metric system was compared with the customary system, areas of daily activity in which measurement plays a part were indicated, and respondents were given information on the advantages of metrication as well as some problems of conversion. Furthermore, lack of public knowledge required a modification of the Center's traditional methods of measuring attitudes. Usually attitudes are studied in a conversational interview consisting primarily of open-end questions; respondents express their opinions and the answers are recorded in their own words. In this case, it was decided that simple statements to which respondents agreed or disagreed would elicit more information. Consequently, extensive use was made of fixed-choice questions supplemented with a few open-end questions. What use can be made of the findings obtained from the survey? Information concerning the nature and extent of the educational problem is vital if a metrication program is embarked upon. Information on prevailing public opinion indicates the positive attitudes upon which an educational plan could build and the concerns against which it must work. The survey indicates what needs to be explained to the people, the extent of present resistance to increased domestic usage of the metric system, and therefore the direction an educational program must take in order to win support for such a change. It cannot, however, confirm how easily people would be persuaded by more information, how they would react to compelling arguments for change, nor therefore the intensity of effort needed to make a conversion campaign suc Details of the survey method are discussed in a later section labeled Survey Methods. Suffice it to say here that the method known as multistage area probability sampling was used to select a sample of dwelling units representative of the nation. All family units found in each selected dwelling unit were chosen for an interview, and the head of the family unit was designated as the preferred respondent. The sample consisted of 1,400 family units, representing the approximately 62 million family units in private households in the coterminous United States. The interviewing was conducted between October 9 and November 15, 1970. LEVEL OF INFORMATION ABOUT THE METRIC SYSTEM Respondents were asked a series of questions designed to explore their level of information about the metric system. Initially respondents were asked "Have you ever heard of the metric system?" A "yes" response prompted the query, "Could you tell me the names of some measures in the metric system?" Respondents naming at least one metric measure were then probed about relationships within the metric system and metric equivalents to English measures. Responses to the questions quoted above can be summarized easily in the form of an "Index of Information," in which each respondent is given points as follows: 1 point for one type of measure 2 points for two or more types of measure - 1 point for correctly identifying the number of centimeters in a meter -1 point for knowing the relationship between kilometers and miles (answers of 1.5-2.0 kilometers in a mile were accepted). The percentage distribution of the Index of Information is indicated in figure 1. Thirty percent of the total sample indicated that they had not heard of the metric system (a score of zero on the index), and almost 60 percent were unable to name even a single metric measure. Only 9 percent of respondents scored four points, and 3 percent scored five on the information scale. Among respondents who correctly named only one metric measure, the meter was by far the most prevalent response. Twenty-five percent identified one metric measure and of these 92 percent cited the meter. Respondents were more familiar with the meanings of the prefixes used in the metric system than with the relationships of metric measures to customary measures. Forty-two percent of respondents were asked, “Do you happen to know how the metric measures relate to each other? For example: How many centimeters are in a meter?" and "Do you happen to know the About how many kilometers are in a mile?" Among respondents asked the two questions, 43 percent knew the answers to the first question but only 17 percent knew the answers to the second. A national program to increase domestic usage of the metric system would in all likelihood need to utilize diverse approaches to reach different groups of the population. Therefore, it would be of primary importance to investigate and identify systematic differences in information about the metric system among certain demographic classifications. The relationship between the Index of Information and various demographic variables is summarized in table 1. Formal education is the single most important explanation of population differences in information about the metric system. Increasing years of education were associated with increasing metric knowledge. The educational categories specified in table 1 accounted for 32 percent of the variation in the Index of Information. Persons of different age and sex had differing levels of information. Males scored higher on the index than females. Younger respondents were more knowledgeable than the older members of the sample. The relationship between the index and the three variables (age, sex, and education) taken together is shown in table 2. Together the independent Table 1. Index of Level of Information About the Metric System by Various Demographic Characteristics variables accounted for 42 percent of the variation in the index. Within all age and sex subgroups, higher levels of education differentiated respondents with high levels of metric knowledge from those with lower information levels. Higher index scores for males than for females were indicated for all age categories. Evidence of negative age correlation was found for persons with less than a college degree. However, in most of the subgroups in which significance was wanting, sample size was small and therefore statistical tests were unreliable. An investigation was made of the relationship between a respondent's occupational class and his level of information. Although higher status occupation tended to be associated with more metric knowledge (table 3), this correlation was primarily an educational effect. After adjusting for education. the relation between occupational class and the index was maintained only for persons with less than a high school education. EXTENT OF RECEPTIVITY AND OPPOSITION TO THE USE OF THE METRIC SYSTEM One of the primary purposes of this study was to investigate and evaluate attitudes relating to the possible adoption of the metric system by the United States. Prior to asking respondents their opinions concerning metrication. it was necessary to provide them with information about metric meas |