MAR 3503
January 31, 2012

• A favorable or unfavorable evaluative reaction to something exhibited in one’s beliefs, feelings, or intended behavior
– Do you like something?
– How much do you like it?
– What do you believe about it?
– What will you do about it?
• Examples include…

• The “something” that is the target of an attitude can be many things:
– A person or group
– An idea or concept
– An action or behavior
– An object

• Be specific!
• Consumers may have attitudes about…
– The product
– The brand
– The purchase of the product
– The use of the product
– The specific instantiation of the product
– The store where the product is sold
– The ads for the product
– And so on…

• A ffect
• B ehavior
• C ognition
• Attitude change can involve any of the three components

• Standard (highinvolvement) hierarchy
• Low-involvement hierarchy
– 1. Cognitions
– 2. Affect associated with each cognition
– 3. Behavior
– 1. Limited cognitions
– 2. Behavior
– 3. Affect (more cognitions may then be added)

• Experiential hierarchy • Behavior-based hierarchy
– 1. Affect
– 1. Behavior
– 2. Behavior
– 2. Affect
– 3. Cognitions (selectively formed or emphasized to justify behavior)
– 3. Cognitions

• Which hierarchy usually characterizes…
– The formation of attitudes about which expensive stereo system to buy?
– The formation of attitudes about a potential
“significant other”?
– The formation of attitudes about a highlighter pen?
– The formation of attitudes about foods or customs encountered while traveling?

• Why do people have attitudes?
• The utilitarian function of attitudes
– Utilitarian attitudes tell you which objects bring pleasure, pain, benefits, disadvantages, etc…
• Ex. Food preferences
• Ex. Ads

• The ego-defensive function of attitudes
– These attitudes steer you towards objects that protect your self-view and especially away from ones that threaten it
• Ex. Terror Management Theory

• The value-expressive function of attitudes
– These attitudes tell you which objects express your central values or your self-concept
• Ex. Political views
• Ex. UF hats and T-shirts

• The knowledge function of attitudes
– These attitudes are formed to help organize our understanding of the world, guiding how we attend to, store, and retrieve information
• Almost all attitudes serve this function
• Ex. Halo effect

• Our attitude (positive or negative) toward a stimulus is activated immediately upon encountering that stimulus, regardless of attitude strength
– Kitten = strongly positive
– Magazine = mildly positive
– Liver = mildly negative
– Cancer = strongly negative
Chen & Bargh, 1999

• Positive attitude: tendency to approach stimulus
• Negative attitude: tendency to avoid stimulus
• If an object is positive, we should be quick to engage in an approach behavior
– Pulling towards the body
• If an object is negative, we should be quick to engage in an avoidance behavior
– Pushing away from the body
Chen & Bargh, 1999

• Ps classify words as positive or negative
• Congruent condition:
– Pull lever towards self if positive
– Push lever away if negative
• Incongruent condition:
– Pull lever towards self if negative
– Push lever away if positive
Chen & Bargh, 1999

• Ps are faster to classify in the congruent condition, when the response matches the valence of the word
Chen & Bargh, 1999

• Suggests that all stimuli are automatically evaluated as soon as they are encountered
• We can test whether this evaluation is positive or negative with an “evaluative priming procedure”
• If a word or object is positive, seeing it should speed up responses to positive words and slow down responses to negative words that follow it
• If a word or object is negative, it should do the opposite

• Another way to measure automatic or implicit attitudes is via the “Implicit Association Test”
• Measures the relative positivity or negativity of one group or concept over another (i.e.,
Black and White, Young and Old, Math and
Literature)
• Let’s try it!

• If attitudes exist to tell us what to do, it makes sense that negative attitudes are stronger than equivalent positive attitudes
– We react physiologically faster to negative stimuli
– Losses feel worse than equivalent gains feel good
– You can easily contaminate something good, never uncontaminate something negative, no matter how much good stuff you add

• Implicit attitudes were measured, in a paradigm similar to the IAT you just did
• Explicit prejudice was assessed weeks earlier by an Attitudes Toward Blacks Scale
• Subjects then interacted with two confederates in sequence, one black and one white, about a race-neutral topic
Dovidio et al., 2002

Verbal behavior
Nonverbal behavior
Self-perceptions
Confederate perceptions
Observer perceptions
Correlation between explicit prejudice and…
.40*
Correlation between implicit prejudice and…
.04
.02
.33*
.41*
.05
-.14
-.12
.40*
.43*
Dovidio et al., 2002

• Yes!
• But it’s not so simple…
– LaPiere (1934) and his Chinese couple
– Wicker’s (1969) review: Correlation between attitude and behavior is ~.15

Do attitudes predict behavior?
• Cornell housing crisis—many students didn’t have a permanent place to live for months
• Sent surveys to freshmen directed affected by the crisis and those not directly affected
– Asked to report attitudes toward the crisis and indicate willingness to engage in a variety of behaviors related to alleviating the crisis
• Correlations between attitude and behavior:
– Directly affected: r = .42
– Not directly affected: r = .04
Regan & Fazio, 1977

• Level of specificity may differ
• Sometimes actual behavior can’t be or is not measured
• Time passes—attitudes change
• We are sensitive to norms
• We may not have an attitude to start with

• Attitudes…
– Are multifaceted
– Can be found through a variety of routes
– Can serve a variety of functions
– Can exist outside of our awareness
• Attitudes and behaviors…
– Don’t always match up
– May be brought into line with consideration of norms and behavioral intentions

• Cognitive dissonance and self-perception
• Now: Quiz 1!