Attitude Formation and Change

Attitude Formation and Change

How Attitudes Are Formed

Attitudes are not inborn. They are learned through our experiences and interactions with others. While some research hints at a genetic component, such influences are indirect and always work alongside learning. That is why social psychologists focus on the conditions under which attitudes are learned.

Processes of Attitude Formation

There are five distinct ways in which attitudes are learned.

Learning by association. A student who admires a teacher may come to like the subject that teacher teaches. The positive feelings for the teacher become linked to the subject itself. This is classical conditioning at work — a neutral object (the subject) gets paired with a positively valued object (the teacher), and the attitude transfers.

Learning by reward and punishment. If expressing a certain attitude brings praise, that attitude is strengthened. A teenager who wins the title 'Miss Good Health' for doing yogasanas regularly will develop a positive attitude toward yoga and health. Conversely, a child who falls ill from eating junk food will develop a negative attitude toward junk food and a positive attitude toward healthy eating.

Learning through modelling (observing others). We do not always need direct rewards or punishments. Watching others be rewarded or punished for their attitudes is enough. Children who see their parents being appreciated for showing respect toward elders will themselves form a respectful attitude toward elders.

Learning through group or cultural norms. Norms are unwritten rules about how one should behave in specific situations. Over time, these norms become internalised as attitudes. This process actually combines all three forms of learning above — association, reward and punishment, and modelling. For instance, offering money, sweets, fruit, and flowers at a place of worship is normative in some religions. When individuals see that such behaviour is expected and socially approved, they develop a positive attitude toward it and the feelings of devotion that go with it.

Learning through exposure to information. Many attitudes are formed in a social context without the physical presence of others. The media — books, television, the Internet — provide vast amounts of information that shape attitudes. Reading biographies of self-actualised persons can create a positive attitude toward hard work as a means to success.

Factors That Influence Attitude Formation

These factors provide the background against which the learning processes operate.

1. Family and school environment. In early childhood, parents and family members are the primary shapers of attitudes. Later, the school environment takes over. Learning here happens through association, rewards and punishments, and modelling.

2. Reference groups. These are groups that provide norms for acceptable behaviour and thinking. Attitudes toward political, religious, and social groups, occupations, and national issues are often formed through reference groups. Their influence is especially strong at the beginning of adolescence, when belonging to a group becomes important. This can also be seen as learning through reward and punishment — the group rewards conformity and punishes deviation.

3. Personal experiences. Some attitudes are formed through direct, powerful personal experiences that transform a person's outlook. The textbook gives the example of an army driver who narrowly escaped death while his companions were killed. This experience led him to leave the army, return to his village in Maharashtra, and work as a community leader. His attitude toward community upliftment became strongly positive, and his efforts transformed his village.

4. Media-related influences. Audio-visual media and the Internet are now powerful sources of information that shape attitudes. School textbooks also play a role. These sources first strengthen the cognitive and affective components of attitudes, and then may affect the behavioural component. The media can have both good and bad effects. It can make people better informed than ever before, but there is often no check on the nature of information being gathered, and therefore no control over the attitudes being formed. The media can create consumerist attitudes where none existed, but can also be used to create positive attitudes that promote social harmony.

Attitude Change

Attitudes can change both during their formation and after they are established. Some attitudes change more easily than others. Attitudes that are still in the formative stage — more like opinions — are much more likely to change than those that have become firmly established and part of a person's values. Understanding how and why attitudes change is of practical interest to community leaders, politicians, advertisers, and producers of consumer goods.

Processes of Attitude Change

Three major concepts explain how attitude change happens.

The concept of balance (Fritz Heider). This is often described using the P-O-X triangle. P is the person whose attitude is being studied, O is another person, and X is the attitude object (it could also be another person). The idea is that an attitude changes when there is a state of imbalance among the three relationships: P-O, O-X, and P-X. Imbalance is uncomfortable, so the system moves toward balance.

Imbalance occurs when:

• All three sides of the triangle are negative, OR
• Two sides are positive and one side is negative.

Balance occurs when:

• All three sides are positive, OR
• Two sides are negative and one side is positive.

Consider the example of dowry. Suppose P has a positive attitude toward dowry (P-X positive). P is planning to get his son married to the daughter of O, who has a negative attitude toward dowry (O-X negative). If O initially has a positive attitude toward P (O-P positive), the situation is unbalanced: two positives and one negative. One of the three attitudes must change. P could start disliking dowry, O could start liking dowry, or O could start disliking P. The change will continue until the triangle has either three positives or two negatives and one positive.

Cognitive dissonance (Leon Festinger). This theory emphasises the cognitive component of attitudes. The basic idea is that the cognitive elements of an attitude must be consonant — logically in line with each other. When two cognitions are dissonant, one of them will change to restore consonance.

For example:

• Cognition I: Pan masala causes mouth cancer, which is fatal.
• Cognition II: I eat pan masala.

These two cognitions are dissonant. To reduce the dissonance, the person must change one of them. The healthy, logical choice is to stop eating pan masala (change Cognition II).

Both balance theory and cognitive dissonance are examples of cognitive consistency — the idea that the components of an attitude system must be logically aligned. When they are not, the person experiences mental discomfort, and some element changes to restore consistency.

The two-step concept (S.M. Mohsin). This Indian psychologist proposed that attitude change happens in two steps.

In the first step, the target (the person whose attitude is to be changed) identifies with the source (the person through whom the change is to happen). Identification means the target has liking and regard for the source. The source must also have a positive attitude toward the target — the regard is mutual.

In the second step, the source herself/himself changes her/his behaviour toward the attitude object. When the target observes this changed behaviour, the target also changes her/his attitude and behaviour through imitation or observational learning.

Consider Preeti, who enjoys a particular soft drink. She reads that it is extremely harmful. But her favourite sportsperson advertises the same drink. Preeti identifies with the sportsperson and wants to imitate her/him. Now suppose the sportsperson wants to change people's attitude toward this drink from positive to negative. First, the sportsperson must show positive feelings for her/his fans (Step I). Then, the sportsperson must actually change her/his own habit — perhaps by switching to a health drink (Step I continued). When Preeti sees this change in behaviour, she is likely to change her own attitude and stop consuming the harmful drink (Step II).

Factors That Influence Attitude Change

Characteristics of the existing attitude. Four properties determine how easily an attitude changes: valence (positivity or negativity), extremeness, simplicity or complexity (multiplexity), and centrality or significance.

• Positive attitudes are generally easier to change than negative ones.
• Extreme attitudes and central (significant) attitudes are harder to change than less extreme and peripheral ones.
• Simple attitudes are easier to change than multiple (complex) ones. …