Social Psychology: Nature and Formation of Attitudes

Definition: An attitude is an association in memory between an object and a summary evaluation of that object. It is not a general mood or outlook on life.
Attitude Objects: Can include people, animals, things, places, or abstract concepts like "FREEDOM."
Key Properties: * Valence: Whether an attitude is positive, negative, neutral, or mixed (ambivalent). * Extremity: How far the evaluation deviates from neutral (e.g., "a little" versus "a lot"). * Strength (Accessibility): How quickly an attitude comes to mind. Strong attitudes are highly accessible, more extreme, resistant to change, persistent over time, and predictive of behavior.
Asch (1948) Insight: Objects change across time and context; as objects change, so do their evaluations.

Affect (Feelings): * Mere Exposure Effect: Zajonc (1968) found that repeated exposure to an object increases liking up to a point, after which boredom or annoyance may occur. This is driven by processing fluency. * Evaluative Conditioning: Attitudes form by associating an object with something already liked or disliked (e.g., Staats & Staats, 1958; sex appeal in advertising).
Behavior (Observation): * Self-Perception: Lepper, Greene, & Nisbett (1973) demonstrated that we observe our own behavior to infer our attitudes (e.g., interest in markers based on whether an award was expected).
Cognition (Beliefs): * Learning: Hovland et al. (1953) proposed that attitudes form as we learn about the positive and negative qualities of an object (e.g., coffee is "warm" and "tasty" but "expensive").

The LaPiere (1934) Study: Despite current anti-Chinese racism in the U.S., where $92\%$ of restaurant/hotel owners claimed they would not serve Chinese people, LaPiere and a Chinese couple were only refused at $1$ out of $66$ hotels and $0$ out of $184$ restaurants.
Specificity Principle: General attitudes do not predict specific behaviors well. Correlations ( $r-values$ ) for birth control use illustrate this: * Attitude toward birth control: $0.083$ * Attitude toward birth control pills: $0.323$ * Attitude toward using birth control pills: $0.525$ * Attitude toward using birth control pills during the next two years: $0.572$
Theory of Planned Behavior: Behavior is determined by intentions, which are influenced by three factors: 1. Specific Attitude: Evaluation of the specific behavior. 2. Subjective Norms: Perceptions of social pressure from others. 3. Perceived Control: One's belief in their ability to perform the behavior.

Direct Measures (Self-Report): * Likert Scales: Example range from $1$ (Strongly Disagree) to $7$ (Strongly Agree). * Semantic Differential: Rating an object on scales like bad/good or gross/tasty (ranging $-3$ to $+3$ ).
Indirect Measures: Used to reduce socially-desirable responding regarding sensitive topics (race, narcissism, etc.). * Physiological: Facial EMG (muscle activity), EEG (brain activity). * Nonverbal: Eye contact, seating distance. * Implicit Measures: Evaluative Priming Procedure (EPP) and the Implicit Association Test (IAT).

Practice Scenario 1 (Ambivalence): Damien loves Legos but steals them. He feels bad about stealing but enjoys the thrill. His attitude toward Lego theft is Ambivalent.
Practice Scenario 2 (Subjective Norms): Franzl likes yodeling and is at a funeral with great acoustics. Will he yodel? Likely no, because the subjective norms of a funeral service override his positive attitude toward yodeling.
Practice Scenario 3 (Perceived Control): Robert supports a charity but cannot afford his own bills. Will he donate? Likely no, because his perceived control (financial ability) is too low to form an intention to donate.
Demonstration Message: When participants were shown a quote about protest, their attitudes varied because they were shown different "attitude objects" (e.g., attributing the quote to different sources), proving that evaluations change when the object of focus changes.