ABSTRACT
Chapter 1 contains an introduction to the research topic. The question this probability probe is addressing is why some individuals within the “Non-West” have negative attitudes towards the “West,” why some have positive attitudes towards the “West,” and why some have mixed attitudes towards the “West.” In this chapter the general advances of researching this puzzle in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu (TN) are outlined. The strong influence of rationalist thought in TN allows for almost excluding the variable “culture” for any explanation of attitudes towards the “West.” In this setting a theoretical model can be probed that takes an individual’s expression of the personality trait authoritarianism, an individual’s socioeconomic status, and individual experiences of rejection as important factors for the formation of attitudes towards the “West.”
