South Korean students' attitudes towards Americans

Four hundred and seventy college students and 119 high school students in South Korea were sampled to measure attitudes on Americans. Cognitive aspects of students' attitudes towards Americans were relatively stable but there were subtle gaps between gender, areas, and ages in the evaluation of an affective component of attitude. There were gender, area, and age differences in behavioral aspects of attitude on Americans. In the perspectives on international relations, Koreans think relations with America are most important even though anti-Americanism is more dominant than negative attitude towards other countries. China is expected to be the highest rank nation in friendliness in the next 10 years. This forecast differs in America as a friendly nation in gender and area comparison. In other pro- or anti-American attitudes the ratios of very friendly and friendly attitudes toward Americans were 12.8% and 58.5%. In the case of very unfriendly and unfriendly attitudes toward Americans, differences were demonstrated by gender and age. Reasons and interpretations on the attitude changes were discussed.