Attitude Change

Introduction

Attitudes are comprehensive evaluations of objects, concepts, and people that one experiences in one’s life. Attitudes are necessary because they can influence one’s thoughts, actions, and feelings. When someone’s attitude changes, it is called attitude change. As a result, change happens whether a person shifts from a positive to a negative attitude, from a slightly positive to a highly positive attitude, or from having no attitude to having one. The procedures that affect attitudes have been a key focus throughout social psychology because of their functional value. So let us discuss the change in attitude in detail. 

Attitude Change Using a Two-Process Approach

According to the dual processes of attitude change, there are two sorts of activities that happen when one spends comparatively little cognitive effort: 

(1) Those that happen when one makes a relatively less cognitive effort

(2) Those that occur whenever one spends relatively high cognitive effort

Many factors influence how much thinking and effort is put into a problem, all of which affect one’s motivation or aptitude to think. One’s personal inclination for complicated thought, the unique importance of the attitude object, and the quantity of distraction present when attempting to think are just a few examples. Moreover, whether or not a persuasive message is delivered, both high- and low-effort procedures may work.

Low-Effort Processes

Suppose one’s motivation and capacity to think are low (for example, whenever the topic is not personally important or there are many interruptions). In that case, several low-effort methods might promote attitude adjustment. These include simple inferential procedures as well as some largely automatic associative procedures.

Associative Processes

• Classical Conditioning

Repeatedly associating an initially neutral attitude object with another stimulus that already has a positive or negative connotation is one technique to generate attitude change in the lack of effortful thinking. Imagine as a child that every time you saw your uncle, he took you to the zoo. If you enjoy coming to the zoo, you would probably develop a positive attitude toward your uncle. On the other hand, if he took you to the doctor every time you saw him get your vaccination injections, the opposite outcome is more likely.

• Affective Priming

Affective priming is another mechanism that includes the connection of two stimuli. A positive or negative motivation (e.g., phrases like love or murder) is seen shortly before a novel attitude object in this procedure (rather than following it, as occurs in classical conditioning). When this happens, one’s reaction to the positive or negative stimulus colours one’s assessment of the new object, resulting in a shift in attitude. 

Consider the following scenario: you are in a new restaurant and are about to try a completely different meal. If a remarkably handsome waiter or waitress serves your lunch, your initial reaction to the cuisine will likely be affected by your positive response to the server. While your attitude can change when you interact with the attitude object (for example, when you eat the meal), the initial positive assessment will increase the likelihood that your ultimate attitude would be positive.

Inferential Processes

• Balance

Cognitive balance is a primary inferential mechanism of attitude change. Simply put, people attain balance if they agree with those they like or disagree with all those they do not. When this is not the case, people feel uneasy, and views are more inclined to shift to bring the system back into balance. Let us say you find out that both you and your worst enemy both like the same band. When this happens, you are likely to feel unbalanced, and one of your attitudes will most likely shift to compensate for this discrepancy. As a result, after learning the knowledge, you may find your prior less repulsive or, on the other hand, feel less favourably toward the band.

• Heuristics

The usage of heuristics, or basic decision rules based on prior experiences or observations, is the last method for achieving low-effort attitude change. “Experts are almost always correct”, but also “larger is better” are two heuristics that come to mind. Whenever people’s motivation and capacity to think are low, they can evaluate using basic guidelines like these. For example, someone could walk over to the local music store’s bestseller area and look through the current top picks to determine what new music is good.

• Attitude Strength

The strength of an attitude is one of its most essential traits. The perseverance, resistance to change, and the ability to forecast behaviour are all factors in attitude strength. Then these characteristics are present in an attitude; the stronger it is. As you would think, high-effort cognitive processes create stronger moods than low-effort cognitive processes. 

These attitudes are frequently founded on more consistent information, were supported by a more developed knowledge structure (e.g., related beliefs and values) and maintained with greater conviction than attitudes formed by a low-effort process since they are the consequence of more significant cognitive effort.

Conclusion

When people suffer feelings of unease or guilt due to cognitive dissonance, they can actively minimise the dissonance by adjusting their attitude, beliefs, or behaviour to attain consistency with the inconsistent cognitions. Changes in attitudes are significant because they can influence how people think, behave, and feel. When someone’s perspective changes, it is called attitude change. As a result, change happens whether a person shifts from a positive to such a negative attitude, from a somewhat positive to a highly positive attitude, or from having no attitude to having one. So making a change in mindset is an essential part of our life.