Key Concepts in Attitudes and Decision Making

Key Concepts in Beliefs and Attitudes

Beliefs

  • Definition: A cognitive statement about what is true or false; can be descriptive, informational, or inferential.

    • Descriptive belief: Based on direct observation.

    • Informational belief: Based on information from others.

    • Inferential belief: Formed by filling in gaps when information is missing.

Attitudes

  • Components of Attitude Base:

    • Affective attitude base: Formed from emotions and feelings.

    • Behavioral attitude base: Formed from past behavior or behavioral intentions.

    • Cognitive attitude base: Formed from beliefs and thoughts.

Measurement of Attitudes

  • Likert scale: Attitude measure using agreement ratings (e.g., 1–7).

  • Semantic differential scale: Attitude measure using bipolar adjective pairs (e.g., Good–Bad).

Importance of Multiple Attitude Questions

  • Improves reliability and captures the full construct of the attitude.

Wicker Finding

  • Attitudes weakly predict behavior (approx. $r = 0.30$).

Theory of Reasoned Action

  • Behavior is guided by behavioral intention, which is influenced by:

    • Attitude toward behavior

    • Subjective norms: Beliefs about others' expectations and motivation to comply.

Processing Types

  • High involvement processing: Thoughtful, analytical consideration of information; central cue use.

  • Low involvement processing: Minimal thought; reliance on heuristics and peripheral cues.

MODE Model

  • Motivation and Opportunity determine DEliberation (MODE): Explains how motivation and opportunity influence the amount of deliberation in decision-making.

  • Attitude accessibility: How quickly an attitude is retrieved from memory.

    • Regan & Fazio Study: Showed that high attitude accessibility predicts behavior more accurately.

    • Sanbonmatsu & Fazio Study: Found that low motivation leads to reliance on general attitudes instead of specific attributes.

Persuasion Processes

  • Central route: Thoughtful, argument-focused persuasion.

  • Peripheral route: Cue-based persuasion using attractiveness, music, humor, etc.

Elaboration

  • The amount of thinking devoted to a persuasive message.

  • Razor Study: Suggested that high involvement leads to central cues being important while low involvement leads to peripheral cues being significant.

Consumer Choice

  • Consideration set: The smaller set of brands a consumer actively considers.

    • Alba & Chattopadhyay Finding: Adding more alternatives can reduce preference due to confusion.

  • Attraction Effect: Adding a dominated decoy increases preference for a target brand.

  • Compromise Effect: Middle options become more attractive when extreme options exist.

Types of Choices

  • Stimulus choice: Decision where all options are physically present.

  • Memory choice: Decision requiring recall of options from memory.

  • Mixed choice: One option present, others recalled.

  • Attitude-based choice: Choosing based on overall liking or affect.

  • Attribute-based choice: Choosing by comparing features.

Heuristics in Decision Making

  • Length = strength: More arguments seem more persuasive regardless of quality.

  • Liking heuristic: People comply more when they like the source.

  • Consensus heuristic: People assume popular options are good options.

  • Representativeness heuristic: Judging probability based on similarity to a prototype.

  • Availability heuristic: Judging likelihood based on how easily examples come to mind.

  • Anchoring heuristic: Using an initial value and insufficiently adjusting.

Decision Rules

  • Lexicographic rule: Choose based on the most important attribute.

  • Elimination-by-aspects: Eliminate options that fail attribute cutoffs.

  • Conjunctive rule: Option must meet all minimum cutoffs.

  • Disjunctive rule: Option must excel on at least one key attribute.

  • Affect referral: Choose the brand you like most without analysis.

Brand and Self-Concept

  • Brand Positivity Effect: More positive evaluations in singular versus comparative evaluations.

  • Self-concept: Beliefs about who we are.

  • Extended self: The idea that possessions reflect identity.

  • High self-monitors: Adapt behavior; respond strongly to image-based marketing.

  • Low self-monitors: Base choices on internal values; respond to functional benefits.

Compliance Strategies

  • Ingratiation: Strategy to increase liking through flattery or conformity.

  • Brand personality: Human-like traits associated with a brand.

  • Need for cognition (NFC): Tendency to enjoy thinking; high NFC uses central processing.

Automaticity and Compliance

  • Automaticity principle: People act without thought; triggered responses occur.

  • Langer Study: Showed that saying “because…” increases compliance even with weak reasons.

  • Foot-in-the-door: A small request followed by a larger request utilizing the consistency principle.

  • Low-balling: Get commitment first, then change terms.

  • Door-in-the-face: Large request followed by smaller request; utilizes the principle of reciprocity.

  • Cann et al. Study: Compared effectiveness of FITD vs. DITF.

  • That's Not All Technique: Bonus added before decision increases compliance; based on reciprocity principles.

Scarcity Principle

  • People infer that scarcity equals value; urgency increases motivation to act.

Social Validation

  • Latane & Darley Study: Demonstrated social validation and diffusion of responsibility.

  • BIRGing: Associating with successful others to boost self-image.

  • CORFing: Distancing from failing others to protect self-image.

  • Milgram Study: Showed strong obedience to authority figures.

Requirements for Causality

  • Correlation, temporal precedence, and no confounds are necessary to establish causality.

Associative Network Model

  • Memory is viewed as nodes and links; activation spreads to connected ideas.