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Scottish Social Attitudes 2006

About this study

The Scottish Social Attitudes survey has tracked the views of people in Scotland on a range of social, moral and political issues since 1999. Every year, around 1,500 people are interviewed on a wide range of different topics.

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Questions on the 2006 survey

The 2006 survey was funded by the Scottish Executive, the UK Department of Trade and Industry and the Leverhulme Trust. The topics covered in 2006 included:

The Scottish Executive and the then UK Department of Trade and Industry funded questions on SSA 2006 to assess the extent and character of discriminatory attitudes in Scotland, and to explore why people hold such attitudes. The questions covered attitudes to discrimination on grounds of age, disability, gender, race, religion or belief, and sexual orientation. A
full report and summary findings can be accessed on the Scottish Government website. Questions on discrimination and attitudes towards different groups were also included in SSA 2002 and SSA 2010, allowing us to examine the changing nature of attitudes towards different groups of people over time.

SSA 2006 continued a long-running series of questions (funded by the Scottish Government since 2004) on public attitudes to government. These explore issues including political trust and what impact devolution is seen as having on Scotland's voice in the UK. Findings are available online in a report and summary for the Scottish Government.

SSA 2006 included a series of questions (funded by the Scottish Government) which aimed to establish a baseline picture of public attitudes towards homelessness in Scotland. These explored issues including general beliefs and attitudes to 'myths' about homelessness, and attitudes to the help and assistance provided to homeless people. Findings are available online in a report and summary for the Scottish Government.

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National identity

Questions on attitudes to national identity across the UK have been included regularly on both SSA and the British Social Attitudes survey (BSA). Findings from the 2006 survey were published in a chapter from the 24th Report of the British Social Attitudes series and explore changes in national identities over time, whether national identity actually matters to people and whether the English and the Scots differ in their perception and use of national identity. For more detailed information on the design of the questions and the findings, please contact David McCrone (d.mccrone@ed.ac.uk) or Frank Bechhofer (f.bechhofer@ed.ac.uk) at Edinburgh University. The research was funded by a grant from The Leverhulme Trust.

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