Unfavorable publicity is frightening people away from positions of public responsibility just at the time when new talent is most needed, civil administration expert Robert Moses told a Littauer gathering yesterday.

Moses, long-time chairman of the New York State Parks and Parkways Commission and holder of numerous other municipal and state administrative posts, warned against growing fear of public office in a speech which touched on numerous aspects of public administration.

Recent investigations of public officials and incidents like the Army-McCarthy dispute "have had an appalling effect on the attraction of public life," he said. "I find more and more difficulty in getting people to accept responsibility."

Because of the simultaneous expansion of the functions of government on national and local levels, there is a greater need than ever before for better and abler people in all its fields.

Moses also discussed the problems that the decentralization of the modern city poses for the municipal and suburban administrations.