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Theories of attitude formation and

attitude change
A variety of theories attempt to explain attitude formation and
attitude change from various aspects of emotional life, behavior, and
cognition.

Social judgment theory:


The Social Judgment theory of attitude change was proposed by
Carl Hovland and Muzafer Sherif. This theory attempts to explain how
attitude change is influenced by judgmental processes. The key idea of
Social Judgment theory can be understood and explained in terms of
"attribution" and other "communication processes." "Attribution" is the
process by which people decide why certain events occurred or why a
particular person acted in a certain manner. The following factors
influence the person's attribution: internal versus external causes of own
behavior and the behaviors of others, consistency consensus, a certain
person's role as an "actor" or a "receiver" in a particular situation.

A study of weight perception illustrates the theory.


Participants are asked to categorize several small weights by
weight class based only on lifting each one in turn. A control group
C categorized the weights roughly evenly across six weight
classes, while another group A was asked to lift a much heavier
weight before each test weight. This group categorized most
weights in the lowest weight class, with decreasing quantities in
each successively higher weight class. The third group B lifted a
weight only as heavy as the highest weight class before judging
each other weight; this group categorized most weights into the
highest weight class, with decreasing quantities in successively
lower classes; the opposite result of group A, and contrary to
predictions of the contrast effect. Hovland and Sherif called this
effect, where things start to seem more like their context (the heavy
weight), and the assimilation effect. In terms of anchoring and
adjustment, when an anchor (the heavy weight) approaches the
range of possible judgments (the six weight classes), the
categorization or judgment shifts from contrast to assimilation.
When applied to social judgments, these effects show that the most
effective position to advocate for changing another's attitude
judgment is the most extreme position within that person's "latitude
of acceptance," within which assimilation effects will make your
position seem more like their own. Beyond this latitude lies the
latitude of rejection, within which any position will be seen as
more different from one's own due to contrast effects.

Functional theory of Attitude Formation:


 Utilitarian Function: use to obtain rewards and avoid
punishments.
 Ego-Defensive Function: self-protection, e.g., smokers
 Knowledge Function: simplifies decisions, e.g., brand loyalty
 Value-Expressive Function: express identify to others. e.g., t-shirts

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