Attitudes & Attitude Change

Influencing Thought & Feelings

Attitudes are made up of three components (the ABCs)

* Affective: Emotional reaction to object
* Behavioural: Actions or observable behaviour toward object
* Cognitive: Thoughts & beliefs about the object - information & knowledge

Where do attitudes come from?

Genetic inheritance

* indirect function of our genes
* identical twins share more attitudes than fraternal

Social experience

* cumulative experiences throughout lives
* innumerable forms of influence

Four social factors which influence attitude formation

* experience
* social roles & norms
* observing people in environment
* classical & operant conditioning

Cognitively based attitudes

based primarily on people’s beliefs about properties of an object

Affectively based attitudes

based more on people’s feelings and values than on beliefs about nature of object

Affect based attitudes

do not come (primarily) from examining facts or from logic.

* values
* sensory reactions
* aesthetic reactions
* conditioning - either operant or classical

Classical conditioning

a stimulus that elicits an emotional response is paired with neutral stimulus, repeat until neutral stimulus takes on emotional properties of first stimulus (pavlov)

Operant conditioning

freely chosen behaviours increase or decrease when followed by reinforcement or punishment (carrot/stick)

Behaviour based attitudes

based on observations of how one behaves toward an object (self-perception theory)

Explicit attitude

consciously endorse and can easily report

rooted largely in recent experiences

Implicit attitudes

involuntary, uncontrollable, and at times unconscious

rooted largely in childhood experiences

attitude accessibility

the strength of the association between an attitude object and a person’s evaluation of that object, measured by the speed with which people can report how they feel about the object.

Predicts spontaneous behaviour, every day events

Theory of planned behaviour

People’s intentions are best predictors of deliberate behaviours. Intentions determined by


1. attitudes towards specific behaviours
* people’s specific attitude toward the behaviour, not general attitude
2. subjective norms
* Belief about how other people they care about will view behaviour in question
3. perceived behavioural control
* the ease with which people belief they can perform the behaviour

How do attitudes change?

Often due to social influence, what other people do/say, imagined or actual behaviour of others, entire premise of advertising


1. by changing behaviour (cognitive dissonance, hypocrisy induction)
2. persuasive communications (Yale attitude change, elaboration likelihood)

The Yale Attitude Change Approach

“Who said what to whom?”

Who: Source of communication

* Expertise, attractiveness?

What: Nature of communication

* Quality of argument, both sides presented?

Whom: Nature of the audience

* hostile or friendly?

Elaboration Likelihood Model

An explanation of the two ways in which persuasive communications can cause attitude change

* Central route
* Peripheral route

When is peripheral route to persuasion active?

When people lack the motivation or ability to pay attention to the arguments - instead swayed by the surface characteristics & peripheral cues

What role do emotions play in attitude change?

* increasing attention to persuasive communications
* shaping our attitudes as heuristics
* influencing how we react to persuasion attempts

Disgust and anger in persuasive communication

creates negative attitudes and induces avoidance

induce anger to solidify shared values/create a sense of urgency for action

how does being in a GOOD mood shape how we process persuasive messaging

relaxed, assume the world is a safe place.

* more content to use heuristic cues
* more open to weak messaging/peripheral cues

how does being in a BAD mood shape how we process persuasive messaging

alert, defensive

* more skeptical; attentive to arguments and message quality
* less open to weak/peripheral messaging

attitude inoculation

making people immune to attempts to change their attitudes by initially exposing them to small doses of the arguments against their position

Reactance theory

the ‘don’t tell me what to do!’ effect.

when people feel their freedom to do/think what they want is threatened by persuasion attempts, an unpleasant state of reactance is aroused, which can be reduced by performing the threatening behaviour.