Attitudes and Attitude Change

Attitudes & Attitude Change

What is Meant by Attitude?

• An evaluative orientation toward a specific object, encompassing:
  • Affect: Emotions and feelings.
  • Cognition: Beliefs and ideas.
  • Behavior: Predispositions to act.

Components of Attitude

• Cognitive Component: Beliefs and ideas.
  • Example: "Gun owners end up shooting themselves more often than they shoot thieves."
• Affective Component: Emotions and feelings.
  • Example: "Guns frighten me."
• Behavioral Component: Predispositions to act.
  • Example: "I vote for gun-control advocates whenever possible."

Origins of Attitudes

• Cognitively-based: Formed from beliefs.
• Affectively-based: Formed via learning.
  • Classical Conditioning: Associating a stimulus with an emotion.
  • Operant Conditioning: Learning through rewards and punishments.
• Behaviorally-based: Self-perception.
• Genetically-based: Possibly influenced by genetics.

The Attitude-Behavior Link

• Attitudes often do not predict behavior well.
  • LaPiere (1934)
  • Wicker (1969)
• When do attitudes predict behavior?
  • Strength/Accessibility
  • Direct vs. Indirect Acquisition
  • Congruent specificity

Specific Attitudes as Predictors of Behavior

• The more specific the question, the better it predicted their actual use of birth control.

Table 7.1: Specific Attitudes Are Better Predictors of Behavior

• A correlation close to 0 means no relationship.
• The closer to 1, the stronger the relationship.

When Attitudes Predict Behavior

• Strength/Accessibility
• Direct vs. Indirect Acquisition
• Congruent specificity
• Social Desirability

Theory of Planned Behavior

• Specific attitude toward the behavior.
• Subjective Norms
• Perceived behavioral control.
• Behavioral Intention.
• Behavior.

The Role of Automaticity in Attitude-Behavior Relations

• Explicit (Conscious) Attitudes
• Implicit (Non-Conscious) Attitudes

Persuasion - The Process of Attitude Change

• Key Concepts
  • Source: Who or what is doing the persuading.
  • Target: The person at whom the persuasion attempt is directed.
  • Message: The content and nature of the persuasive message.
  • Discrepancy: The distance of the message from the target’s current attitude.

Central & Peripheral Routes to Persuasion

• Central Route: High effort, analytical processing; involves elaborating on arguments, leading to enduring agreement.
• Peripheral Route: Low effort; uses cues and heuristics, often leading to temporary agreement.

Source Variables in Persuasion

• Attractiveness
• Credibility
  • Perceived Expertise
    • Credentials
    • Speech Cues
  • Perceived Trustworthiness
    • Self Interest
    • Perception of persuasive intent

Target Variables in Persuasion

• Expertise
• Involvement/Self-Relevance
• Self-esteem
• Need for cognition
• Gender
• Mood
  • Janis et al. Yale “peanuts & Pepsi” study
  • The effect of fear (Leventhal et al. 1967)

Positive Mood Enhances Persuasive Effect (Janis et al., 1965)

Reading with no snack vs Reading with snack

Fear + Preventive Information = Attitude/Behavior Change (Leventhal et al., 1967)

Information only vs Film only vs Film + Information

Message Variables

• 1 vs. 2-sided message

Persuasive Effect of 1 vs. 2-sided message depends on target's initial position (Hovland et al., 1949)

Initially opposed vs Initially agreed

Message Variables

• Discrepancy from target’s current position
  • If the message falls within the Latitude of Rejection, there is no attitude change.
  • Small attitude change occurs within the Latitude of Acceptance.
  • Greater attitude change occurs when considering the Latitude of Non-Commitment.

Message Discrepancy interacts with Source Credibility (Aronson, Turner, & Carlsmith, 1963)

T.S. Eliot vs A. Stearns

Message Variables

• Strength/Quality of Argument
  • When does it make a difference?
    • Target mood (Bless et al., 1990)
    • Target involvement (Petty, Cacioppo, et al. 1981)

Effect of Argument Strength Depends on Target Mood (Bless et al., 1990)

Weak Argument vs Strong Argument

Effect of Argument Strength Depends on Target Involvement

Weak Argument vs Strong Argument

Effecting Attitude Change

• Matching persuasion attempt to attitude basis
• The phenomenon of Psychological Reactance
• Resisting attitude change through Attitude Inoculation
• How effective is subliminal persuasion?

Matching Persuasion Attempt to Attitude Basis (Shavitt, 1990)

Affectively-based ad vs Cognitively-based ad

When Persuasion Backfires: Psychological Reactance (Pennebaker & Sanders, 1978)

Request vs Demand

Attitude Inoculation against Peer Pressure to Smoke (Hirschman & Leventhal, 1989)

Control vs Inoculated

Subliminal Persuasion: Does It Work?