The Lost Letter Technique as a Measure of Community Attitudes Toward a Major Social Issue

Abstract

A test of the validity of Milgram's lost letter technique (LLT) to measure community attitudes toward a sensitive social issue about which there are strong emotional feelings was conducted. This was accomplished by comparing the lost letter return rates with the results of a questionnaire study which measured the same attitudes in the same community. The sensitive social issue used in this study was busing to achieve a racial balance. The data from the questionnaire study indicated strong support for busing by blacks and strong opposition to busing by whites. The results of the lost letter technique were significantly different from those of the questionnaire. The LLT found approximately the same attitudes toward busing among both blacks and whites with almost half opposed to busing while just over half supported busing. The ability of the lost letter technique to provide a reliable unobtrusive attitudlnal measure on a sensitive social issue thus appears doubtful.