• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.259-284
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• 2021

The present study was conducted to develop and validate a psychological scale that measures individuals' attitude toward unification of Korea (ATU-K). Building on major theoretical perspectives on the structure of attitude and the attitude-behavior link, we specified two sub-components each representing the cognitive and the affective dimension of people's attitude toward unification. In a survey that involved a stratified sample of Korean adults (N = 1,500), we found strong evidence showing the construct validity of the ATU-K scale. We also found evidence for the convergent and discriminant validity of the scale. In a second survey involving another stratified sample of 1,500 Korean adults, we found the utility of the ATU-K scale in predicting people's intention to engage in unification-oriented behaviors (personal/collective). We also found that the ATU-K scale fares better in predicting the intention vis-a-vis the other measures of unification-related beliefs reported in previous research. We discuss implications of our findings and directions for future research.