Attitude Change and Persuasion

Attitude Change and Persuasion

Attitiude Change And Persuasion

Attitudes May Affect Judgments About the Accuracy of Factual Statements

We as humans utilize heuristics as mental shortcuts or rules of thumb when we lack time for full-processing, are being overloaded by information, when we deem issues unimportant, or when we have little solid information to use in decision making. In viewing attitude heuristics, we tend to determine what is true in our own minds based upon our feelings for things. Such determinations often lead to a halo effect, which causes our general first impressions to influence all of our future ratings, and also to the false consensus affect which leads us to overestimate reality and believe that everyone else likes and perceives things in the same way we do.

Some studies have shown that attitudes serve as a heuristic for estimating an answer about past behavior. For instance, when an attitude heuristic is applied to recall an event, "memory" will appear to be "superior," to the extent that the subject's inferences and constructions coincide with what actually happened (Pratkanis, 1987, p.6). Such a statement can be applied to the accuracy of factual statements. In utilizing an attitude as a heuristic, these attitudes can lead to a selective identification of the facts or ambiguous past events. Therefore, upon being given the facts, an individual may assert differences of opinion in terms of recollection and illustrate selective qualities in terms of personality or memory.

Such examples of using attitude as a heuristic can show themselves in our everyday lives dependent upon the situation at hand and the past perceptions we choose to associate with this new reality. For example, "Mike" may not like President Obama. He doesn't like his demeanor, his policy, his beliefs, his morality. There is little that President Obama can do in the public eye to change the way Mike perceives him. Because of this attitude, any new plan or policy initiative President Obama sets forth will ultimately be viewed as worthless in Mike's eyes. Mike doesn't like Obama, and therefore Mike will never like any plan Obama puts forth based on past attitude alone. The same can be viewed in dealing with stereotypes. In the same manner, it can be viewed that Mike's racism toward African-Americans will shape his perception of every African-American he meets, all based on a pre-constructed attitude with little factual basis.

The same attitude as a heuristic can be viewed in a positive spectrum, but still one that is lacking in factual makeup. Assume again that Mike's favorite color is blue. It has been since he was a child, and he has gravitated toward it far into his adulthood. Assume Mike is walking down the aisle at a supermarket, Mike may be more inclined to choose the detergent in the blue bottle based on his attitude and not on the factual representation of the product itself.

II. Research Indicates that Bipolar Attitudes May Serve as a Schema for Recall

Schema is all of the information needed to make a movement decision, which is stored in the brain as long-term memory and dysfunctional attitudes have been closely linked with cognitive schemas and the capacity for recall, embodying frameworks to help organize and interpret information. Some researchers have reported higher levels of dysfunctional attitudes in those with bipolar attitudes (Goldberg et al., 2008, p.207). While a schema describes the concepts of organized pattern of thoughts or behavior, structured clusters of pre-held ideas, mental structures that represent some aspects of the world, specific knowledge structure or cognitive representations of the self, mental frameworks that center on a specific theme, and structures to organize our knowledge and assumptions about something that are used for interpreting and processing information, bipolar attitudes can change the way we recall information over time.

For example, a person holding one solid attitude, upon viewing a picture, will bring that attitude to the forefront and thus activate a schema for recall. However, one who holds bipolar attitudes on a subject or piece of information will activate a far greater and more in-depth schema for recall that includes facets of attitude and perception that is far greater than someone who holds only one opinion or attitude.

Bipolar attitudes encompass a wide variety of heightened emotions or conceptions surrounding a piece of information which take recall to a different level as compared to singular attitudes for points of reference. In psychology, recall involves the act of retrieving information or events from the past while lacking a specific cue to help retrieve that information, and a schema for recall may be far more apparent in a situation that contains bipolar attitudes, or heightened facets of recognition.

III. Information Consistent with Attitude Recalled Better than Inconsistent

As touched on in the first question, information that is consistent with a person's attitude has the capacity to be recalled better than information that is inconsistent. Such a fact holds apparent support in looking back at individual recall throughout one's life. For example, a child who enjoys science class and does well in the subject is far more likely to recall information and topics presented to them in that setting. The same is true for a college student studying political science. While a math major, forced to fulfill the requirements of a university, will likely have a difficult time recalling facets of the constitution in aligning their disinterest with a pre-constructed negative attitude, so will the political science major be able to recall the information at a generally greater level dependent again upon their positive attitude constructed from previous encounters and knowledge.