Attitudinal Structure Research Articles

Inequality Belief Systems: What They Look Like, How to Study Them, and Why They Matter

This paper purports to enrich the burgeoning field of research on the content of people’s beliefs about inequality by studying the structure of these beliefs. We develop a theoretical and methodological framework that combines Correlational Class Analysis and Exploratory Graph Analysis, and we test it empirically with original survey data collected in the United States and the Netherlands (n = 2,501 and 1,618). Using CCA, we identify groups of individuals who share construals of inequality, while EGA allows us to model these structures as inequality belief systems, which are networks of perceptions, explanations and attitudes about inequality. Results reveal the presence of two distinct belief systems in each country. These systems exhibit structural differences and are related to different sociodemographic factors in the U.S. and the Netherlands. Moreover, we show that inequality belief systems are more socially patterned in the former country. Finally, we demonstrate that belief systems, in both countries, are associated with different levels of support for redistribution. We discuss the significance of our findings for the politics of inequality and stress that overlooking attitudinal structures impedes a full understanding of people’s views on inequality and their support for redistribution.

Comparing attitudinal structures between political orientations: A network analysis of climate change attitudes

Research into climate change attitudes consistently and across countries finds ideologically and worldview-determined differences in threat perceptions and policy endorsements. To further our understanding of these ideological differences, the current study explores the underlying structure of climate attitudes across right- and left-oriented individuals. Based on survey data from a representative sample from Denmark (N = 1365) we deployed the Causal Attitude Network model to formalize attitudes as networks of interacting attitude elements. We compare the networks of different ideological groups and relate the observed patterns to previous findings and theories within the environmental and political psychology literatures. Overall, the two networks were found to be characterized by many similarities, for example, in global connectivity and patterns of node strength. Yet, the results also revealed differences in the most central nodes of right and left networks, as well as theoretically interesting differences in the predictors of important nodes. We discuss the implications of the findings for communication and engagement efforts.

Attitude and Attitudinal Structures Toward Physical Education and Their Influences on Physical Activity Behavior

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to examine middle and high school students’ cognitive and affective attitude and their cognitive-affective attitudinal structures toward physical education (PE). The effects of cognitive and affective attitude and attitudinal structures on physical activity (PA) in PE and outside of school were also examined. Methods: 1773 Chinese middle and high-school students participated in this study. SEM, Chi-square test, ANOVAs, and Contingency tables were adopted to address the research questions. Results: The results showed that most students (>90%) were holding positive cognitive and affective attitude toward PE. Students’ affective attitude significantly influences their PA in PE and outside of school. Most students were holding the positive cognitive-positive negative attitudinal structure toward PE. Conclusions: All these findings lay important foundations for future theoretical advancement about attitude toward PE and provide guidance for PE teachers on attitude intervention and PA promotion.

Attitude and Attitudinal Structures Toward Physical Education and Their Influences on Physical Activity Behavior

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to examine middle and high school students’ cognitive and affective attitude and their cognitive-affective attitudinal structures toward physical education (PE). The effects of cognitive and affective attitude and attitudinal structures on physical activity (PA) in PE and outside of school were also examined. Methods: 1773 Chinese middle and high-school students participated in this study. SEM, Chi-square test, ANOVAs, and Contingency tables were adopted to address the research questions. Results: The results showed that most students (>90%) were holding positive cognitive and affective attitude toward PE. Students’ affective attitude significantly influences their PA in PE and outside of school. Most students were holding the positive cognitive-positive negative attitudinal structure toward PE. Conclusions: All these findings lay important foundations for future theoretical advancement about attitude toward PE and provide guidance for PE teachers on attitude intervention and PA promotion.

Physical Activity in Underserved Preadolescents

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to examine middle and high school students’ cognitive and affective attitude and their cognitive-affective attitudinal structures toward physical education (PE). The effects of cognitive and affective attitude and attitudinal structures on physical activity (PA) in PE and outside of school were also examined. Methods: 1773 Chinese middle and high-school students participated in this study. SEM, Chi-square test, ANOVAs, and Contingency tables were adopted to address the research questions. Results: The results showed that most students (>90%) were holding positive cognitive and affective attitude toward PE. Students’ affective attitude significantly influences their PA in PE and outside of school. Most students were holding the positive cognitive-positive negative attitudinal structure toward PE. Conclusions: All these findings lay important foundations for future theoretical advancement about attitude toward PE and provide guidance for PE teachers on attitude intervention and PA promotion.

The Buffering Effects of Right-Wing Authoritarianism on Future Anxiety: the Mediating Role of COVID-19-Related Demoralization and Perceived Risk

AbstractIn the last decade, our knowledge of authoritarianism has completely shifted from that of a personality dimension to that of a multidimensional attitudinal structure. Current theories stipulate that individuals are motivated to maintain a sense of collective security within their social group. When a group is confronted with societal threats, such as COVID-19, individuals respond by increasing their exhibition of authoritarian practices to maintain collective security. Where a sense of control cannot be maintained, it can contribute to poor psychological outcomes such as negative future outlooks. In the present study, we collected a community sample of 948 individuals to test how authoritarianism may alleviate feelings of future anxiety. We hypothesized that perceived risk and demoralization would mediate the effects of authoritarianism on future anxiety. Our results supported that demoralization is a significant mediator, in that higher authoritarianism is associated with lower levels of demoralization that in turn is associated with lower levels of future anxiety. However, we did not support a mediating role in the perceived risk of COVID-19. Our results illuminate a potential pathway between authoritarianism and the mitigation of maladaptive psychological outcomes in the face of societal threats. Perhaps encouragingly, authoritarianism was associated with morale but did not diminish the seriousness of the perceived threat of COVID-19. We suggest that morale be a point of future investigation when aiming to understand the effects of authoritarianism on maintaining groups’ collective security.

Understanding Students’ Cognitive and Affective Attitude and Attitudinal Structures Toward Physical Activity

Understanding Students’ Cognitive and Affective Attitude and Attitudinal Structures Toward Physical Activity

Attitudes Towards Food Allergy Scale: Psychometric properties and associations with food allergy quality of life and anxiety.

BackgroundDaily, we tend to evaluate things positively or negatively, according to whether they follow the general information available about them. This attitudinal assessment is represented through evaluative dimensions (e.g., good‐bad) that vary in terms of valence (positive or negative) and strength (less or more). Despite its importance, there is an urge in food allergy (FA) research to properly assess attitudes based on the underlying mechanisms that define attitudes.ObjectiveThe present research aimed to develop the Attitudes Towards Food Allergy scale (ATFAS), the first attitudinal measure of FA. Method: Two studies were performed (n = 1049), using a range of robust statistical analyses (e.g., Item Response Theory, Exploratory Factor Analysis, Confirmatory Factor Analysis).ResultsOur results provided strong evidence for a unidimensional attitudinal structure, across groups of non‐allergic individuals and food‐allergic, besides recommended reliability levels. All items presented suitable parameters (i.e., discrimination, difficulty, information). Finally, the ATFAS significantly predicted FA quality of life, mediated by FA anxiety.ConclusionWe are confident that the ATFAS is a novel and necessary measure, that can help to widen how we view and assess FA. The development of studies that assess attitudes towards FA based on our general information about the disorder would help to deepen our understanding of their links to other health‐related variables and their potential impact on quality of life, reduce FA's stigma, and develop more positive attitudes.

The long-term electoral implications of conflict escalation: Doubtful doves and the breakdown of Israel’s left–right dichotomy

What prolonged implications does conflict escalation have on voting behavior? The literature focuses primarily on the immediate effect of violent events on voting in nearby elections, leaving open questions about longer-term consequences. This article examines this question by studying Israel, where violent escalation in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict in the early 2000s was followed by an unexpected electoral outcome: the emergence and consolidation of a new centrist bloc that transformed a longstanding Left-Right partisan divide into a three-bloc system. Using two decades of survey data, it is argued that this shift is best explained by a long-term attitudinal change toward the conflict by many Israelis after the escalation. Rather than a strictly hawkish shift, many voters have become ‘Doubtful Doves’: supportive of territorial compromise in principle, but skeptical about reaching an agreement with the Palestinians in practice. This underdiscussed attitudinal structure, dovish but doubtful, has formed a new electoral base for centrist parties, breaking the traditional Left-Right dichotomy. These findings illustrate that violent periods in conflicts can cause non-trivial long-term changes in popular attitude structures and voting patterns, which, under the right conditions, can trigger electoral re-equilibration.

NegotioPoly: a holistic gaming approach to negotiation teaching

Purpose Based on Behavioral Theory of Negotiations (Walton & McKersie, 1965), the purpose of this paper is to discuss the existing gap between negotiation theory and pedagogy and presents an experiential teaching tool that closes this gap. The tool is a ‘serious game’ (Abt, 1975) that reinforces all four core negotiation subprocesses while allowing students to practice their negotiation skills and several critical business competencies in a realistic and improvisational context. Design/methodology/approach After successfully using NegotioPoly for five years, qualitative and quantitative data were collected in three sections of negotiation classes to assess student learning and behaviors while playing NegotioPoly and to collect student feedback on the effectiveness of NegotioPoly in teaching and reinforcing key negotiation skills. Findings Findings support that NegotioPoly is highly effective in engaging students in a series of realistic negotiations, joint problem solving and strategic decision-making. Results show that, during the game, students demonstrate their negotiation skills and learnings, and they practice all four negotiation subprocesses of distributive, integrative and intraorganizational bargaining and attitudinal structuring. Practical implications NegotioPoly enables students to engage in distributive and integrative bargaining, multiple levels of negotiations and coalitions in quick succession. Students practice organizational politics and adjust their negotiations based on relationships and social realities, as they demonstrate advanced deal-making behaviors and core business competencies of problem solving, decision-making, analytical skills and ability to work with others. Social implications NegotioPoly reinforces core business competencies such as negotiation, problem solving, analytical skills and the ability to work in teams that employers look for and, therefore, is a useful tool for preparing students for the business world. Originality/value NegotioPoly is an experiential learning tool that closes the gap between negotiation theory and pedagogy while providing deep learning and realistic practice opportunities for students where they can use their negotiation skills in a gaming environment that uses multi-party and multi-round negotiations.

Fraternity Membership and Negative Racial Attitudes among U.S. College Students

Over the years, race‐related incidents involving Greek letter organizations (GLOs), especially fraternities, continue to arise despite the ensuing controversy and negative media attention that inevitably follow such incidents. The present study examines whether there is an association between GLO membership and negative ethnoracial attitudes given a range of relevant psychological, sociological, and political theories about ethnoracial attitudes. Building on insights from microclass research on attitudinal structuring and drawing on the National Longitudinal Study of Freshmen (N = 2,817), results of linear regression models indicate that GLO membership is associated with heightened negative ethnoracial attitudes, particularly among white male students. Moreover, a measure of ethnoracial group affiliation partially mediates this effect. This latter finding suggests that among the various ethnoracial attitude theories, group position theory may be better formulated to explain an association between GLO membership and negative ethnoracial attitudes, given its consideration of both ingroup boundary formation and organizations. The results also support microclass processes and suggest future research to more clearly account for pre‐occupational structuring that later feeds into occupational processes.

Negotiation Training: Balancing Technical and Moral Duality

HR and line managers need to develop negotiation specific attitudinal structures (different from general management) that can balance demands from strategic goals (technical) with common shared con...

The structure of attitudes towards shale gas extraction in the United Kingdom

Shale gas extraction is a highly controversial process. Despite significant proven or potential reserves, public reaction to extraction have often been negative. In some cases, this has prevented exploration. In this paper, we investigate the structure of public attitudes to shale gas extraction in the context of the United Kingdom, using a dedicated survey of 4992 respondents. We find that public attitudes to shale gas extraction have a unidimensional structure, such that all questions about the virtues and limitations of extraction are treated as a single issue. Nonetheless, this general structure masks two distinct attitudinal structures. Those with more familiarity with shale gas have a very strong unidimensional attitudinal structure, while those with the least familiarity have a two-dimensional attitudinal structure; representing distinctions between perceived positive and negative attributes. This suggests an important role for information in conditioning responses to shale gas, a factor with implications for how government addresses policy relating to shale gas extraction.

Attitudes and behavioral intentions to protect the environment: How consistent is the structure of environmental concern in cross-national comparison?

This article deals with the consistency of the attitudinal structure of environmental concern in cross-national comparison using structural equation models (SEM) with International Social Survey Program (ISSP) 2010 data. Multiple group confirmatory factor analysis is used to explore measurement invariance and to test the cross-national consistency of the relationship between environmental attitudes and the willingness to sacrifice for environmental protection (which can be interpreted as a behavioral intention). Both are referred to as being dimensions of environmental concern. Multilevel SEM is conducted to explain country differences regarding levels of consistency between the two dimensions of environmental concern. The results of the multiple group confirmatory factor analysis show that it is possible to reach metric measurement invariance for both dimensions of environmental concern. Further, the consistency (i.e., the strength of statistical association) between these two dimensions differs considerably throughout the world. Multilevel SEM analysis shows that the consistency is associated with national wealth; that is, the higher the national wealth, the stronger the relationship between the two dimensions of environmental concern. Thus, in poor countries, there is only a weak link between environmental attitudes and behavioral intentions to protect the environment. In contrast, in wealthy countries, environmental attitudes and environmental behavioral intentions form a highly consistent cluster of environmental concern.

How Political Perceptions Affect Attitudes Toward Tourism: A Study of Chinese Generations

Based on the case of Chinese tourists' travel to Japan, this study is aimed at providing more insight on the relationship between international politics and travel decisions. This study identifies the generational gaps of attitudinal structure between the Chinese Cohort 60 (CC 60) and Chinese Post-80s (CP 80) based on the textual data collected through in-depth interviews with two generations of Chinese tourists. The fluctuation of Chinese tourist arrivals in Japan following diplomatic incidents suggests that Sino–Japanese historical and contemporary political incidents may have an effect on tourism attitude. Result indicated that the association between the attitudes toward tourism, Japan, and political incidents are stronger for CC 60 than for CP 80. Compared with CP 80, CC 60 tourists hold stronger stereotype and prejudice toward the Japanese, as well as experience considerable pressure from anti-Japanese social norm, thereby producing cognitive dissonance for those interested in visiting Japan. CP 80 hold more neutral attitude toward Japan tourism and their intention to travel to Japan is less influenced by their attitude toward this country and the historical incidents. The findings have implication on sustainable Sino–Japan tourism and pointed out the important role of political incidents in tourist behavior.

Investigating the demographic and attitudinal predictors of rape myth acceptance in U.K. Police officers: developing an evidence-base for training and professional development

ABSTRACTEfforts to understand rape myth acceptance (RMA) as a cognitive framework in police, unifying key cognitive/attitudinal and demographic factors into one coherent model, are lacking. Using a cross-sectional survey design, predictors of RMA were assessed by linear hierarchical regression, including demographic (age, length of service, gender, experience of specialist rape investigation training) and attitudinal factors (hostility towards women, sexist attitudes, and explicit power/sex beliefs) among officers from a large U.K. police force (N = 912). The final model explained 44% of variance in RMA. Gender and previous specialist training significantly predicted RMA, but to a much lesser extent than attitudinal variables, which explain 42% of RMA variance. Only specialist rape investigation training remained significant when attitudinal variables were added. The greater contribution from attitudinal variables suggests that efforts to address RMA in officers must consider the broader attitudinal structures underpinning RMA. Findings highlight implications for evidence-based training for rape investigators.

Fraternity Membership and Negative Racial Attitudes Among U.S. College Students

Over the years, race-related incidents involving Greek letter organizations (GLOs), especially fraternities, continue to arise despite the ensuing controversy and negative media attention that inevitably follow such incidents. The present study examines whether there is an association between GLO membership and negative racial attitudes given a range of relevant psychological, sociological, and political theories about racial attitudes. Building on insights from microclass research on attitudinal structuring and drawing on the National Longitudinal Study of Freshmen (N=2817), results of linear regression models indicate that GLO membership is associated with heightened negative racial attitudes, particularly among white male students. Moreover, a measure of racial group affiliation partially mediates this effect. This latter finding suggests that among the various racial attitude theories, group position theory may be better formulated to explain an association between GLO membership and negative racial attitudes, given its consideration of both in-group boundary formation and organizations. The results also support microclass processes and suggest future research to more clearly account for pre-occupational structuring that later feed into occupational processes.

Understanding Attitudes Toward Nuclear Energy After the Fukushima Accident: Differences Between Asserted and Ambivalent Positions*

ObjectiveThe goal of this article is to understand the attitudes toward nuclear energy after the Fukushima accident. Such an analysis necessitates the avoidance of a dichotomous perspective (pro/against)—consider “supporter,” “neither‐nor,” and “opponent”—and to determine the effect of various factors on attitudes.MethodsThis study analyzes a 2013 Swiss survey that measures public attitudes toward nuclear energy.ResultsPublic acceptance of nuclear power remains lower two years after. Attitudinal structure of neither‐nor indicates ambivalence. Different factors explain the three positions.ConclusionsPublic attitudes toward nuclear energy are in line with Swiss energy strategy for 2050 to ban nuclear energy. These results draw practical implications for implementing political decisions and for policy communication.

Affect, Emotion, and Emotion Regulation in the Workplace: Feelings and Attitudinal Structuring

Excerpt] Almost 40 years after publishing A Behavioral Theory of Labor Negotiations in 1965, the fields of negotiations and organizational behavior experienced an “affective revolution” (Barsade, Brief and Spataro 2003). Although Walton and McKersie could not have predicted the widespread academic and public interest in emotion and emotional intelligence, they foreshadowed this affect-laden direction in the section of their book on attitudinal structuring, which identified the dimension of friendliness-hostility as a critical aspect of the relationship between negotiating parties in the workplace and other settings.

Attitudinal Structuring, Alternative Dispute Resolution, and Negotiation Strategy

Attitudinal Structuring, Alternative Dispute Resolution, and Negotiation Strategy