Effects of Thinking about Target Object on Resistance to Attitude Change and on Social Judgment

Abstract

The present study examined the effects of thinking on resistance to attitude change and on social judgment. The following two hypotheses were tested. (1) “Attitudes formed by extensive thinking about an attitude object will be more resistant to change than attitudes formed with little thought about it. ” (2) “One who thinks about an attitude object will judge it with a smaller latitude of acceptance, with a larger latitude of rejection, and with a smaller latitude of non-commitment than one who is distracted from thinking about it. ” Forty junior high school boys and girls watched a stimulus person (an attitude object) on a video-tape for five munutes. Half of them were instructed to think about the stimulus person. The others were distracted from thinking. Then their attitudes and social judgments were measured on a scale consisting of nine statements which described behavioral intentions toward the stimulus person. The subjects watched a junior high school boy on a video-tape who spoke ill of the stimulus person. Again, their attitudes and social judgments were measured. The results supported both of the hypotheses.