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Research report: The studyof ethnic alignment: A newtechnique and an applicationin MalaysiaMichael Banton a & Mohd Noor Mansor ba Professor, Department of Sociology , Universityof Bristol , 12 Woodland Road, Bristol, BS8 1UQ,UKb Research student in the Department ofSociology , University of BristolPublished online: 13 Sep 2010.

To cite this article: Michael Banton & Mohd Noor Mansor (1992) Research report:The study of ethnic alignment: A new technique and an application in Malaysia,Ethnic and Racial Studies, 15:4, 599-613, DOI: 10.1080/01419870.1992.9993765

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The study of ethnic alignment: anew technique and an applicationin Malaysia

Michael Banton and Mohd Noor Mansor

Abstract

In some circumstances, like driving a motor vehicle, group membership isirrelevant. In others, individual interest motivates group alignment. Some-times choices have to be made between individual responses and groupalignment, or between alignment on the basis of class, or ethnicity, orreligion. The authors describe a technique used to assess the strength ofethnic loyalty relative to self-interest and personal obligation among an urbansample in Malaysia. Predictions of how a representative Malay would reactin situations of value conflict made possible the measurement of pluralisticignorance. The technique could be used elsewhere. It could be used togenerate predictions about trends in the strengthening, maintenance or weak-ening of ethnic boundaries.

Ethnic boundaries do not maintain themselves. It is the actions ofindividuals in choosing whether or not to align themselves with othersof similar ethnic origin that strengthens, maintains, or weakens ethnicboundaries. Sometimes individuals feel that they have no real alterna-tive but to align themselves in a particular way, but there is still anact of will on their part. The strength of ethnic alignment can usefullybe measured only by comparison with other group alignments (class,national, religious, etc.) or with individual motivations (such as thoseof self-interest or personal obligation).

Identification and prediction

A new approach to this question was pioneered by Sanusi Osman(1981) who, as part of a study in Malaysia, invited subjects to considersome situations in which two possible forms of alignment were inconflict. One of these described a conflict between a Chinese employerand his Malay employees. It might be expected that Chinese subjectsof higher income would side with the actions of the employer, and

Ethnic and Racial Studies Volume 15 Number 4 October 1992© Routledge 1992 0141-9870/92/1504-599 $3/1

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that Malay subjects of low income would side with the workers. Howwould a Chinese worker align himself? Would a Malay employer sidewith his fellow employer or with his fellow Malays? To pose suchquestions is to deploy a research technique which depends upon thesubject's ability to identify with at least one of the parties. The kindsof situation that can be used for this purpose must therefore be onesfamiliar to the subjects, or ones that they think they can understandwithout requiring more detail. If it is to be properly systematic itneeds to be paired with a similar situation of conflict between aMalay employer and Chinese workers, to see with which parties Malayworkers and Chinese employers then align themselves. Such a situationmight be more difficult for some subjects to imagine. Osman did notattempt to permute variables like this because his research was carriedout in a town that also included Indian and Portuguese groups, andhe wished to compare attitudes among all four groups (for a briefsummary of findings see Banton 1987, pp. 141-2).

As an alternative approach to the study of ethnic alignment, alsoin Malaysia, Mohd Noor Mansor has posed to subjects a series ofsituations in which a representative Malay has to choose whether ornot to align himself with a fellow ethnic. However, instead of invitingsubjects to identify with one of the parties to the situation, Mansorhas asked them to predict how Husin Ali, an imaginary but representa-tive Malay, will act. Would he, in a situation of industrial conflict, sidewith a Malay employer or a Chinese fellow-worker? This technique hassome advantages over the one employed by Osman in that it makesless demand upon subjects' imagination, it increases the range ofsituations that can be included in the study, and it permits some extraelaboration (to be mentioned later). It needs to be complemented byfurther studies in which subjects are asked to predict the likely actions,in comparable situations, of a representative Chinese male, Chinesefemale, and Malay female.

Ability to predict can be important in circumstances in which sub-jects lack empathy and cannot identify with others of a different group.For example, any employer contemplating the appointment of a newsupervisor with an ethnic background different from that of the pre-vious supervisor must make some assumption about the influencewhich the supervisor's ethnicity will have upon the behaviour of thosesupervised. A retailer considering the purchase or opening of a shopmust make some assumption about the relative importance in theminds of potential shoppers of competitive prices compared to theowner's ethnicity. Ability to predict the reactions of members of otherethnic groups can be important to the avoidance of conflict. Thequestions posed in Osman's research were designed to see with whichparty in a situation of conflict a subject identified. The hew techniquedoes not rely upon identification. It can be used to study a wider

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Studying ethnic alignment 601

range of situations but the corresponding disadvantage is that, comp-lemented by questions additional to those employed in the presentinstance, it neither invites Malay subjects to indicate where their ownethnic loyalties lie, nor provides any information on Chinese ethnicloyalties.

A tendency to align ethnically may increase or decrease relative toalignment on some other basis, such as class or religion. If so, sucha change has to be explained by underlying factors of a more generalcharacter (such as shifts in the political balance). There could also becircumstances in which ethnic, class and religious alignment all decline(as a consequence of an increased concern for the acquisition ofconsumer goods, for example). Changes in alignment come about asa result of individual choices. The individual has to assess whether heor she can best attain his or her ends by aligning with others (on thebasis of ethnicity, class, religion or some other shared value) or byseeking a personal end which may possibly run counter to any expec-tation that he or she will align with others. It is assumed that endsare individual; that they can sometimes be pursued best by aligningwith others with whom ends are shared, but that on occasion theirpursuit requires the individual to weigh the benefits of self-interestedaction relative to the costs of deviating from the expectations of thepeer group. Such calculations may not be made in any consciousmanner but it is to them that the social scientist must look in orderto explain shifts in ethnic alignment, whether these shifts are towardsgreater or lesser alignment or are shifts from one form of alignmentto another.

The rational choice theory of racial and ethnic relations (Banton1987, pp. 121-7) presupposes that individuals act so as to obtainmaximum net advantage. They may believe that it is in their interestto align themselves with others who share their interests, or get apsychological reward from aligning with those they believe they areduty-bound to support. It is also possible that individuals may believethat, while they have a general interest in supporting - or an obligationto support - fellow ethnics, the situation about which they are beingasked is an exception to this rule. For example, in situations likedriving a motor vehicle, everyone must observe the traffic code withoutregard to considerations of group membership. Many commercialtransactions may be similarly exempted, indeed it would scarcely bepossible to maintain a comprehensive system of ethnic preferencewithout allowing for exemptions. Sometimes, too, a subject mayacknowledge that in a particular situation he or she is expected tomanifest group loyalty, but maintain that in these circumstances he orshe is also bound by another obligation which has to take precedence.

The rational choice theory is not limited to the study of any particu-lar kinds of choice. It is a general theory of aggregate behaviour which

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tries to ascertain the costs and benefits of choices between availablealternatives, and presumes that over time people will favour the kindsof choice which produce optimal results. The present study developsthis approach by asking how a representative Malay will act in situ-ations in which new patterns of behaviour, alternative to ethnic loyalty,are appearing and in which values are changing. The procedureadopted was for the research student and the supervisor to discuss alarge number of possible questions about situations that might ormight not evoke ethnic alignment. From these, sixteen were selectedas likely to evoke a response from a sample of subjects, Malay andChinese, male and female. The research worker, drawing upon hisknowledge of Malaysian society, wrote out his expectations of thelikely responses of subjects according to ethnicity and gender. Thesewere his expectations of his subjects' predictions of Husin Ali'sbehaviour. The research worker next reflected upon his intuitiveexpectations in order to extract from them some general propositionson which he had been relying without being aware of this. The planwas to administer a set of interviews in the Malay language, analysethe results, see how far the research worker's expectations were accur-ate, and then ascertain whether or not the general propositionsrequired revision.

In the discussion of these expectations, three kinds of potentialconflict were identified as worth exploration, associated with a normof ethnic loyalty on the one hand and, on the other, individual self-interest of a material kind (such as monetary gain), or of a social kind(such as status gain), or personal obligation. The conflicts can berecognized in the particular questions posed to subjects even if theopposed values cannot be made mutually exclusive. It may be in anindividual's material or social interest to display ethnic loyalty in somesituations. In others, personal obligation and etHnic loyalty may pointin the same direction. But in the situations constructed for the inter-view there were conflicts recognized as such by the subjects.

Ethnic loyalty versus self-interest

One of the questions (Question 3) about alignment assumed thatsubjects would recognize Ah Kow as a Chinese and Ahmad as a Malayname. It read:

3. Husin Ali has been patronizing Mr. Ah Kow's grocery shop,noted for its cheapness and nearest to his house. Husin Ali has beeninformed that in a week's time, Ahmad will be opening a secondgrocery shop in his neighbourhood.

1. Where will Husin Ali go?

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[1] Ahmad's shop[2] Ah Kow's shop[3] Other

2. Where would his mother wish him to go?[1] Ahmad's shop[2] Ah Kow's shop[3] Other

This question was designed to measure predictions about the strengthof ethnic loyalty [EL] relative to self interest [SI] of a material kind(in this instance the belief that the shopkeeper of a different ethnicgroup would sell similar goods at lower prices). It reflected theresearch worker's expectations (i) that ethnic alignment is less salientin workplace relations than in the domestic sphere; (ii) that the Chi-nese, being more involved in a commercial culture, are likely to givea higher priority to self-interest than are Malays, and (iii) are likelyto project their own values when predicting the responses of a rep-resentative Malay; (iv) that males, being the main breadwinners, arelikely to attach more weight to self-interest than females attach to it;(v) that Malays, as Muslims, are likely to be hesitant about buyingfood from Chinese who do not share their beliefs about pollution; (vi)that Malays have been influenced by the political campaign to encour-age Malay entrepreneurship in competition with the Chinese; (vii) thatMalay females are more concerned than Malay males about observingreligious obligations; and (viii) that Husin Ali's mother, as a femalerepresentative of an older generation with less experience of non-Malays and of workplace relations, would be perceived as morestrongly wishing Husin AH to align himself ethnically. These expec-tations can be summarized in the form of Table 1 in which SI indicatesthe expectation that self-interest will be predicted to prevail overethnic loyalty, in that Husin Ali will continue to patronize Ah Kow'sshop, while EL indicates an expectation that subjects will predict thathe will transfer his custom to Ahmad's shop.

Table

HusinHusin

1. Expected responses to Question 3

MalaysMales Females

Ali SI ELAli's mother EL EL

Males

SISI

ChineseFemales

SIEL

Three other questions were devised to tap possible conflicts betweenmaterial self-interest and ethnic loyalty in further settings. In one,Husin Ali has to go off in a hurry and to decide whether to leave his

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house unlocked or ask his Chinese neighbour to look after the keypending the expected arrival of his sister. In the second, Husin Alihas to decide whether to rent his house to a Chinese. In the third,Husin Ali's niece, who supplements her husband's meagre income byminding the children of some Malay neighbours during the day, isasked by a Chinese woman if she will take care of her son as well.

Self-interest is not necessarily material, so four questions wereincluded to bear upon the interest people may have in associatingwith, or being associated with, persons of higher status. One of thesewas Question 2:

2. Husin Ali is going to take his children to the zoo this comingSunday. Husin Ali's son has been pestering his father to take alongone of his friends on this trip.

1. Whom will Husin Ali suggest to his son to take along on thistrip?[1] Ah Seng, a doctor's son[2] Ali, whose mother works as a housemaid[3] Other

2. Whom would Husin Ali's mother wish her son to take alongon this trip?[1] Ah Seng[2] Ali[3] Other

Since Husin Ali was described early in the interview as a clerk in amultinational engineering firm, an association with a doctor wouldrepresent a status gain while association with a housemaid would bea status loss. Ah Seng is a Chinese name. It was expected that someMalays, and particularly those with ambitions in the occupationalsphere (i.e., more males than females) would see status as the maincriterion, while others would see a trip to the zoo as an extension ofthe domestic sphere or consider that the selection should be left toHusin Ali's son. Many Chinese in Malaysia have experienced highstatus mobility, which could have made them more status-consciousthan Malays. In general, the same author's eight expectations listedabove - with the exception of the sixth - might influence predictionsin this situation also. The outcome is represented in Table 2, in whichSI indicates the expectation that self-interest in the form of a statusgain will prevail over ethnic loyalty and that Husin Ali will invite theson of the Chinese doctor to join the trip, while EL denotes theexpectation that he will take the son of the Malay housemaid.

Three other questions were devised to tap predicted conflictsbetween status interests and ethnic loyalty in other settings. In one,

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Table 2. Expected responses to Question 2

Malays ChineseMales Females Males Females

Husin AH SI EL SI ELHusin Ali's mother EL EL EL EL

Husin Ali has received invitations to two weddings on the same day,one from a company director with a Chinese name, the other from astorekeeper with a Malay name. In the second, Husin Ali is arranginga marriage for his son to one of his cousin's daughters. Given a choice,will his son prefer the fair-skinned elder sister or her dark-skin youngersister? In the third, Husin Ali wants to adopt a child and has beensent two photographs, one showing a fair-looking Chinese child andthe other a dark-skin Malay child. These questions were intended asa measure of the status value of a fair complexion in Malaysia.

Ethnic loyalty versus personal obligation

Whereas it is always possible to analyse social relations as an exchangein which one person acts so as to secure a corresponding return, it isalso the case that human beings are brought up to regard certain kindsof action as good in themselves. It is possible to interpret some kindsof behaviour as designed to secure the psychological satisfactions thatindividuals can derive from acting in the manner they believe to bemoral, irrespective of whether this brings them any material benefits,or even costs. Yet is it not necessary to press this argument in orderto accept that when people work together in a mutually rewardingrelation they come to feel a sense of debt or obligation to one another,and that such an obligation can at times have a higher priority thanethnic alignment? Such possible conflict was envisaged in Question13.

13. Mr. Tay, a mechanical engineer who graduated from Oxford,has been the head of Husin Ali's Mechanical Department for thepast three years. A Malay group within his department is trying toreplace his boss with a Malay candidates

1. Will Husin Ali support his boss?[1] Yes[2] No[3] Other

2. What would Husin Ali's mother wish him to do?[1] Yes[2] No

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[3] Other

This question assumed that Husin Ali had a good personal relationshipwith his Chinese boss and that there were no grounds on which to tryto force his transfer or resignation other than the claims of an ethnicpressure group that the position ought to be given to a Malay. Forreasons set out already, it was expected that more men than womenand more Chinese than Malays would predict that Husin Ali wouldsee the situation in universalist terms rather than those of ethnicparticularism. In Table 3, summarizing the research worker's expec-tations of the interview subjects' predictions, PO indicates an expec-tation that a norm of personal obligation will override any norm ofethnic loyalty and that Husin Ali will support his boss. EL denotes acontrary expectation.

Table

HusinHusin

3. Expected responses to Question 13

MalaysMales Females

Ali PO ELAli's mother EL EL

Males

POPO

ChineseFemales

POEL

Four other questions were devised to tap possible conflicts betweenpersonal obligation and ethnic loyalty in other settings. One askedwhether Husin Ali would allow his two-year-old daughter to be takenby his Chinese neighbour to play in the neighbour's house for anafternoon. Another asked whether Husin Ali would allow his twelve-year-old son to bring his Chinese friends home to play in his house.A third asked whether Husin Ali would accept his Indian workmate'sinvitation to attend a party in his house to celebrate his daughter'swedding. A fourth question stated that Husin Ali's wife had beenpersuading their daughter to marry Muhammed Lee, a son of herChinese Muslim friend, and inquired whether she would follow hermother's wishes.

The interview included two other questions devised to try to assesswhether Malay religious sentiment was a determining factor in somesituations, and one question which turned out, on further consider-ation, to combine the material interest and status factors in self-interest. There were also other questions which did not relate directlyto ethnic alignment.

Results

The questions were incorporated in a series of interviews with 339subjects in Petalingjaya in 1989. This is a suburb of Kuala Lumpur

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Studying ethnic alignment 607

where two universities and several multinational companies arelocated. The middle-class section of the population is relatively largeand there is a greater degree of ethnic mixing than in most parts ofMalaysia. It was a suitable location for this particular research becausepeople there would be able more easily to envisage the sorts of situ-ation to which the questions relate. The findings cannot be generalizedto other regions, but they do cast light on tendencies which, withfurther economic development, are likely increasingly to affect thewhole society.

Table 4 sets out the responses to Question 3. The figures show thepercentages of Malays and Chinese, male and female, who, believingthat Husin Ali's ethnic loyalty would outweigh his self-interest, pre-dicted that he would transfer his custom to Ahmad's shop. The secondline gives their predictions about Husin Ali's mother's wishes. It willbe remembered from Table 1 that the research worker expected thatMalay males would predict that Husin Ali's action would be governedprimarily by self-interest, in preferring the shop which sold similargoods more cheaply. For this expectation to be borne out the figurein the top left-hand cell would need to be less than 50 per cent. Thesurvey found that 41 per cent of Malay males predicted that HusinAli would continue shopping with Ah Kow, while 52 per cent thoughtthat his action would be governed by ethnic loyalty so that he wouldtransfer his custom to the shop opened by his fellow Malay, Ahmad.This was a relatively successful question in that only 7 per cent ofrespondents did not endorse one or other of these alternatives. Forsome questions and for some groups, the percentage of respondentswho would not choose either of the main alternatives was higher,suggesting that either they could not resolve the value conflict or thatthe question itself was open to more than two kinds of resolution.Since it is impossible to assign these kinds of response to either ethnicloyalty or its alternative, their number is given in brackets in the table.If the reader adds this number to the ethnic loyalty figure and subtractsthe total from a hundred, this indicates the percentage of respondentschoosing the alternative to ethnic loyalty specified in the title to thetable (e.g., in Table 4, 52 plus 7 from 100 indicates that 41 per centof Malay males predicted that Husin Ali would choose the alternativerepresenting self-interest. All percentages have been rounded to thenearest whole number.

Table 4 shows that the expectation that in this situation self-interestwould prove stronger than ethnic loyalty was not confirmed in thesurvey. However, it provides very strong support for the researchworker's expectation that Chinese respondents, perhaps by projection,would be more inclined than Malays to believe that self-interest wouldoutweigh ethnic loyalty. There was no support at all for the hypothesisthat males would value self-interest more highly than females but, in

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Table 4. Ethnic loyalty versus self-interest (material). Responses to Question 3(per cent)

Malays ChineseMales .Females Males Females

Husin Ali 52(7) 42(5) 15(6) 17(0)Husin Ali's mother 62(5) 60(4) 37(0) 48(7)

Note: If male and female responses are aggregated, there is a statisti-cally significant association between ethnic group and response toQuestion 3 for both Husin Ali and Husin Ali's mother, significant atp < 0.01, X2 32.08 & 11.67, both > 9.210, 2 d.f.). There is nostatistically significant association between gender and response withineither the Malay or the Chinese group at the p < 0.05 level.

line with another hypothesis, Husin Ali's mother was regularly seento have a stronger ethnic orientation than her son.

There were three other questions which set out to measure predic-tions of the comparative strength of ethnic loyalty and material self-interest. There was overwhelming support for the expectation that theconvenience of leaving a house key with a neighbour would outweighany consideration of ethnic loyalty. There was strong support for theexpectation that Husin Ali would rent his house to a Chinese, thoughMalays thought that Husin Ali's mother would consider that ethnicloyalty should prevent this. The situation in which Husin Ali's niecewas asked to look after the child of a Chinese woman was thought toevoke rather less ethnic alignment.

Table 5. Ethnic loyalty versus self-interest (status). Responses to Question 2(per cent)

Malays ChineseMales Females Males Females

Husin Ali 77(13) 71(13) 45(12) 36(10)Husin Ali's mother 83(9) 82(14) 62(14) 60(14)

Note: If male and female responses are aggregated, there is a statisti-cally significant association between ethnic group and response toQuestion 2 for both Husin Ali and Husin Ali's mother, (significant atp < 0.01, X2 45.15 & 23.39). There is no statistically significantassociation between gender and response within either ethnic group.

Table 5 shows that in the eyes of Malays, Husin Ali would rathertake the Malay son of a housemaid on a family trip to the zoo than

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Studying ethnic alignment 609

the son of a Chinese doctor, suggesting that ethnic alignment is moreimportant to them than any self-interest in associating with a familyof higher status, and more important than the research workerexpected. Both Malays and Chinese predict that ethnic alignment willbe even more important for Husin Ali's mother. As in response toother questions, Chinese respondents underestimated the strength ofethnic alignment among Malays. Contrary to the research worker'sexpectation, females were less inclined than males to predict thatHusin Ali's behaviour would be governed by ethnic considerations.Similar responses were obtained to the balancing of ethnicity andstatus in choosing which invitation to a wedding should receivepriority. Other questions showed a decided preference for a fair com-plexion in the choice of a bride, but that this was much less importantthan ethnic origin in choosing a child for adoption.

Table 6. Ethnic loyalty versus personal obligation. Responses to Question 12(per cent)

Malays ChineseMales Females Males Females

Husin Ali 20(22) 20(17) 39(12) 41(7)Husin Ali's mother 30(22) 33(16) 54(20) 55(7)

Note: If male and female responses are aggregated, there is a statisti-cally significant association between ethnic group and response toQuestion 12 for both Husin Ali and Husin Ali's mother, (significantat p < 0.01, X2 13.60 & 22.91). There is no statistically significantassociation between gender and response within either ethnic group.

Table 6 is of particular interest in showing the strength of the bondsof personal obligation that can be formed in the workplace. They arestronger than the research worker expected. Only one Malay respon-dent in five predicted that Husin Ali's response would be governedby ethnic loyalty in aligning himself with the Malays who were tryingto have his Chinese boss replaced. Three in five believed he wouldsupport his boss. Even Husin Ali's mother was seen, contrary toexpectation, as being less inclined to stress ethnic loyalty in such asituation. Special attention should be paid to the Chinese response.In general, the Chinese regularly underestimate the strength of ethnicalignment among Malays but, uniquely, in this situation they over-estimated it, perhaps because they thought it one fraught with risk.Ethnic loyalty was not seen as an important factor in deciding whethera Malay child might go to play in the house of her Chinese friend butit was slightly higher (perhaps because of fears of contact with non-Muslim food, etc.) than for inviting a Chinese playmate into a Malay

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house. The question about whether Husin Ali's daughter would followher mother's wishes and marry Muhammed Lee, evoked responses of'Other' from around one in four respondents; they may have thoughtthat much should depend upon the daughter's feelings. Presumablythis was not seen as a matter for ethnic alignment because the youngman, though Chinese, was identified as a Muslim (but note that mostMalay women thought that Husin Ali's mother would see the situationas requiring an ethnic alignment).

Further information on the validity of the eight hypotheses aboutgeneral factors influencing ethnic alignment should be obtained froman analysis showing the extent to which responses to the alignmentquestions are influenced by factors associated with the age and socialand economic status of respondents. In view of the complexities itmay be better if this is discussed separately in a further publication.

The questions invited respondents to say how they thought HusinAli would act, not how they themselves would act. Nevertheless, itseems safe to assume that, since Husin Ali was presented as a rep-resentative Malay male, the predictions of his behaviour given byMalay males would coincide with how a real Husin Ali would behavemore closely than would the predictions of Malay females or of Chi-nese. If this be accepted, it is then possible to treat the predictionsof Malay males as indicating what a real Husin Ali would do, and toassess against this standard the accuracy of the predictions made byMalay females and by Chinese. Table 4, for example, can be inter-preted as showing that ethnic loyalty has a stronger influence overMalay men than Malay women realize, and that Chinese greatly under-estimate its strength for Malay men when they have to choose betweenself-interest and ethnic loyalty in deciding which shop to patronize. Itis also possible to take the response given by older Malay women asindicators of how a real Husin Ali's mother would feel, and to usethis as a standard by which to assess others' predictions of her feelings.It is also of importance to note that the Chinese tendency to under-estimate the strength of ethnic loyalty among Malays may mean thatin day-to-day life in Malaysia there are many situations in whichChinese people expect Malays to observe universalist rather thanethnic norms and are disappointed when they do not. This researchprovides no indication of whether Malays are any better at predictingChinese reactions than Chinese are at predicting Malay reactions. Itmay well be the case that Malays are less understanding of Chineseattitudes.1 The comparison is surely worth further study.

The Chinese underestimate of the strength of ethnic loyalty amongMalays is an example of pluralistic ignorance, defined by Floyd Allportin 1924 as an erroneous cognitive belief shared by two or more peopleregarding the ideas, sentiments and actions of others. Most studies ofpluralistic ignorance with respect to racial attitudes examine people's

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beliefs about how members of their own group will judge theirbehaviour in relations with others who are not group members. Theyoften overestimate the likelihood that their peers will be censoriousand are therefore disposed to be careful as a form of risk avoidance(Banton 1986). These studies attempt to explain pluralistic ignoranceas arising because attitudes have been changing. They infer that theinaccuracies stem from conservative underestimates of the rate ofchange. If we speculate from this standpoint about the reasons whyChinese underestimate the strength of ethnic loyalty among Malays,then it may be either that they have overestimated the speed atwhich universalist norms have been spreading in the Malay population(perhaps projecting the values of a more urbanized and politically lesssecure group), or that they have failed to appreciate how strong ethnicsentiment was among Malays thirty years ago. Any such miscalcu-lations must surely be related to the kinds of relationship in whichChinese and Malays typically encounter one another.

Studies of pluralistic ignorance in other countries have detected aconstraint upon inter-group relations stemming from a tendency tooverestimate the likelihood that members of the peer group will becensorious. An individual may refrain from association with someonebelonging to a different group from a fear that his or her peers willdisapprove when in reality very few of them do so. Thus the responseto Question 2, whether Husin Ali wants the doctor's son or thehousemaid's son to be one of his family party when visiting the zoo,may be influenced by Husin Ali's beliefs about whether other Malayswill disapprove of his associating himself with a Chinese family. It ispossible that he may overestimate the likelihood of their disapproval,since various aspects of our research point to significant changes inboth Malay and Chinese attitudes towards inter-group contact. Sopublicity about such changes could reduce the tendency of the con-servative bias to exercise a restraining influence. Research which askedsubjects both how they would feel in such a situation and how theythink others would feel, could make it possible to measure the accu-racy of the beliefs attributed to the peer group.

Conclusions

This research has not overcome the main weakness of the rationalchoice theory, namely, the absence of measures of the values attachingto the alternatives prior to the point of decision. It does not enablethe research worker to conclude that ethnic loyalty is more or lessinfluential than self-interest, because the results reflect the situationsselected and the ways the questions are formulated and then inter-preted by the persons interviewed. Quite small changes in the ques-tions could lead to big differences in the answers. Self-interest and

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personal obligation are not constants that can be abstracted from socialcontexts and used to build a general theory, but they can be used toformulate and group questions that measure the relative importanceattached to conflicting goals.

The technique is limited in its applicability to particular regions,being dependent upon the judicious selection of imaginary situationsthat evoke the desired kinds of response from subjects. Whether com-parable imaginary situations can be devised for use in other countriesremains to be discovered.2 Yet experience with the present studydoes suggest that the technique can generate findings that are boththeoretically interesting and of relevance to official policy. It offerssupport for the view that economic development in Malaysia hasbeen giving rise to situations in which Malay-Chinese interactions aregoverned in whole or part by non-ethnic norms, and provides a methodby which such situations can be identified. Suitably modified, the newtechnique could be used to analyse why particular forms of groupalignment become stronger or weaker. Its use requires that theresearch worker provide a reasoned account of why he or she expecteda particular pattern of response to the questions. Comparison of thefindings with the expectations can then be used to improve understand-ing of the interaction between socio-economic and political changeson the one hand, and attitudes on the other. Use of this techniquecan help explain why, in some situations, people either align withothers or seek to go their own individual way; by so doing, it canhelp explain why, if people align with others, that alignment is on anethnic, class, religious, or some other basis. In this way the techniquemay be able to generate predictions about trends in the strengthening,maintenance or weakening of ethnic boundaries.

Acknowledgement

Professor Miles Hewstone, Dr Christopher Husbands, Professor PeterJ. Wilson and an anonymous editorial adviser kindly read and com-mented upon an earlier draft of this paper.

Notes

1. When this paper was presented at seminars in the Universiti Sains Malaysia andthe University of Malaya, this sentence attracted criticism. Some Malay participantsrejected any suggestion that Malays might be more chauvinistic than Chinese, maintain-ing that Malays will accept Chinese residents in their villages and Chinese partners inmarriage (if Muslim), but that the Chinese were not ready to accept Malays in corre-sponding circumstances.2. As an example of possible application in Britain, it is apposite to consider currentproposals to give parents greater choice in the selection of schools for their children.Some observers fear that such choice will result in segregated schools. To obtain a

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measure of parental preferences for degrees of ethnic mix relative to, say, educationalstandards and travelling time, and whether there is a 'tipping point' at a particularmixture, it would be feasible to devise questions, some of which invite the subject toidentify with a member of his or her own ethnic group who has to choose betweenpossible schools, and others which invite the subject to predict the choices likely to bemade by figures representative of other ethnic groups.

References

BANTON, MICHAEL 1986 'Pluralistic ignorance as a factor in racial attitudes', NewCommunity, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 18-26 and Correction, ibid, vol. 14, nos 1/2, p. 313

1987 Racial Theories, Cambridge: Cambridge University PressMANSOR, MOHD NOOR 1992 'Ethnic alignment in Malaysia', PhD dissertation incourse of submission, University of BristolOSMAN, SANUSI 1981 'The national unity policy and ethnic relations in Malaysiawith special reference to Malacca Town', unpublished PhD thesis, University of Bristol.

MICHAEL BANTON is Professor of Sociology at the University ofBristol.MOHD NOOR MANSOR is a research student in the Department ofSociology at the University of Bristol.ADDRESS: Department of Sociology, University of Bristol, 12 Wood-land Road, Bristol BS8 1UQ, UK.

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