Attitude

Tanusree Dutta
 Related to feelings and beliefs

Response to person, object or events

SALIENT FEATURES
of ATTIUDES
Affects behaviour either positively or
negatively

Attitudes undergo changes

 ATTITUDE INFLUENCES THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS

ATTITUDE IS A STATE OF MIND

Attitude and ATTITUDE IS A MIND-SET

behaviour
THEY INDICATE ONE’S FEELINGS EITHER FAVORABLY OR
UNFAVORABLY TO PERSONS OBJECTS AND OR EVENTS

WITH RIGHT ATTITUDE YOU CAN SEE OPPORTUNITY

The ABC of attitude

Cognitive
(thoughts)

BEHAVIOUR
(actions &
Affective
reactions )
(feelings)
 Attitudes are not inherited

Acquired or learned by people

from the environment in which
Formation of attitudes they interact

Formation of attitudes can broadly

be classified in to two sources
namely
• Direct experience
• Social Learning
 One’s direct experience with an
object or person serves as a
powerful source for his or her
LEARNING ATTITUDES FROM attitude formation
OBSERVATION- DIRECT
LEARNING
Attitudes are formed on the basis
of one’s past experience in
concerned object or person
  In social learning a person acquires
attitudes from his or her
environment in an indirect manner
PROCESS OF  The process of deriving attitudes
LEARNING from family, peer groups, religious
ATTITUDES FROM organizations and culture is called
OBSERVATION- social learning
SOCIAL LEARNING  They acquire it mainly by observing
their Role models
PROCESS OF LEARNING ATTITUDES FROM OBSERVATION- SOCIAL EARNING

 Attention – (focus on something )

 Retention – ( what is observed must be retained )

 Reproduction – (Behaviour is practiced repeatedly)

 Motivation – ( learner must be motivated to learn from it)

ROLE OF CULTURE IN ATTITUDE FORMATION

• Culture plays a definitive role in the formation of attitudes

• Western cultures stress independence and individualism, whereas Asian

cultures stress interdependence
Functions of attitude

Ego defensive function: Protect the ego or self image, justifying a wrong decision

Adjustment function: Utilitarian concept of maximizing reward and minimizing

punishment

Value expressive function: Tool for expressing personal values

Knowledge function: Your attitude encourages you to seek a particular knowledge

 Attitude and decision making

Perception /Appraisal Evaluation of choice Attitude determine

of the situation option decision
Attitude and risk
taking behaviour
• Tendency to engage risk taking
behaviour is a reflection of
attitude
 Thrill

Causes of risk taking

behaviour

Exploration
Risk taking attitude

I know it all Rigidity I take my own decisions

Difficulty in perspective
Faulty thinking Here and now thinking
taking
Types of risk takers and their behaviour

Cautious Middle of
risk taker the roader

Adventurer/
Dangerous
high end
risk taker
risk taker
 Do you feel pressurized to make risky choices by
friends?
Do you rush into decisions?

Some Do you think it is “uncool” to try things in a safe

manner?
introspective Are dangerous risks more exciting?
questions
Do you make dangerous choices to show others?

Does it feel as though it's happening "in a dream"

when you make dangerous choices?
 Self Perception Theory

Theory by Psychologist Daryl Bem

Theory (1972)

In a novel situation an individuals

develops an attitude (internal)
based on their behaviour (external)
 Situation I
• Get up in and try walking down the room taking
long strides, swinging your arms and smiling

Lets imagine a self Situation II

perception effect • Walk across the room with your head drooped
down, shoulders slouching, eyes looking down at
the floor taking small strides

• What would be the effect?

Takeaway

• People who are induced to act as if they feel

something. report feeling it

• The dish is unknown

• The thought is= I am eating something healthy so it
must be good for me
 Attitude of Maximizers Vs Satisficers: Economic Psychology Perspective

• Approaches to decision making include-Maximizers and satisficers

• Maximiser - a person who strives to make a choice that will give them the maximum benefit later on

• Satisficer- whose choices are determined by more modest criteria

• We expect that the outcome of maximizers would be superior

• The contradiction is that maximisers are often less effective in a decision-making environment, and
suffer under the pressure of high self-expectations

• Satisficers consider what they want to gain or preserve from a situation, then evaluate their options
to find the solution that meets their requirements.
 Study by Scott (1976)

Group I: Asked to subscribe a newsletter at a regular

price

A case to solve: Understanding the Group II : Asked to subscribe a newsletter at

economic behaviour perspective different discounted price

After the trial period is over both the groups were

asked to subscribe the newsletter at a regular price

What do you think would be the impact and why?

 Large incentives for trial period did not
subscribe at the regular price

Why did this happen?

Analysis
Behaviour was ascribed to the external
factor of reward and intrinsic interest in
the task was discounted

Rewards enhanced interest in activities

 Implication in Economic Psychology

• “I do it for money” Vs “ I do not do it for

money”

Attitude Change :Cognitive If people with such attitude are asked to behave to
Dissonance the contrary

What would be the impact?

How would they resolve the situation?

Elaboration Likelihood model

• Two routes to persuasion and attitude

change
• Central route- Cognitive
• Peripheral route- Emotional/ Affective
• Impact on behaviour
Attitude change

Reinforcement: Incentive Theory

• Adopting an attitude that maximizes gains
• Consider importance and value

Implication for economic behaviour: Caselet

• Early in the history of Xerox, Joe Wilson, couldn’t understand how their better,
new machine was selling so poorly in relation to their older and inferior machine
• He found out that the commission arrangement with the salesmen gave a
tremendous incentive to the inferior machine
Economic incentive and change of attitude

• All packages had to be shifted rapidly in one central location each

night
• Federal Express was having a hard time getting the thing to work
• They tried moral suasion, they tried everything in the world, and
finally somebody got the happy thought that they were paying the
night shift by the hour, and that maybe if they paid them by the
shift, the system would work better
• Solution worked
 Information based persuasive communication helps change
attitude
Depends on the thoughts evoked by the message

Positive thoughts leads to acceptance

Cognitive
Negative thoughts lead to rejection
response
theory Implication on economic behaviour

Consumer polling

Consumer feedback
Attitude and commitment
 Commitment based on a person’s
identification and involvement with an
organization

Affective
Commitment
People with high affective commitment stay
with an organization because they want to
Working here has a I would be very happy
I feel like part of the
great deal of personal to spend the rest of
family at this company
meaning my career here
 Commitment based on the costs
that would be incurred in leaving
an organization

Continuance People with high continuance

Commitment commitment stay with an
organization because they have to

Pay, pensions, benefits, etc.

 • Commitment based on ideology or a feeling
of obligation to an organization

• People with high normative commitment

stay with an organization because they
Normative think they should do so
Commitment
• I owe a great deal to my company
• I would feel guilty if I quit this firm
• I feel a sense of obligation to this firm