Journalism 614:Attitudinal Perspectives on Opinion Expression

Outline for today Key concepts:

– beliefs; attitudes; values; opinion

Behavioral approach: – classical conditioning

Cognitive processing: – ELM; heuristics

Consistency theories: – balance theory; cognitive dissonance

Motivational approach: – functional theory of attitudes

Attitude-behavior link: – theory of planned behavior

Emotions & attitudes: – cognitive approaches; social approaches

The Psychological Antecedents

Public opinion = beliefs, attitudes & values – Beliefs: The information that individuals have

about objects or actions (cognitions) • Often unrecognized, sometimes incorrect

• May be grouped together in a belief system

• Often conflict between belief systems

• Sometimes referred to as “schema”– Categories of knowledge about a topic

– Schema may not be internally consistent

The Psychological Antecedents

Public opinion = beliefs, attitudes & values– Attitudes: positive or negative feelings

• Evaluative component is central

• Built upon our beliefs

• Derived from sampling available thoughts, schema– Attitudes are often constructed “on the fly” based on what

cognitions are most recently or frequently available.

The Psychological Antecedents

Public opinion = beliefs, attitudes & values– Values: Overarching goals we want to reach

• Instrumental and terminal values– Values about modes of conduct

• Honest, Courageous, Helpful– Values about end states of existence

• Equality, Freedom, Love

• Central to expression on many issues and topics• Most stable element of opinion expression• Often evoked by political leaders in speeches• The basis for issue publics around controversies

Opinions as Expressions

A hierarchy

– Belief: People learn through schooling

– Attitude: I favor public schooling

– Value: Education is a right

All may lead to expression of opinion:

– Support a tax increase for schools

Beyond Behavioral Approaches

Based on models of classical and operant conditioning in animals– People are “conditioned” to respond in certain

ways to specific stimulus – automatic reaction– Repeated pairing of negative words, e.g. “bad,

dirty, stupid,” with a particular group, e.g. “Italians, Indians, Irish”, conditions a response

– Generates a negative reaction whenever the group is encountered, even absent the cue word

• This reaction triggers the behavioral response

Classical Conditioning Combine conditioned and unconditioned stimulus

to produce conditioned response

Drawbacks of Behavioral Theories

There are times when people think carefully– Elaboration Likelihood Model

Attitudes come in packages, are interconnected– Attitude Consistency Theories

People hold same attitude for different reasons– Functional Theories of Attitudes

People often do not act consistent with attitudes– Theory of Reasoned Action

Cognitive Response Theories

Brain is a “noisy, busy” place, always active– Ongoing mental activity interacts with incoming

information to produce an attitude

People connect new information with their existing feelings and beliefs about a topic– Highly interactive process

– Motivation and ability are key issues

– Cognitive responses mediate effects

Elaboration Likelihood Model

Central and peripheral route attitude change Persuasive communication has lasting effect on

attitudes when…– Motivated to process the information

– Ability to process the information

– Cognitive responses are valenced

Otherwise, we rely on peripheral cues– Attitude change is temporary and unstable

Attitude Consistency Theories

Effort to maintain balance among network of interconnected attitudes – Explain how opinions are networked and how this

networking affects opinion expression

– Key issues: Are they consistent, inconsistent (dissonant), or irrelevant to one another?

– P = Perceiver, O = Other person, X = Attribute

Cognitive Dissonance

Inconsistency between two cognitions creates an uncomfortable state– Cognitive dissonance - magnitude depends of

importance of cognitive elements

– Something must be done to alleviate stress• Change one of the cognitions to create consonance

• Add consonant cognitions to create balance

• Alter the importance of cognitions

Cognitive Dissonance in Action

Functional Theories Attitudes serve various needs and have diverse

motivational bases– Ego-defensive functions

• Protect self from unflattering truths

– Value-expressive functions• Convey cherished ideals to others

– Knowledge functions• Understand events and people

– Utilitarian functions• Help people gain rewards and avoid punishments

Attitude function dictates form of persuasion

The Attitude-Behavior Relation

Measurement Issues– Principle of correspondence

Individual Differences– Low self monitors = more consistent

Social and Situational Differences– Attitude accessibility and social context

Theory of Planned Behavior

Yet most of the time, people do not put much cognitive effort into

information processing, cognitive consistency, or planning behavior