ATTITUDES
JONATHAN JONES
ATTITUDE
STRUCTURE & FUNCTION
In this class:
§What are attitudes?
§How can we measure attitudes?
§Where do attitudes come from?
§What is the relationship between attitude
and behaviour?
ATTITUDE:
The most distinctive and
indispensable concept in
contemporary American social
psychology
Allport, G. W. (1935). Attitudes. In C. Murchison (Eds.), Handbook of social psychology (pp. 798–844). Worcester, MA: Clark University Press.
WHAT IS AN
ATTITUDE?
§“Mental and neural state of readiness”
(Allport, 1935, p. 810)
§"Attitudes are likes and dislikes”
(Bem, 1970, p. 14)
§“A general and enduring positive or
negative feeling about some person,
object, or issue”
(Petty & Cacioppo, 1981, p. 7)
WHAT IS AN
ATTITUDE?
§“The categorization of a stimulus object
along an evaluative dimension”
(Zanna & Rempel, 1988, p. 319)
§“A psychological tendency that is
expressed by evaluating a particular entity
with some degree of favor or disfavor”
(Eagly & Chaiken, 1993, p. 1)
§“An association in memory between a
given object and a given summary
evaluation of the object”
(Fazio, 1995, p. 247)
WHAT IS AN
ATTITUDE?
§A relatively general and enduring
____________ of an object or concept on
a valence dimension ranging from
positive to negative
§Attitudes are ____________!
Fabrigar, L. R., & Wegener, D. T. (2010). Attitude structure. In R. F. Baumeister & E. J. Finkel (Eds.), Advanced social psychology: The state of the science (pp. 177-216). New York: Oxford
University Press.
WHAT IS AN
ATTITUDE?
§Preference for or against the attitude
object
§The good/bad evaluations that we
attach to objects in our social world
o People, social groups, physical
objects, behaviors, abstract
concepts
Fabrigar, L. R., & Wegener, D. T. (2010). Attitude structure. In R. F. Baumeister & E. J. Finkel (Eds.), Advanced social psychology: The state of the
science (pp. 177-216). New York: Oxford University Press.
WHAT IS AN
ATTITUDE?
§Several functions that were ascribed to
attitudes have now been reassigned
to other cognitive structures
§Reduced to its ____________
component
Schwarz and Bohner (2001)
ATTITUDE
MEASUREMENT
____________ measures
____________ measures:
Directly asks participants to
indicate their attitudes
____________ measures:
Infer attitudes without
respondents’ awareness of
or control over how their
attitude is being measured
ATTITUDE
MEASUREMENT
Describe the traits or characteristics
of your vacuum cleaner:
Useless
-2
Unsafe
-2
Worthless
-2
-1
0
-1
0
-1
0
Useful
+1
+2
Safe
+1
+2
Valuable
+1
+2
ATTITUDE
MEASUREMENT
Describe your feelings toward spiders:
Hateful
-2
Tense
-2
Disgusted
-2
-1
0
-1
0
-1
0
Love
+1
+2
Calm
+1
+2
Acceptance
+1
+2
ATTITUDE
MEASUREMENT
Issues in the direct measurement of attitudes
i.e., self-report measures
§Individuals might be unaware of their
attitudes
§Item presentation (e.g., wording of
questions, ordering of items)
§Third-person effect
§Impression management/Social desirability:
Respondents’ reluctance to express some
attitudes
ATTITUDE
MEASUREMENT
§ Circulation: Roughly 1 Atlantic for every 1 National Enquirer
§ Google Searches: 1 Atlantic for every 1 National Enquirer
§ Facebook Likes: ____________
Stephens-Davidowitz, S., & Pabon, A. (2017). Everybody lies: Big data, new data, and what the Internet can tell us about who we really are. New
York, NY: HarperCollins.
ATTITUDE
MEASUREMENT
Implicit measures
Evaluative priming
§Accessibility: The ease with which the
attitude can be retrieved from
memory
Implicit Association Test (IAT):
§A reaction time measure that is
supposed to assesses how strongly
two ideas are associated in memory
§Intended to detect subconscious
associations
TRY IT AT HOME!
https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html
ATTITUDE
MEASUREMENT
Implicit measures
IAT is ____________!
§____________
§Low to moderate correlations between IAT
scores and explicit measures are used to
suggest the IAT ____________ ____________
§____________ ____________ alone is often
sufficient to explain these low correlations!
Schimmack, U. (2021). The Implicit Association Test: A method in search of a construct. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 16(2), 396-414.
ATTITUDE
MEASUREMENT
Implicit measures
§Does the IAT reflect subconscious
processes? People can predict their IAT
scores; correlation of predicted vs. actual
IAT scores, r = ____________
§Weak predictor of ____________ (and no
better than ____________ measures)
Hahn, A., Judd, C. M., Hirsh, H. K., & Blair, I. V. (2014). Awareness of implicit attitudes. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143(3), 1369–1392.
WHERE DO ATTITUDES
COME FROM?
§AFFECTIVE ORIGINS
§COGNITIVE ORIGINS
§BEHAVIOURAL ORIGINS
§IMPLICIT & EXPLICIT ORIGINS
§EVOLUTIONARY ORIGINS
Tripartite
view:
Most theories of
attitude formation
distinguish
between these three
sources
§GENETIC ORIGINS
Olson, M. A., & Kendrick, R. V. (2008). Origins of attitudes. In W. D. Crano & R. Prislin (Eds.), Attitudes and attitude change (pp. 111-130). New York,
NY: Psychology Press.
WHERE DO ATTITUDES
COME FROM?
Affective origins
A result of the emotional responses
that we experience when we
encounter an attitude object
§Classical & operant conditioning
§Mere-exposure effect
WHERE DO ATTITUDES
COME FROM?
Affective origins
Classical conditioning:
§From pairings between a neutral object and an
already positively or negatively evaluated object
Operant conditioning:
§An association is made between a behavior and
a consequence (whether negative or positive*)
for that behavior
(Hull, 1951; Skinner, 1957; Staats & Staats, 1958)
WHERE DO ATTITUDES
COME FROM?
Affective origins
Mere-exposure effect:
§Repeated exposure to a stimulus can
increase an individual’s positive
affect towards it
§Average effect of r = 0.26
§Does it replicate? Recent attempt:
Chow et al. (2022) found no effect
Zajonc, R. B. (1968). Attitudinal effects of mere exposure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 9(2, Pt.2), 1–27.
WHERE DO ATTITUDES
COME FROM?
Cognitive origins
§A function of one’s beliefs
§Beliefs are a product of the expectancy
and value attached to each of the
perceived attributes of the attitude
object
§Expectancy: The perceived likelihood
that the attribute will occur
§Value: One’s evaluation of the attribute
BEHAVIOURAL
ORIGINS
WHERE DO ATTITUDES
COME FROM?
Behavioural origins
§Remember: Most social scientists assume
cognition is a precursor of behaviour
§However, behaviour can also influence
attitudes!
§Example: Attitudes based on direct
experience are stronger predictors of
behaviour
§Negative experiences are incorporated
faster into our attitudes than positive ones
O’Brien, E., & Klein, N. (2017). The tipping point of perceived change: Asymmetric thresholds in diagnosing improvement versus decline. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 112(2), 161-185.
§Interested in
understanding how
____________ affected
behaviour
How did it begin?
§In the 1950s, Festinger
started doing research
on the propagation of
rumours
Leon Festinger,
former Ph.D.
student of Kurt
Lewin
§Festinger became interested in the 1934
Nepal–India Earthquake
§Residents from less affected areas
experienced high levels of fear
§Rumors were spread that even greater
disasters were about to hit the villages
§Festinger was puzzled: Why are
people creating these rumours?
§He reasoned rumours were
created to justify fear
§Insight: People might ____________
____________ ____________ their
current affective state
THEORY OF
COGNITIVE DISSONANCE
THEORY OF ____________ ____________
§ A pair of cognitions is inconsistent if one
cognition follows from the opposite of
the other
§ ____________ results in a state of
discomfort
§ Individuals are motivated to reduce the
____________
THEORY OF
COGNITIVE DISSONANCE
To reduce the dissonance, individuals could:
§Add consonant cognitions
§Subtract dissonant cognitions
§Increase the importance of consonant
cognitions, or
§Decrease the importance of dissonant
cognitions
§____________
Harmon-Jones, E., & Mills, J. (2019). An introduction to cognitive dissonance theory and an overview of current perspectives on the theory. In E.
Harmon-Jones (Ed.), Cognitive dissonance: Reexamining a pivotal theory in psychology (pp. 3–24). American Psychological Association.
THEORY OF
COGNITIVE DISSONANCE
Example
§A cigarette smoker:
§ “I smoke”
§ “Smoking is harmful to my health”
§Contradiction results in ____________
§The person would then engage in attempts
to get rid of the ____________
Festinger, L. (1957). A theory of cognitive dissonance. Evanston, IL: Row, Peterson.
THEORY OF
COGNITIVE DISSONANCE
Resolving the dissonance: change his/her beliefs
about smoking by…
§Adding consonant cognitions: “I believe that smoking
reduces tension and keeps me from gaining weight”
§Subtracting the dissonant cognition: “Smoking has no
harmful effects on health”
§Increasing the importance of consonant cognitions:
“The enjoyment I get from smoking is a very
important part of my life”
§Reducing the importance of the dissonant cognition
(“trivialization”): “The risk to health from smoking is
negligible if compared with the danger of
automobile accidents”
THEORY OF
COGNITIVE DISSONANCE
Alternatively, the cigarette smoker
could…
§Change his behaviour
by quitting smoking!
THEORY OF
COGNITIVE DISSONANCE
1934 Earthquake
§Villagers knew there was no rational
explanation for the high levels of fear
they were experiencing
According to ____________ ____________
§Villagers felt fearful (first cognition)
§Villagers also knew that there was no
reason for fear (contradiction)
Festinger, L. (1957). A theory of cognitive dissonance. Evanston, IL: Row, Peterson.
THEORY OF
COGNITIVE DISSONANCE
Rationalizations for the 1934
Earthquake
Villagers could eliminate the
dissonance by creating a belief and
convincing themselves that there was
indeed something to fear:
§Impending doom was about to strike
Festinger, L. (1957). A theory of cognitive dissonance. Evanston, IL: Row, Peterson.
THEORY OF
COGNITIVE DISSONANCE
The total magnitude of dissonance:
Where D* equals the total magnitude of
dissonance, D equals the sum of all elements
dissonant with the element in question, and C
equals the sum of all elements consonant with
the same element.
Nail, P. R., & Boniecki, K. A. (2011). Inconsistency in cognition: Cognitive dissonance. In D. Chadee (Ed.), Theories in social psychology (p. 44–71). Wiley Blackwell.
Main Paradigms Used in Dissonance
Research
§Free-Choice Paradigm
§Effort-Justification Paradigm
§Belief-Disconfirmation Paradigm
§Induced-Compliance Paradigm
Harmon-Jones, E., & Mills, J. (2019). An introduction to cognitive dissonance theory and an overview of current perspectives on the theory. In E.
Harmon-Jones (Ed.), Cognitive dissonance: Reexamining a pivotal theory in psychology (pp. 3–24). American Psychological Association.
Main Paradigms Used in Dissonance
Research
Free-Choice Paradigm a.k.a. “postdecision spread”:
§When people choose between two
equally liked alternatives, participants
grow to like the chosen item more
over time
Brehm, J. W. (1956). Postdecision changes in the desirability of alternatives. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 52(3), 384–389.
Main Paradigms Used in Dissonance
Research
Effort-Justification Paradigm:
§Hardship influences attitudes
§Dissonance is aroused whenever a person
puts much effort into achieving some
desirable outcome
§Dissonance can be reduced by
exaggerating the desirability of the
outcome
Aronson, E., & Mills, J. (1959). The effect of severity of initiation on liking for a group. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 59(2), 177–181.
Main Paradigms Used in Dissonance Research
Belief-Disconfirmation Paradigm:
§ Dissonance is aroused whenever people are exposed to
information that contradicts their beliefs
§ To reduce dissonance, people can change their beliefs
However, dissonance can also lead to:
§ Misperception or misinterpretation of the information
§ Rejection or refutation of the information
§ Seeking support from those who agree with one’s belief
§ Attempting to persuade others to accept one’s belief
Festinger, L., Riecken, H. W., & Schachter, S. (1956). When prophecy fails: A social and psychological study of a modern group that predicted the
destruction of the world. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Main Paradigms Used in Dissonance Research
Belief-Disconfirmation Paradigm (cont’d):
§Festinger’s infiltration of a UFO cult in 1954
What happened when the there was no flood?
§Members who were waiting with other group
members maintained their faith
§The cult leader reported receiving a message that
indicated that the flood had been prevented
because of the group’s existence as a force for
good
§After the disconfirmation, members sought to
persuade others of their belief
Festinger, L., Riecken, H. W., & Schachter, S. (1956). When prophecy fails. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Main Paradigms Used in Dissonance
Research
Induced-Compliance Paradigm a.k.a.
“forced compliance”:
§Dissonance is aroused when a person
does or says something that is
contrary to a prior attitude
§Dissonance can be reduced by
changing the attitude to correspond
more closely to what was said
Learning Theories
§Organisms learn by reward and
punishment
§The greater the reward, the greater
the learning
THEORY OF
COGNITIVE DISSONANCE
Festinger and Carlsmith’s (1959) study:
§The less participants were paid, the more they
said they liked it
§Results contradicted learning theories’
framework!
§The smaller the reward for saying that the
boring task was interesting, the more the
participants believed what they had said
§The higher the reward, the less they believed it
§Effect size: Cohen’s d of ________
Festinger, L., & Carlsmith, J. M. (1959). Cognitive consequences of forced compliance. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 58, 203–210.
THEORY OF
COGNITIVE DISSONANCE
Festinger and Carlsmith’s (1959)
study:
Does it hold water?
§Power: 1 study, n = 20 per cell
§Most p-values rounded down
§GRIM test: 25% of the reported
means are mathematically
impossible
Matti TJ Heino
WHERE DO ATTITUDES
COME FROM?
Implicit and explicit origins
Formation processes of attitudes:
§Attitudes formed through a deliberate,
thoughtful consideration of attituderelevant information
§Attitudes formed through less effortful
processes that might occur outside of
conscious awareness
§ “Implicit social cognition”
WHERE DO ATTITUDES
COME FROM?
Implicit and explicit origins
§Explicit formation processes: Tend to
be more belief-based, cognitive
§Implicit formation processes: Tend to
be more affective
§Origins of implicit attitude: Early life
experiences, affective information,
“cultural biases", internal pressures to
be consistent
WHERE DO ATTITUDES
COME FROM?
Evolutionary origins
§Evolutionary psychology: Natural selection
creates both anatomical (e.g., shells,
spikes) and behavioural adaptations for
survival
§Human preferences for sweet versus sour
foods, “high-fat” vs. “low-fat” desserts,
warmth over cold
WHERE DO ATTITUDES
COME FROM?
Genetic origins
§Many attitudes have relatively
high hereditability indices
§Example: Political attitudes are
partially heritable, with little
effect of shared environment
(Olson et al., 2001; Alford, Funk, & Hibbing, 2005)
DO ATTITUDES
PREDICT
BEHAVIOUR?
ATTITUDES& BEHAVIOUR
§A sociologist traveled throughout
the United States with a young
Chinese couple
§Guests in +250 establishments over 2
years
LaPiere, R. T. (1934). Attitudes vs. actions. Social Forces, 13(2), 230-237.
ATTITUDES& BEHAVIOUR
§ Six months later, survey sent to proprietors
of each establishment
§“Would you accept Chinese nationals as
guests?”
§128 respondents:
§ 118 (92%):
“______________________________”
§ 9 (7%):
“______________________________”
§ 1: “______________________________”
LaPiere, R. T. (1934). Attitudes vs. actions. Social Forces, 13(2), 230-237.
ATTITUDES& BEHAVIOUR
Methodological limitations:
§No independent ratings of
discrimination
§Maybe more discrimination if the
sociologists hadn't been there?
§Only one couple used in the study
ATTITUDES& BEHAVIOUR
§Wicker (1969): Review of almost 40 studies
§Average correlation between attitudes
and behaviour: r = _______________
§___________ of the variation in behaviour!
Wicker, A. W. (1969). Attitudes versus actions: The relationship of verbal and overt behavioral responses to attitude objects. Journal of Social issues,
25(4), 41-78.
ATTITUDES& BEHAVIOUR
“Taken as a whole, these studies
suggest that it is considerably
more likely that attitudes will be
_______________ related to overt
behaviors than that attitudes will
_______________”
Wicker, A. W. (1969). Attitudes versus actions: The relationship of verbal and overt behavioral responses to attitude objects. Journal of Social issues,
25(4), 41-78.
When do attitudes predict behaviour?
It depends on the…
§Correspondence between attitudinal and
behavioural measures
§Domain of behaviour
§Function of the attitude
§Strength of the attitude
§Person
§Situation
When do attitudes predict behaviour?
Correspondence between attitudinal and
behavioural measures (i.e., how specific is
the measure?)
Which attitude has a higher correlation with
actual condom use?
§“How do you feel about using condoms?”
§“_________________________________________
__________________________________?”
Sheeran, P., Abraham, C., & Orbell, S. (1999). Psychosocial correlates of heterosexual condom use: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 125(1),
90–132.
When do attitudes predict behaviour?
Domain of behaviour
§High correlation between political
attitudes and voting behaviour (r = .78)
Fazio, R. H., & Williams, C. J. (1986). Attitude accessibility as a moderator of the attitude–perception and attitude–behavior relations: An
investigation of the 1984 presidential election. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51(3), 505-514.
When do attitudes predict behaviour?
The function of the attitude
§One of the functions of attitudes:
Value-expressive
§ Expressing individual’s central values
and self-concept
§Attitudes that express core moral values
and convictions predict behaviour
§Example: Biking to work because you
value the environment (being
environmentally conscious is part of your
self-concept)
When do attitudes predict behaviour?
The strength of the attitude
§Strong attitudes are more likely to predict
behaviour than weak ones
(Stedman, 2002)
When do attitudes predict behaviour?
The person (dispositional factors)
§How much a person’s behaviour varies
across social situations i.e., self-monitoring
§ Low self-monitoring: Tendency to
remain the same across situations
§ High self-monitoring: People present
themselves in a different light
depending on the situation
(Snyder, 1974, 1986)
When do attitudes predict behaviour?
The situation
§Time constraints
§Example: When there are time constraints,
Individuals low in self-monitoring are more
likely to make decisions based on their
attitudes
Jamieson, D. A., & Zanna, M. P. (1989). Need for structure in attitude formation and expression. In A. R. Pratkanis, S. J. Breckler, &
A. G. Greenwald (Eds.), Attitude structure and function (pp. 383-406). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
ARE ATTITUDES
ENOUGH FOR
PREDICTING
BEHAVIOUR?
THEORY OF
REASONED ACTION
Attitude toward the
behaviour:
People’s specific attitude
toward a behaviour
Behavioural
Intention
Behaviour
Subjective norm:
People’s perception of the
extent to which others who
are important to them
expect them to engage in a
behaviour
Fishbein, M., & Ajzen, A. (1975). Beliefs, attitudes, intentions, and behavior: An introduction to theory and research. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
THEORY OF
Attitude toward the
behaviour:
People’s specific attitude
toward a behaviour
Subjective norm:
People’s perception of the
extent to which others who
are important to them
expect them to engage in a
behaviour
Perceived behaviour
control:
The ease with which people
believe they can perform
the behaviour
PLANNED BEHAVIOUR
Behavioural
Intention
Behaviour
Attitudes toward a specific
behaviour combine with subjective
norms and perceived control to
influence a person’s intentions.
Intentions, in turn, guide behaviour.
Schifter, D. E., & Ajzen, I. (1985). Intention, perceived behavioral control and weight loss: An application of the theory of planned behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 49, 843—851.
How well does the TPB predict behaviour?
§________% of the variance in behavioural
intentions
§________% of the variance in behaviour
§The subjective norm construct is generally
the weakest predictor of intentions
Armitage, C. J., & Conner, M. (2001). Efficacy of the Theory of Planned Behaviour: A meta-analytic review. British Journal of Social Psychology, 40, 471–499.
Criticism of the TPB
§Sniehotta et al. (2014): Size of effects is too
small
§Kam et al. (2008): Model is too reductionist
§Conceptualization and operationalization
of the main components of the TPB
Giguère, B., Beggs, T., & Sirois, F. (2019). Social cognitive approaches to health issues. In K. O’Doherty & D. Hodgetts (Eds.), The Sage handbook of
applied social psychology. Sage.
ATTITUDES
JONATHAN JONES