Attitude Object Research Articles

An Integrated Theoretical Approach to Understanding the Sociocultural Basis of Multidimensional Environmental Attitudes

Various disciplines have contributed to knowledge about complex and multifaceted attitudes about natural resource management regimes. The vast array of previous research has resulted in disparate approaches to understanding and evaluating environmental attitudes and related constructs, which make comparisons across studies and the advancement of knowledge difficult. Drawing on multiple theoretical perspectives, I outline an integrated approach for assessing critical dimensions of environmental attitudes based on underlying values, ecological worldviews, and sociopolitical orientations. With a cognitive hierarchy framework, I specify a variety of attitude objects toward which evaluative judgments should be examined, focusing on the goals, entities, and strategies involved in resource governance. My intent is to enhance the conceptual clarity of research on environment perspectives while providing a comparable but flexible approach to assessing attitudes and their sociocultural basis in a variety of contexts.

Reviving Campbell’s Paradigm for Attitude Research

Because people often say one thing and do another, social psychologists have abandoned the idea of a simple or axiomatic connection between attitude and behavior. Nearly 50 years ago, however, Donald Campbell proposed that the root of the seeming inconsistency between attitude and behavior lies in disregard of behavioral costs. According to Campbell, attitude— behavior gaps are empirical chimeras. Verbal claims and other overt behaviors regarding an attitude object all arise from one “behavioral disposition.” In this article, the authors present the constituents of and evidence for a paradigm for attitude research that describes individual behavior as a function of a person’s attitude level and the costs of the specific behavior involved. In the authors’ version of Campbell’s paradigm, they propose a formal and thus axiomatic rather than causal relationship between an attitude and its corresponding performances. The authors draw implications of their proposal for mainstream attitude theory, empirical research, and applications concerning attitudes.

Indirekte Verfahren zur Messung der impliziten Risikoeinstellung von Straftätern

Implicit attitudes are judgments about persons, objects, or actions of which the person forming a judgment is not consciously aware. Due to this lack of awareness, implicit attitudes are assessed with new measurement techniques that measure the strength of associations existing in memory between attitude objects and evaluations. Typically, these indirect methods measure reaction times, and hence make it more difficult for the questioned person to manipulate the results than in interviews or questionnaires. In order to investigate the practicability of indirect methods in criminology, an implicit association test (IAT) was constructed and compared to an explicit risk questionnaire in a sample of offenders in German prisons. It was found that offenders differed in their implicit as well as explicit risk attitudes from the normal population. On both measurements, offenders showed significantly higher risk-attitudes. In addition, offenders who had committed crimes in an automatic, unintentional manner showed significantly higher implicit attitudes in the risk IAT than offenders who had committed planned, reflective crimes. These results demonstrate that for the prediction of criminal offenses it would be helpful to measure both, impulsive behavior with indirect measures and reflective behavior with direct measures.

Flexibility now, consistency later: psychological distance and construal shape evaluative responding.

Researchers have long been interested in understanding the conditions under which evaluations will be more or less consistent or context-dependent. The current research explores this issue by asking when stability or flexibility in evaluative responding would be most useful. Integrating construal level theory with research suggesting that variability in the mental representation of an attitude object can produce fluctuations in evaluative responding, we propose a functional relationship between distance and evaluative flexibility. Because individuals construe psychologically proximal objects more concretely, evaluations of proximal objects will tend to incorporate unique information from the current social context, promoting context-specific responses. Conversely, because more distal objects are construed more abstractly, evaluations of distal objects will be less context-dependent. Consistent with this reasoning, the results of 4 studies suggest that when individuals mentally construe an attitude object concretely, either because it is psychologically close or because they have been led to adopt a concrete mindset, their evaluations flexibly incorporate the views of an incidental stranger. However, when individuals think about the same issue more abstractly, their evaluations are less susceptible to incidental social influence and instead reflect their previously reported ideological values. These findings suggest that there are ways of thinking that will tend to produce more or less variability in mental representation across contexts, which in turn shapes evaluative consistency. Connections to shared reality, conformity, and attitude function are discussed.

ERP Evidence for Rapid Hedonic Evaluation of Logos

We know that human neurocognitive systems rapidly and implicitly evaluate emotionally charged stimuli. But what about more everyday, frequently encountered kinds of objects, such as computer desktop icons and business logos? Do we rapidly and implicitly evaluate these more prosaic visual images, attitude objects that might only engender a mild sense of liking or disliking, if at all? To address this question, we asked participants to view a set of unfamiliar commercial logos in the context of a target identification task as brain electrical responses to these objects were recorded via event-related potentials (ERPs). Following this task, participants individually identified those logos that were most liked or disliked, allowing us to then compare how ERP responses to logos varied as a function of hedonic evaluation-a procedure decoupling evaluative responses from any normative classification of the logos themselves. In Experiment 1, we found that visuocortical processing manifest a specific bias for disliked logos that emerged within the first 200 msec of stimulus onset. In Experiment 2, we replicated this effect while dissociating normative- and novelty-related influences. Taken together, our results provide direct electrophysiological evidence suggesting that we rapidly and implicitly evaluate commercial branding images at a hedonic level.

On the determinants of implicit evaluations: When the present weighs more than the past

It is often assumed that implicit evaluations are influenced by early childhood experiences, whereas explicit evaluations reflect recent experiences. However, previous findings supporting this assumption remain ambiguous as to whether the differential effects of early versus recent experiences are driven by their temporal distance or their affective versus cognitive nature. Controlling for affectivity by using a predominantly affective attitude object (i.e., religion), the present study found that both implicit and explicit evaluations were related to recent, but not early, experiences. This pattern consistently emerged for self-reported experiences as well as independent reports from parents. Moreover, the relation of recent experiences to one type of evaluation remained significant after controlling for the respective other type of evaluation, suggesting that recent experiences influenced implicit and explicit evaluations independently. Implications for attitudinal dissociations and processes of attitude change are discussed.

I like you, I like you not: Understanding the formation of context-dependent automatic attitudes

Previous research has shown that automatic evaluations can be highly context dependent. Expanding on past research demonstrating context effects for existing attitudes toward familiar objects, the present research examined basic principles that guide the formation of context-dependent versus context-independent automatic attitudes. Results from four experiments showed that: (a) newly formed attitudes generalised to novel contexts when prior experiences with the attitude object were evaluatively homogeneous; (b) when prior experiences were evaluatively heterogeneous, automatic evaluations became context sensitive, such that they reflected the contingency between the valence of prior experiences and the context in which these experiences occurred; and (c) when prior experiences were evaluatively heterogeneous across different contexts, novel contexts elicited automatic evaluations that reflected the valence of first experiences with the attitude object. Implications for research on automatic evaluation and attitude change are discussed.

How Many Scale Points Should I Include for Attitudinal Questions?

Response scales are frequently used to measure attitudes in survey research. In this short article, I will discuss some theoretical considerations in the measurement of attitudes that influence the number of scale points. Next, I will discuss empirical results regarding the quality of scales with different numbers of scale points. Last, I will provide some question development strategies. There are various theoretical considerations for determining the number of scale points. Attitudes are abstract constructs that are not directly observable and exist only in the respondent’s mind. Response scales allow respondents to express both the direction and intensity of their attitudes. Some attitudes are viewed as bipolar concepts where two opposing sides of a concept are measured, whereas other attitudes are viewed as unipolar concepts where only the level of an attitude or just one side of a concept is measured. Researchers must clearly define the attitude object towards which a respondent can express an attitude. The respondent can then represent his or her stance for or against an attitude object by selecting the appropriate option on the response scale. Researchers usually conceptualize attitudes as existing along an attitude continuum. Hence, response scales that allow respondents to express different shades of an attitude rather than being simply for or against an attitude object will allow for better measurement of that continuum. However, the difficulty of the response task must also be considered when designing response scales. Although longer scales might seemingly measure the attitude continuum in more detail, the response task might become too demanding, with too many scale points. This might force respondents to make more finely graded distinctions between scale points than might be possible. Respondents then might decide that the question is too demanding and satisfice (Krosnick 1991) by choosing the first plausible option that they encounter rather than carefully considering all options along the scale (Krosnick and Fabrigar 1997). Additionally respondents might resort to rounding their answers.

Prejudiced learning: A connectionist account

Connectionist simulation was employed to investigate processes that may underlie the relationships between prior expectancies or prejudices and the acquisition of attitudes, under conditions where learners can only discover the valence of attitude objects through directly experiencing them. We compared contexts analogous to learners holding either false negative expectancies ('prejudices') about a subclass of objects that were actually good or false positive expectancies about objects that were actually bad. We introduced expectancy-related bias either by altering the probability of approach, or by varying the rate of learning following experience with good or bad objects. Where feedback was contingent on approach, the false positive expectancies were corrected by experience, but negative prejudices resisted change, since the network avoided objects deemed to be bad, and so received less corrective feedback. These findings are discussed in relation to the effects of intergroup contact and expectancy-confirmation processes in reducing or sustaining prejudice.

Personality Variables Predict Strength‐Related Attitude Dimensions Across Objects

We examined personality predictors of different attitude strength-related dimensions across objects. Participants responded to questions regarding 11 attitude objects that assessed the overall evaluation of the object and the strength-related dimensions of importance, certainty, and relevance. Confirmatory factor analyses supported a 4-factor solution underlying the self-report and extremity dimensions across the 11 attitude objects, with importance and relevance and certainty and extremity loading on 2 second-order factors. The need to evaluate, need for affect, sense of coherence, dogmatism, and personal fear of invalidity were all related at the bivariate level to at least one strength-related dimension. The need to evaluate and the need for affect independently predicted variance in certainty/extremity across the attitude objects and sense of coherence and dogmatism predicted unique variance in importance/relevance across objects. Discussion focuses on the possible processes by which personality variables predict strength-related dimensions across objects.

The effects of fantasy football participation on NFL consumption: A qualitative analysis

The growth of fantasy sports into a multi-billion dollar industry has made it an important component of the sports industry. Sport leagues must acknowledge the impact fantasy sports have on the way its participants consume their sport. This study examines the impact of fantasy football on the consumption of NFL-related products and services using an adapted version of the attitude/behavior model developed [Fazio, R. H., Powell, M. C., & Herr, P. M. (1983). Toward a process model of the attitude–behavior relation: Accessing one's attitude upon mere observation of the attitude object. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 44(4), 723–735]. Using qualitative methods, the data indicate that fantasy football participants utilized various media sources, specifically the Internet, television, cellular telephones, and a variety of print media, at much higher levels as a result of their interest and participation in fantasy football. Further, contrary to previous literature on fan loyalty, team and player outcomes were found to alter perceptions towards a favorite team or a fantasy team.

Ambivalence versus Valence: Analyzing the Effects of Opposing Attitudes

Attitudinal ambivalence refers to holding equivalently strong positive attitudes (ATTPOS) and negative attitudes (ATTNEG) toward the same attitude object. We demonstrate two problems with common measures of attitudinal ambivalence. First, they contain multiple assumptions about how people weigh and balance ATTPOS and ATTNEG that are not separately tested. Second, they are often confounded with attitude valence; specifically, they are confounded with ATTPOS to the extent that most respondents' attitudes are more negative than positive and with ATTNEG to the extent that most respondents' attitudes are more positive than negative. To solve these problems, we introduced an alternative procedure—using hierarchical regression—for analyzing effects of potentially opposing attitudes, and demonstrated (with 286 American and 126 Chinese participants) how it produced more revealing and often more parsimonious models of the effects of ATTPOS and ATTNEG on conflicted feelings, behavioral tendencies, culture, and life satisfaction.

When mere exposure leads to less liking: The incremental threat effect in intergroup contexts

In two experiments we tested the hypothesis that repeated exposure to out-group-relevant attitude objects would lead to less liking following a threat to identity. In Experiment 1 exposure to abstract artwork ostensibly created by a member of an out-group university led to more liking under baseline conditions, but not following a manipulation of threat. In Experiment 2 we observed a negative relationship between exposure and liking following threat: liking reversed the typical mere exposure effect. Reported emotion mediated the interactive effect of threat and exposure on liking. These findings illustrate how social identity threat can be experienced incrementally as a function of exposure. We discuss the findings in the context of an integration of research on exposure, identity, attitudes, and contact.

The Agony of Ambivalence and Ways to Resolve It: Introducing the MAID Model

People are generally averse toward conflict between beliefs and/or feelings underlying their attitudes—that is, attitudinal ambivalence. This review integrates literature on attitudinal ambivalence with theories on decision making and coping strategies to gain a better understanding of when and how people deal with feelings of ambivalence. First it shows that ambivalence is experienced as being particularly unpleasant when the ambivalent attitude holder is confronted with the necessity to make a choice concerning the ambivalent attitude object; then, incongruent evaluative components of the attitude become accessible, and feelings of uncertainty about the potential outcomes arise, which may involve the anticipation of aversive emotions. Several coping strategies are employed when ambivalence is experienced as unpleasant. Emotion- and problem-focused coping strategies are discussed. The article concludes with a discussion of the MAID (model of ambivalence-induced discomfort), which aims to describe the consequences of ambivalence.

Understanding Public Attitudes Toward Tobacco Harm Reduction: The Role of Attitude Structure1

The present research examines whether and to what extent the underlying structure of attitudes toward harm reduction and specific reduced‐exposure products contributes to an understanding of public attitudes toward harm reduction. Past research has focused on the extent to which some attitude objects are primarily affective or cognitive. Using survey data from a 5‐state Upper Midwest sample, we tested the relevance of 4 pertinent properties of attitudes for predicting overall attitudes toward tobacco harm reduction: affective and cognitive bases of attitudes; knowledge; experience with smoking and reduced‐harm products; and affective/cognitive consistency. We found that feelings about harm reduction are most predictive of overall attitudes toward harm reduction and specific reduced‐harm products. Theoretical and policy implications are discussed.

Understanding patterns of attitude change: When implicit measures show change, but explicit measures do not

A common assumption in research on attitudes is that indirect measures assess relatively stable implicit attitudes, whereas traditional self-report measures assess more recently acquired explicit attitudes that coexist with old, presumably stable implicit attitudes. This assumption seems difficult to reconcile with research showing experimentally induced changes on implicit but not explicit measures. The present research tested a process-account of such asymmetrical patterns. Specifically, we argue that implicit measures show experimental effects that do not emerge on explicit measures when (a) the pairing of an attitude object with positive or negative valence creates new automatic associations in memory, and, at the same time, (b) the consideration of additional information about the attitude object eliminates the impact of automatic associations on self-reported evaluative judgments. Results from three studies support these predictions. Implications for research on attitude change are discussed.

Stepping Beyond Message Specificity in the Study of Emotion as Mediator and Inter-Emotion Associations Across Attitude Objects: Fahrenheit 9/11, Anger, and Debate Superiority

This experimental research focuses on four distinct, but related theoretical interests regarding the study of emotion and media effects: (a) emotion serving as a potential mediator of the relationship between the consumption of multiple media messages, (b) media messages sparking emotional reactions to attitude objects not specifically referenced or identified in a message, (c) the assessment of inter-emotion relationships across distinct attitude objects, and (d) varied processes of emotion-based influence based on individual-difference attitude object preferences. This work focuses on Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, its effects on anger felt toward President George W. Bush and Senator John F. Kerry, and subsequent perceptions of candidate debate superiority across Bush versus Kerry supporters. Moore's film was found to influence levels of anger felt toward both Bush and Kerry and these emotions were related to subsequent perceptions of debate superiority. Distinct processes of influence were found for previously identified Bush supporters versus Kerry supporters, with Bush anger serving as a mediator for Bush supporters and Kerry anger serving as a mediator for Kerry supporters. Ramifications of this study's findings are outlined and future lines of research are summarized.

Reliability and validity of the Single‐Target IAT (ST‐IAT): assessing automatic affect towards multiple attitude objects

AbstractIn contrast to the original Implicit Association Test (IAT), the Single‐Target Implicit Association Test (ST‐IAT) measures the evaluation of a target object without the need to simultaneously evaluate a counter‐category. The present research investigates (a) whether position within a series of several ST‐IATs affects reliability and validity, and (b) whether the ST‐IAT exhibits adequate construct validity if the target objects are closely interrelated. We address these questions by taking five interrelated yet distinct political parties in Germany as an exemplary domain. The ST‐IAT reliably and validly assessed attitudes towards political parties (Study 1). Serial position effects did not affect the results. The ST‐IATs mostly captured a specific party evaluation and exhibited discriminant validity. At the same time, discriminant validity was limited among parties within one wing of the political left–right spectrum that underlies implicit and explicit party evaluations (Study 2). If used with caution, the ST‐IAT can be a valuable supplement to implicit measures in the case of multiple single‐target assessments. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A general connectionist model of attitude structure and change: The ACS (Attitudes as Constraint Satisfaction) model.

A localist, parallel constraint satisfaction, artificial neural network model is presented that accounts for a broad collection of attitude and attitude-change phenomena. The network represents the attitude object and cognitions and beliefs related to the attitude, as well as how to integrate a persuasive message into this network. Short-term effects are modeled by activation patterns due to parallel constraint satisfaction processes, and long-term effects are modeled by weight changes due to the settling patterns of activation. Phenomena modeled include thought-induced attitude polarization, elaboration and attitude strength, motivated reasoning and social influence, an integrated view of heuristic versus systematic persuasion, and implicit versus explicit attitude change. Results of the simulations are consistent with empirical results. The same set of simple mechanisms is used to model all the phenomena, which allows the model to offer a parsimonious theoretical account of how structure can impact attitude change. This model is compared with previous computational approaches to attitudes, and implications for attitude research are discussed.

Influencing attitudes toward near and distant objects

It is argued that the temporal distance of attitude objects systematically changes how the object is mentally represented, and thus influences the strength of particular persuasive appeals. Three experiments tested the hypothesis that people preferentially attend to arguments that highlight primary, abstract (high-level) vs. incidental, concrete (low-level) features when attitude objects are temporally distant vs. near. Results suggested that when attitude objects are temporally distant vs. near, arguments emphasizing primary vs. secondary features (Study 1), desirability vs. feasibility features (Study 2), and general classes vs. specific cases are more persuasive (Study 3). The relation of construal theory to dual process theories of persuasion and persuasion phenomena, such as personal relevance effects and functional matching effects, are discussed.