Ethnic attitudes in Pakistan

We tested if Punjabi students in Pakistan share, as a group, an ethnic hier archy and exhibit the same types of prejudice Found in the West. The sample is 192 students at the Punjab College of Business Administration in Lahore in 1996. The students responded to a questionnaire in English, with questi ons nearly identical to those previously used by American and Dutch researc hers. Principle component analysis revealed that respondents shared an ethn ic hierarchy of out-groups in social distance, with Pathans at the least an d Muhajirs at the most social distance. Factor analysis showed that these s tudents distinguished among aversive, symbolic, acid biological prejudice p arallel to American and Dutch results. There were two subtypes of symbolic prejudice, one in reference to the Pakistani quota system (affirmative acti on) and another to its uneven regional and ethnic development. Discussion c enters on reasons that a shared ethnic hierarchy and types of prejudice fou nd in Western countries appear in this Islamic country as well. (C) 2001 El sevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.