Journalism 614: Attitudinal Perspectives on Opinion Expression

Outline for today Key concepts: Behavioral approach: 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

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