What is attitude?

Psychological tendency that is

expressed by evaluating a
particular entity with some degree
of favor or disfavor (Eagly &
Chaiken, 1993)
 Why Study Attitudes?
Attitudes are important because they:
• strongly influence our social thought
– help to organize and evaluate stimuli (e.g.,
categorizing stimuli as positive or
negative)
• presumably have a strong effect on
behavior
– help to predict people’s behavior in wide
range of contexts (e.g., voting,
interpersonal relations)
 Attitude Formation
• Social learning
• Social comparison
• Genetic factors
 Attitude Formation
• social learning- acquire attitudes from
others
– classical conditioning: learning based on
association
– Operant conditioning: learn to hold the “right”
views that reward
– Vicarious conditioning/observational
learning: learning by observing actions of
others and exposure to mass media
 Classical Conditioning
UCS

Meat UCR

Salivate

CR

Bell

CS
 Attitude Formation (con’t)
• social comparison- compare ourselves
to others to determine if our view of reality
is correct
– attitudes are shaped by social information
from others we like or respect
• genetic factors- inherited general
dispositions (e.g., see world in a positive
or negative light)
 Why do people have attitudes?
Functions of attitudes (Katz)
• Utilitarian (instrumental)
• Ego-defensive
• Value expressive
• Knowledge
 Utilitarian Function

• Serves to alert us to rewarding

objects and situations we should
approach, and costly or punishing
objects or situations we should avoid.
 Ego-defensive Function
• Enables us to maintain cherished beliefs about
ourselves by protecting us from awareness of our
negative attributes and impulses or from facts that
contradict our cherished beliefs.
• If a person holds a prejudiced attitudes toward
minority groups, these tend to increase when they
have just suffered a misfortune such as losing their
job. (Erwin, 2001)
• People who believe that the world is a fair place
tend to blame the victims of crime for being
victimized. (Putwain & Sammons, 2001)
Value expressive Function
 Knowledge Function

• Helps to make the world more

understandable, predictable and
‘knowable,’ as well as increasing the
efficiency of information processing
• Stereotypes
 Influences on Attitude Functions

• Individual differences
• Attitude object
• Situational variations
• A word on multi-function objects
 Why do we care about the
attitude functions?

Message appeals that match person’s

attitude function are more persuasive!
 How are attitudes measured?
Explicit Measures

• Semantic Differential Scale

• Single-item rating scale
• Thurston scale
• Likert scale
 Semantic Differential Scale

The United Nations

Good ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ Bad
Undesirable ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ Desirable
Positive ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ Negative
Harmful ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ Beneficial

The World Health Organization

Good ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ Bad
Undesirable ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ Desirable
Positive ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ Negative
Harmful ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ Beneficial
 Single-item Attitude Measures

To what extent do you consider yourself to be favorable or

unfavorable toward the United Nations?

extremely extremely
favorable ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ unfavorable

To what extent do you consider yourself to be favorable or

unfavorable toward the World Health Organization?

extremely extremely
favorable ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ unfavorable
 Thurston Scale

• I believe the church is the greatest institution

in America today (.2)
• I think the organized church is an enemy of
science and truth (10.7)
• I believe in religion but I seldom go to church
(5.4)
Likert Scale
 How are attitudes measured?
Visually Oriented Scales
– Visual Analog Scale (VAS)
How are attitudes measured?
Implicit Measures
– Implicit Association Test (IAT)

https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/
takeatest.html

– Affect Misattribution Procedure (AMP)

Implicit Association Test (IAT)
Affect Misattribution Procedure
 How are attitudes measured?
Indirect Methods
– Information error tests
– Inferring from appearance
– Association membership
– Behavioral indicators of attitudes
• Non-verbal cues observation
• Lost letters technique
• Popularity of a paining and wear marks on tiles
• What people like and what they eat (garbage can analysis)
– Physiological indicators of attitudes
• Galvanic skin reflex (GSR)
• Pupillary response measure
• Facial electromyographic (EMG) recordings
 Attitude-Behavior Link
• Attitudes do not always predict behavior
– LaPiere (1934) found that virtually all
businesses served Chinese couple
courteously, yet most owners held negative
attitudes
– Sun-worshippers know the dangers of
exposure to the sun, yet they tan anyway
• “looking good” attitude takes precedence over
attitudes toward personal health
 LaPiere Study
Would you serve Chinese people?

99%
100%

120%

100%

80%

60%

9%
40% 8%

20%

0%

Restaurants Hotels, Motels

Did Serve Would Serve

 History of Research on
Attitude-Behavior Linkage
• First generation
– Is there an attitude-behavior link?
• Second generation
– When? When does attitudes guide behavior?
• Third generation
– How? Through what process does attitude
guide behavior?
• Fourth generation
– Why?
 Examples of Moderating Factors
When do attitudes guide behaviors?
• Aspects of the situation
– situational constraints (e.g., sparing one’s feelings)
may prevent us from expressing our true attitudes
• Aspects of attitudes
– Origins: how attitudes were formed
– Strength: intensity, importance, centrality to the
belief system, accessibility
– specificity: general vs. specific
• Aspects of measurements
– Multiple attitudes are not confused with single
attitudes.
– “Multiple Act Criteria” are involved.
 How to improve attitude-behavior
linkage

• Enhance perceived relevance

• Provide opportunity for direct
experience
• Induce feelings of hypocrisy
• Encourage anticipation of feelings
 Manufacturing Favorable
Associations
• Branding
• Brand Personality
– Aspirational brand
– Authenticity brand
• Cause related marketing
• Slogans
• Sponsorship
 Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA)
• One’s intention to perform or not perform a
given behavior is determined by one’s
attitude and one’s subjective norm.
• The assumption - humans are rational and
that the behaviors being explored are
under volitional control.
• Behavior is best predicted by intent.
 Attitude vs. belief

What is belief?
Information a person has about an
attitude object.
 Key Components of TRA
• Intent is predicted by:
(1) attitude towards the behavior
(2) subjective norms towards the behavior
BI= Ab (w1) + SN (w2)i
• Attitude is determined by:
(1) belief strength
(2) evaluation of outcome
Ab= ∑biei
• Subjective norm is determined by:
(1) Normative belief
(2) Motivation to comply
SN = ∑NBiMCi
 Key Components of TRA
Intent
I intend to smoke cigarettes
Likely ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ Unlikely

Attitude
My smoking cigarettes is
Bad ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ Good
Harmful ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ Beneficial

Belief Strength
My smoking cigarettes will increase my risk of cancer.
Likely ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ Unlikely
True ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ False

Outcome Evaluation
Increasing my risk of cancer is
Bad ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ Good
Undesirable ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ Desirable
 Key Components of TRA
Subjective Norm
Most people who are important to me think
I should ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ I should not
smoke cigarettes.
Normative Belief
My parents think
I should ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ I should not
smoke cigarettes.

My girlfriend thinks
I should ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ I should not
smoke cigarettes.
Motivation to Comply
Generally speaking, how much do you want to do what your parents think
you should do?
Not at all ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ Very much

Generally speaking, how much do you want to do what your girlfriend thinks
you should do?
Not at all ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ Very much
 Theory of Planned Behavior
• A third determinant of behavioral intention
is added: Perceived Behavioral Control
(PBC).
• PBC is determined by:
(1) Control Beliefs
- Is it under my control?
(2) Perceived Power
- How successful can I be to
perform these behaviors?
 Implications for Persuasion
• Specifies three conditions for change in BI
- Attitude
- Subjective Norm
- Perceived Behavioral Control
- relative weights of A, SN, & PBC
• The theory can assist in identification of
the focus of persuasive efforts
- Should one focus on A, SN or weights?
- Can compare intenders/non-intenders and
devise specific persuasion messages.
 Critique of the TRA/TPB
• Unique in that it attempts to specify the
relationship between norms and behavior.
• Doesn’t include the role of descriptive
norm or personal/moral norm.
• Limited ability of the theory to consider the
role of environmental and structural
issues.
• The linearity of the theory components:
Individuals may first change their behavior
and then their beliefs/attitudes about it.