Effects of repeated expressions on attitude extremity.

Abstract

Fazio has shown that repeated attitude expressions increase the accessibility of the attitude. Increases in accessibility in turn lead to greater attitude-behavior consistency. The present work examines the effects of repeated expressions on attitude extremity. In the 1st study, it is shown that repeated expressions increase extremity when the expressions involve only judgments of attitude valence. In the 2nd study, a similar effect of repeated expressions on extremity is shown when the expressions are given orally, unconstrained by any particular response format. The 3rd study examines a possible mechanism for the effect of repeated expressions on extremity that is based on an associative learning model in which the repeated rehearsal of a response to an object leads to more extreme judgments. The relations between attitude extremity and accessibility and their roles in moderating the attitude-behavior relationship are discussed. One of the most systematic and persuasive lines of work in the attitude domain in recent years is the research conducted by Fazio and his colleagues. Fazio has identified an attitude as an association between an attitude object and an evaluation, both of which are stored in memory (Fazio, 1986,1989; Fazio, Chen, McDonel, & Sherman, 1982). One of the central interests of the work conducted by Fazio and his colleagues has been to identify the causes and consequences of the strength of the association between an attitude object and its evaluation. This strength seems to be best measured as the ease with which an evaluation comes to mind when one is confronted by the attitude object (i.e., the attitude's accessibility; Fazio, 1989; Fazio, Sanbonmatsu, Powell, & Kardes, 1986). Fazio has shown that the attitude's accessibility seems to play an important role in determining the extent to which behaviors toward the attitude object are consistent with one's attitude. When the evaluation readily comes to mind in the presence of the attitude object, then behavior is likely to be quite consistent with the evaluation. On the other hand, attitudes that are less accessible tend to play a less important role in guiding behavior (Fazio & Williams, 1986). In addition to his focus on the consequences of the strength of the object-evaluation link, Fazio has been interested in exploring its causes. Two primary factors seem to affect the strength of the object-evaluation link: direct experience with the attitude object and the frequency with which attitudes have been expressed. Attitudes that are based on direct experience with the attitude object are more predictive of behavior because