Week 8 Attitudes

Monday, October 24, 2022
Compulsory page
Bachelor of Business
Management
Consumer Behaviour
ATTITUDES
(Week 8)
1
Learning Objectives
1. To Understand the definition and composition of
consumer attitude.
2. To Understand the nature of Consistency theory and
how Cognitive Dissonance theory influence buying
behavior
3. To Understand the factors leading to attitude formation
and attitude change.
2
ATTITUDES

• Attitude is the most basic variable leading to behavior. If
consumers are favorably inclined toward a product or
service, markets are interested to establish some form of
communication to maintain and reinforce this favorable
attitude.
• On the other hand, if consumers view the product
unfavorably, attitude change procedures are necessary.
If a product or service is new, marketers will find ways to
create a favorable attitude
3
An attitude is a consistent, learned predisposition to behave toward

an object.
• Consistent – if you dislike smoking, you tend to dislike it fairly

consistently and others can roughly predict your particular
feelings toward smoking.
Attitude can be changed, they are not permanent
• learned - Attitudes are learned or conditioned through past

experiences as result of motivation, association, and
reinforcement.
• predisposition – From what we have learned, we develop a
predisposition or rather a state of mind / body favorable or
unfavorable to given a object (a thing, person, event, idea)
4
Components of Attitude
• a) The Cognitive Factor- the beliefs an individual holds
about an object. Knowledge and perception relates to the
individual on whether the object is positive or negative,
favorable or unfavorable.
Eg : a set of beliefs held toward Proton Saga – fuel
economy, cheap, reliable, easy available parts.
• b) The Affective Factor - affective means feeling or the

emotional feelings of liking or disliking, pleasure or
displeasure.
Eg : emotional aspects of attitude – good – bad, hate – love
5
Components of Attitude
• c) The Conative Factor - refers to the individual’s
readiness or tendency – strong or weak to behave
toward an object.
Eg : behavioral / motivation aspects attitude
If positive – help, reward, purchase, and recommend to
others.
If negative – attack, destroy, and punish the object
6
Consistency Theories
• 1. Balance Theory
Attitudes toward persons or objects have positive or
negative value, and there is a tendency for individuals to
change attitudes when the system is imbalance. When an
individual likes another person and an object, he expects the
person to also like the object too, resulting in a balanced
relationship.
In the purchase of new products, positive comments from a
respected source will lead to positive attitudes about the
product and the chances of purchasing that product is
greater than one which the source had negative comments.
7
Consistency Theories
• 1. Balance Theory
The imbalance in the attitude system produces discomfort or
conflict which the individual will attempt to resolves in two ways:
Change your attitude toward the person.

A change his mind about +B, thus bringing about a balanced
system.

Change your attitude toward the +object. A might change his

mind but the object, and bring about a balanced system.
8
2. Congruity Theory
• To achieve congruity (consistency of attitudes), evaluation
of the person or object must be change by an amount
equal to the discrepancy between them. Congruity theory
adds to the Balance theory model a measurement of the
strength or intensity of positive and negative attitudes, on a
scale of – 3 (highly unfavorable) to + 3 (highly favorable).
• The adjustment must equal the amount of the initial
discrepancy between them, but because stronger attitudes
are harder to change that weaker ones, the evaluation
whose rating is further from o/ neutral (in either direction)
will be adjusted less.
• Salesperson -3 -2 -1 0 +1 +2 +3 Object
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2. Congruity Theory
• Thus, if someone we like a great deal (+2 evaluation

praises a product that is not liked very much (-2), then the
discrepancy is 4. Such conditional of tension needs to be
resolved by reducing the favorable attitude toward the
person and also decreasing the unfavorable attitude
toward the product that is not liked. The result is both
person and product becomes rated at o/neutral, i.e., both
have changed by 2.
• add3 Less1 = 4
• -3 -2 -1 0 +1 +2 +3
10
2. Congruity Theory
• In the case of there being a strong attitude towards the

person (+3) and a weaker negative attitude towards the
product (-1), then the same degree of change will occur but
the person might now rate +2 (a change of 1) and the
object +2 (a change of 3).
• Strong attitudes are usually more difficult to change than
weak attitudes.
11
3. Cognitive Dissonance Theory

• It is the psychological discomfort experienced by an
individual when he receives new information which
contradicts the belief or attitude he holds. As with other
consistency theories, dissonance propels individuals to
reduce the tension to achieve consonance, or
consistency.
12
3. Cognitive Dissonance Theory

• Revoke decision – sell off the product if possible.
• Seek confirming information – ads, satisfied customers,
brochures
• Avoid dissonance – inducing information – to minimize the
importance of issue or decision that lead to the dissonant
state.
• Change attitude about the importance of the purchase - :It
does not matter, I don’t really care”
• Change attitude to make it more favorable toward the
chosen alternatives – “so what if it is an old model, they
lasts longer than new models”.
13
ATTITUDE FORMATION
1. Learning Theory
• Classical Conditioning – a famous presenter associated a
brand name – positive attitude may be transferred to the
product.
• Instrumental Conditional – Neutral attitude – the consumer

buys the product – then reinforced by experience: either
positive or negative attitude will develop
• Cognitive Learning – positive or negative attitude develop

from knowledge, experience, belief, and the mass media.
14
ATTITUDE FORMATION
2. Motivation
• People are motivated to formed attitudes about things by
seeking or rewarding objects and avoid negative ones
• To protect one’s self-concept by forming comparatively
negative evaluations of others
• To express and reflect our strongest values and beliefs
• To make sense of our environment through knowledge
where attitude served as a frame of reference in the
search for consistencies and our perception of the world.
15
ATTITUDE FORMATION
3. Stereotype
• The human tendency to make over – simplification and
generalizations about people or objects based on limited
experience – leading to discriminatory behavior.
• National stereotypes BMW against proton are used to
develop positive attitudes towards domestic products at
the expense of foreign products.
• Positive prejudice – you can be prejudiced in someone’s
(or a product’s) favor, before you have the opportunity to
make a full evaluation.
16
ATTITUDE CHANGE
• 1. Attitude changes are learned in the same way as the
attitude is originally formed. Attitudes toward an object
can be changed by adjusting the associations of the
objects, and reinforcing the new associations. Example:
Magnum/Toto is associated to gambling/sin, oil firms are
associated to environmental protection issues. The
negative associations need to be changed / marketed to
convert it to positive.
• Donation, scholarship, CSR, R&D petrol Unleaded petrol
17
ATTITUDE CHANGE
• 2. Daniel Katz’s Functionalist Theory – the supply of new

motivations to change attitudes; attitude changes when it no longer
serves its function or when individual feels frustrated. On the other
hand, winning a lottery US 20M (status change), attitude may
change towards existing house, travel destination, or friends!
• a) Instrumentality – developed favorable attitude toward products

that favors/reward us; avoid/change attitude if things do not favor us
eg political party x = party Y

• b) Knowledge – we change attitude as we seek order, clarity,
stability in our personal frame of reference; knowledge provide
meaningful, orderly environment. We seek clarity from the
complexities of life in order to attain more clarity in life.
Inconsistencies motivate consumers to restore harmony.
18
ATTITUDE CHANGE
• c) Value-expressive – we inculcate/express attitudes that

reflect/reinforce a particular self-image to be in line with
the core value of that image of oneself eg recruited
police force or a particular religious belief. No religion no
value convert Moslem

• d) Ego defensive – attitude change to protect us from
harsh realities of life eg inferiority complex > superiority
complex, low esteem > develop attitude of high
confidence. 5 A’s Deans List
19
ATTITUDE CHANGE
• 3. Cognitive Dissonance theory-to induce potential

customers to purchase a product they would normally
dislike through coupons, warranties, etc. Upon
purchasing, the customer experiences post-purchase
dissonance, and will try to convince others their reasons
for purchasing and why they liked the product. Marketers
must reinforce the strong and positive points of the
product, guarantees, and good after-sales service. They
negative dissonance will then changed to positive.
• Apple 12 girlfriend negative CDT negative = positive

20
ATTITUDE CHANGE
4. Keith William’s Source-Message-Receiver Factors
• The power to persuade other to change their attitudes depends

on:
• Source factors – the marketers’ personality and intention
• Message factors – Message objectivity, repetition, arousal of

motives
• Receiver factors – the audiences’ self-esteem, personality,

intelligence
21
References
1. Solomon M.R. (2017).Consumer Behavior: Buying,
Having, and Being, Global Edition, 12/E, Pearson
2. 2. Schiffman, L. G. & Wisenblit, J. L. Consumer
Behavior (2015) 11th Edition Pearson International
Edition. New Jersey
22

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Monday, October 24, 2022

An attitude is a consistent, learned predisposition to behave toward

• Consistent – if you dislike smoking, you tend to dislike it fairly

• learned - Attitudes are learned or conditioned through past

• b) The Affective Factor - affective means feeling or the

Change your attitude toward the person.

Change your attitude toward the +object. A might change his

• Thus, if someone we like a great deal (+2 evaluation

• In the case of there being a strong attitude towards the

3. Cognitive Dissonance Theory

3. Cognitive Dissonance Theory

• Instrumental Conditional – Neutral attitude – the consumer

• Cognitive Learning – positive or negative attitude develop

• Donation, scholarship, CSR, R&D petrol Unleaded petrol

• 2. Daniel Katz’s Functionalist Theory – the supply of new

• a) Instrumentality – developed favorable attitude toward products

• c) Value-expressive – we inculcate/express attitudes that

• 3. Cognitive Dissonance theory-to induce potential

• Apple 12 girlfriend negative CDT negative = positive

4. Keith William’s Source-Message-Receiver Factors

• The power to persuade other to change their attitudes depends

• Source factors – the marketers’ personality and intention

• Message factors – Message objectivity, repetition, arousal of

• Receiver factors – the audiences’ self-esteem, personality,

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