What external factors influence attitude change? PDF

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What external factors influence attitude change? Practice essay, written for exam preparation. Wasn't a marked piece but I received a 1st (mark: 81) for this module....

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What external factors influence attitude change? This essay will discuss external factors that influence attitude change including the influence of message repetition, the influence of one message on another, story telling and persuasion, attitudes and relationships, norms and culture.

Message repition can influence attitude change, for example Cacioppo & Petty (1979) found that message repetition increased persuasiveness to a point (three presentations) however increase frequency after this decreased agreement with a message. The Elaboration Likelihood Model (Petty & Caccioppo, 1986) proposes this effect happens because to a point increased repetition increases comprehension of the message, this is supported by the fact that repition with a weak message decreases persuasion whereas repetition with a strong message increases persuasion. However after a certain point the message becomes tedious and provides opportunity for elaborative thinking which can evoke counter arguments and thus decrease agreement. The Two-Factor Theory (Berylne, 1970) provides another explanation by suggesting that novel stimulus tends to be threatening thus repeated exposure creates habituation and thus increasing liking of the message however after a point people become bored of the message and thus a negative affect is evoked. Studies have also looked at the influence of repeated messages on children and have found that repetition of an ice-cream advert increased brand identification.

One message can influence another. For example Tormala and Petty (2007) found that if participants were presented with lots of information about a car brand then presented with information about a store they subsequently had less positive attitudes towards the store compared to if they were presented with less information about the car. Thus the high prior knowledge about the car brand made participants feel they had less knowledge about the store and thus had a less positive attitude. Similarly Tormala & Clarkson (2007) found that participants had a more positive attitude towards a message if it was preceeded by a message from a low credibility source than if the first message came from a high credibility source. In other words when the first message came from a low credible source it made the second message source look better and thus was more persuasive. It has been suggested that narriative may be successful in elcited attitude change as when people read stories they loss access to realworld knowledge and let their guard down, this so called transportation may mean that narriative overcome resistance to attitude change. A study Green & Brock (2000) provided support for this as it found

participants were more involved in the story reported attitudes that were more congruent with the narratives theme. However there may be individual differences in the effect of transportation in that narratives are more persuasive than arguments for participants high in the need for affect. Attitudes may also be influenced by relationships. For example Heiders balance theory suggests that we like situations where we agree with others. For example Priester and Petty (2001) found that participants felt more ambivalence when there was a discrepancy between their attitudes and attitudes of a liked other. However they felt less ambivalence when there was a discrepancy between the attitudes of themselves and a hated other. Suggesting that we seek harmonany of attitudes with liked others. This effect is especially important when the attitude is important to you. Further to this one study found that participants had a more positive attitude towards a sexual passge if they were asked to think about a friend compared to when they thought about a relative. Demonstrating how imagining others influences our opinions. This also raises the question of whether we seek balance between different attitudes for different people. We may also be more persuaded to reciprocate if we think someone has made an effort. For example Garner (2005) found that people were more likely to complete a survey if the request to complete it was handwritten on a post it note. Our attitudes can also be influenced by norms. For example, Cialdini (2003) reported how participants were most likely to littering when the enivornment was littered and a model litters as the model draws attention to the pro-literring descriptive norm, whereas participants were least likely to litter when the environment was clean and the model littered as the model drew attention the anti-littering descriptive norm. Thus our attitudes and behaviour are influenced by norms. Another demonstration of this is the Broken Window Theory (Kiezer, 1980) whereby people are more likely to litter in graffiti environments and steal in littered environments. Again highlighting how behaviour is influenced by norms. Asch (1956) also demonstrated how others views influence our thinking as only 23% of participants didn’t agree with an incorrect majority when rating the relative length of lines. However it may not be that others views influence our attitudes, instead we may decide to conform to reduce the dissonance we experience when our views don’t match the majorities. Further studies have found that individuals from collectivists cultures are more likely to conform in Asch (1956) study which may indicate that their attitudes are more likely to serve a social adjustive function. This highlights the influence of culture on attitude change. This was further demonstrated by Wang et al’s (2000) study that found individuals from individualistic cultures were more persuaded by a watch advert

that emphasised the uniqueness of the watch whereas individuals from a collectivist culture were more influenced by advert that emphasised becoming part of the brand community. This highlights how the persuasiveness of messages can be influenced by cultural factors and that cultures may differ in the functions that underly their attitudes. In summary the effect of a persuasive message can depend on certain external factors including whether we have already seen it, other messages we have just encountered. Some argue that narratives may be more persuasive than message, however this may be dependent on individual difference. Furthermore, people attitudes are sensitive to their relationships with others and their attitudes. We seek to have attitudes that are in harmony with liked others. Lastly cultural difference can impact how people respond to new information and can evoked different causes of dissonance....