From 1959 to 1961, Rokeach conducted a well-known experiment at the
Ypsilanti State Hospital in which he observed the interaction of three mentally ill patients, each of whom believed he was
Jesus Christ. The resulting publication,
The Three Christs of Ypsilanti, was Rokeach's most famous research in values and beliefs, and was subsequently adapted into a screenplay, a stage play, two operas and a movie. In addition, Rokeach conducted a mid-20th–century study in the
Southern United States, where he tried to determine the basis for
racial prejudice. He found racial prejudice to be inversely related to socio-economic status and thus concluded that such bias is used in an attempt to elevate one's own status. Rokeach studied long-term attitude change, which earned his ranking as the 26th most frequently cited psychologist at that time in social science abstracts. In the final years of his career, Rokeach wrote
The Nature of Human Values (1973) which served as the test manual for the
Rokeach Value Survey (see
values scales). Rokeach also did experimental work in problem-solving, and additional factor analyses on the construction of a scale to measure dogmatism. In the book, he posited that relatively few "terminal
human values" are the internal reference points that all people use to formulate attitudes and opinions. Furthermore, by measuring the "relative ranking" of the values, one could predict a wide variety of behaviors, including political affiliation and religious belief. This theory led to a series of experiments in which changes in values led to measurable changes. ==Personal life==