This paper discusses a survey undertaken to determine how children of different sexes and of different religious/ethnic groups in the Middle East form political attitudes. In this survey, special emphasis was placed on the rate of development of the assumed political attitudes, the age and grade level of the emergence of clear political preferences, variations between ethnic and religious groups in rate of development, and sex differences. The hypothesis was that flags would be symbolic of political attitudes because they are important indicators of identification with political, religious, and social causes. The sample consisted of 1,541 males and females (ages seven through 18) in Israel and the West Bank. The group represented Christians, Moslems, nonorthodox Jews, and Orthodox Jews (Israel); and Christians and Moslems (West Bank). The survey was based on projective responses to questions about the attractiveness of 20 flags in four categories--flags of Israel and her neighbors, other Middle Eastern countries, world powers with important concerns in the Middle East, and other countries not strongly identified with the Middle East. Students were directed to pick the most attractive flag, then the next most attractive, until all flags were chosen. Findings indicated that all children had a fairly sophisticated judgment of key flags by the age of seven, Israeli Christians differentiated flags early but changed preferences as they became older, Jewish children tended to develop flag sophistication somewhat earlier than average, West Bank children tended to develop this sophistication somewhat later, and sex differences were greatest among Jews. The conclusion is that political attitudes can be measured by a projective instrument such as the flag scale. (DB)