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A positive, negative, or mixed reaction to a person, object, or idea, expressed at
______ (e.g., love, like, dislike, detest)
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Cacciopo, et al. 1997
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
There are few things in which we truly feel neutral

When switch on a game (e.g. tennis match) you quickly pick sides, even if you don’t know the players.
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Components of Attitudes:
Tripartite View
Cognitive
Attitude
Affective
Behavioral
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
COGNITIVE
 beliefs about attitude object (pos & neg)

AFFECTIVE
 emotions and feelings the object triggers
(pos & neg)

BEHAVIORAL
 reaction toward the object (pos & neg actions)
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Attitude Object: DENTIST

COGNITIONS
 Dentists are friendly.
 Dentists are expensive.

AFFECTS
 Dentists make me feel anxious.
 I like dentists.

BEHAVIORS
 I visit the dentist twice a year.
 I am a very cooperative patient.
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
__________ function: Express who we are
– (e.g. person who places high value on egalitarianism)

__________ function: Protect Self-Esteem
– (e.g. need to confirm one’s own masc/fem)

__________ function: Obtain awards, avoid punishments
– (e.g. getting along with others)

__________ function: understand people and events
– (desire to explain terrorist activities or the many lives lost in Katrina)
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
Attitude Scale: A multiple-item questionnaire designed to measure a person’s attitude toward some object.
– e.g., _______ Scale
– 1 = not at all; 3 = somewhat; 5 = very much
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How would you respond to these questions?


Old Fashioned Racism
– “I would mind if a Black family moved next door”
– “Whites are more intelligent than
Blacks”
Old Fashioned Sexism
– “Women should stay home and not worry about having a career”
– “Men should be in charge of all major decisions”
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
Bogus Pipeline: A phony lie-detector device that is sometimes used to get respondents to give truthful answers to sensitive questions.
– E.g., admitting drinking too much, using cocaine, having frequent oral sex, and not exercising enough
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
Observable behavior
– E.g., nonverbal behavior

Measures of arousal
– reveal the ________ of attitude

Facial Electromyograph (EMG): An electronic instrument that records
__________ associated with emotions and attitudes.
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When people hear a message they agree with, there is increase in
depressor and ________ muscles and decrease in _________ and
frontalis muscles.
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
Based on notion that we have implicit attitudes.

Implicit Association Test (IAT):
Measures the speed with which one responds to pairings of concepts.
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pleasant toxic unpleasant
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Rutgers Princeton
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Rutgers or pleasant happy
Princeton or unpleasant
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Rutgers or pleasant
Princeton or unpleasant
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
Faster responding to positive words when Rutgers is paired with pleasant
= ______implicit attitude toward
Rutgers

Faster responding to positive words when Princeton is paired with pleasant = _______ implicit attitude toward Princeton
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
Self over Other

White over Black

Young over Old

Males with Careers over Women with
Careers

Women with Family over Men with
Family

Limitations of IAT?
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Explicit & Implicit Correspondence

Average correspondence is ____

Motivational Bias

Retrieval Bias

Influence of introspection on explicit

Methodological differences
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23

•
•
 GENES: Twin studies high correlations on attitude strength and content for
______________________ significantly lower for
____________
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Olson et al., 2001.
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Origins of Attitudes:
Social Experiences

Affectively Based Attitudes
 based on people’s feelings of an attitude object (not on beliefs)

Sources of Affectively Based Attitudes
 values
 mere exposure
 classical conditioning
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The tendency to develop more positive feelings toward objects
& individuals the more we are exposed to them.
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Mere Exposure:
Mita and colleagues (1977)

Photographed women students on campus

Showed Ps picture & mirror image of print

Which do you like better - “regular” or mirror image print?
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Mere Exposure:
Mita and colleagues (1977)

____ of Ps preferred the mirror print

____ of their close friends preferred the actual picture

Ps were ______ to mirrored image so like them more
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Origins of Attitudes:
Social Experiences

Affectively Based Attitudes
 based on people’s feelings & values of an attitude object (not on beliefs)

Sources of Affectively Based Attitudes
 values
 mere exposure
 classical conditioning
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The case whereby a stimulus that elicits an emotional response is repeatedly experienced along with a neutral stimulus that does not, until the neutral stimulus takes on the emotional properties of the first stimulus
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Affectively Based Attitudes:
Classical Conditioning
Stimulus 1
(mothballs)
Stimulus 2 visits to granny
Pleasurable
Feelings
Stimulus 1
(mothballs)
Pleasurable
Feelings
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Affectively Based Attitudes:
Classical Conditioning
Stimulus 1
Milk
Stimulus 2
Supermodel
Pleasurable
Feelings
Stimulus 1
Milk
Pleasurable
Feelings
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Where Do Attitudes Come From?

GENES
 Twin study

SOCIAL EXPERIENCES
 affectively based
 behaviorally based
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Origins of Attitudes:
Social Experiences

Behaviorally Based Attitudes
 based on people’s observations of how one behaves toward an attitude object

Sources of Beh. Based Attit.
 Bem’s Self-Perception Theory
 Operant Conditioning
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Self-Perception Theory
What are your attitudes about liberal politicians?
Behavior
“Now that I think about it, I only vote for conservatives.”
Attitude
“I guess I don’t like liberal politicians.”
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Origins of Attitudes:
Social Experiences

Behaviorally Based Attitudes
 based on people’s observations of how one behaves toward an attitude object

Sources of Beh. Based Attit.
 Bem’s Self-Perception Theory
 Operant Conditioning
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The case whereby behaviors that people freely choose to perform increase or decrease in frequency, depending on whether they are followed by positive reinforcement or punishment
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Behaviorally Based Attitudes
& Operant Conditioning
Behavior
Toward
An Object
+ Reinforcement or
Punishment
.
e.g., playing with a child of another race
+ reinforcement
- parents’ approval
Punishment - parents’ disapproval
Pos or Neg
Attitude toward the
Object
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41


Why did early work find a weak attitude-behavior link?
– Social desirability
– ________ of attitudes
– Broader context of behaviors
– Attitudes is __________ factor but behavior is based on more than just the person
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
Must be correspondence between level of specificity of attitude and behavior.

For example, to predict recycling behavior at work, do you ask:
– How do you feel about recycling?
– How do you feel about recycling
__________?
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
Study of married women’s use of birth control
 Ps asked a series of attitude questions - general to specific (e.g., will U use birth control in next 2 years)
 Two years later asked Ps if they had used birth control since the interview
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Attitude Attitude-Behavior
Measure Correlation
 Att. toward birth control
 Att. toward birth control pills
.08
.32
 Att. toward using birthing control pills .53
 Att. toward using birth control pills during the next two years .57
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Predicting Planned Behaviors
Theory of Planned Behavior
(Ajzen & Fishbein)
Behavioral
Intention
Behavior
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Predicting Planned Behaviors
Theory of Planned Behavior
Specific
Attitude
Subjective
Norms
Behavioral
Intention
Behavior
Perceived
Behavioral
Control
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Will Rachel attend the COLDPLAY Concert?
Specific
Attitude
Subjective
Norms
Perceived
Behavioral
Control
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Theory of Planned Behavior:
Subjective Norms

Fishbein
 measured Ps’ attitudes and subjective norms (what do your friends think) about engaging in premarital sex
 attitudes and subjective norms predicted sexual behavior
 men more influenced by subjective norms
 women more influenced by own attitudes
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Predicting Planned Behaviors
Theory of Planned Behavior
Specific
Attitude
Subjective
Norms
Behavioral
Intention
Behavior
Perceived
Behavioral
Control
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Theory of Planned Behavior:
Perceived Behavioral Control

Azjen & Madden (1986)
 do attitudes & subjective norms alone predict grades?
 Combination of attitudes & subjective norms only moderately related to actual grades
 must take into consideration behavioral control!!
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
Why do some attitudes have more influence on behavior?
– Depends on attitude’s ____________ or
__________.

Why are some attitudes stronger than others?
– Because of our genetic make-up?
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
Does the issue directly affect one’s own outcomes and self-interests?

Is the issue related to deeply held philosophical, political, and religious values?

Is the issue of concern to one’s close friends, family, and social ingroups?
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



How consistent is the person’s behavior with attitude?
– Walking the talk
How was the information on which the attitude is based acquired?
– Personal experience vs. second-hand
Has the attitude been attacked?
– Stronger if attacked
How accessible is the attitude to awareness?
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Strength & Accessibility
(Fazio)
 we can measure the strength of a person’s attitude by seeing how accessible it is in memory
 if an attitude is highly accessible , then it comes to mind quickly
 if an attitude is highly inaccessible , then it comes to mind much slower
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
IT DEPENDS!

One Key Factor
 Spontaneous Behaviors
 Planned/Deliberative Behaviors
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Attitudes & Spontaneous Behaviors
(Fazio, Powell, & Williams, 1989)

Role of accessibility in Ps’ attitudes & behaviors toward consumer items

Ps rated their attitude toward several products
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Attitudes & Spontaneous Behaviors
(Fazio, Powell, & Williams, 1989)

Accessibility
 assessed by how long it took Ps to respond to questions about the products

Behavior
 placed ten of the products in two rows of five
 Ps could take one product home

Results??
58

Attitudes & Spontaneous Behaviors
(Fazio, Powell, & Williams, 1989)

To what extent did Ps’ attitudes toward the products predict their behavior?

Depends on accessibility
 attitude-behavior consistency was high among Ps with ______________
 attitude-behavior consistency was low among
Ps with _________________
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