What factors affect the formation of a person’s attitude towards social problems? In our society, contrasting attitudes are prevalent about many social problems. What contrasting attitudes do you notice about the caste system in our society? How do you explain the existence of these contrasting attitudes?

Factors shaping attitudes towards social problems

An attitude is a learned predisposition to respond consistently, favourably or unfavourably, towards an object. Attitudes towards social problems are shaped by: family and primary socialisation (the earliest and strongest influence); education and exposure to reasoned knowledge; reference and peer groups; religion, culture and tradition; direct and vicarious experience; economic and class interests; and the mass media and, increasingly, social media. Political ideology and personal personality traits (openness, empathy) also matter.

Contrasting attitudes towards the caste system

On caste, one notices sharply contrasting attitudes: (i) a reformist-egalitarian attitude that sees caste as an unjust, oppressive hierarchy to be dismantled, supporting affirmative action and inter-caste marriage; and (ii) a conservative-traditional attitude that defends caste as a legitimate social order, hierarchy or identity, sometimes justifying endogamy and untouchability. Between these lie ambivalent positions, condemning caste in principle while practising it in marriage and social choice.

Why these contrasting attitudes coexist

They persist because attitudes are rooted in different socialisation and interests, the privileged may defend a system that benefits them (self-interest), while the disadvantaged reject it (experience of humiliation). Uneven spread of modern education, selective religious interpretation, and the gap between constitutional morality and lived social custom keep both attitudes alive.