A method for tracing attitude formation: mediating effects of experience, need, choice, and feedback

Date

1989-05

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Publisher

Texas Tech University

Abstract

The search for moderators of the attitude-behavior relationship has led to the investigation of variables affecting attitude formation. The current study investigated four such variables (experience, consolidation, choice, and feedback) suggested to affect attitude strength/ accessibility. Reaction time was used as a measure of attitude strength. Subjects were exposed to four novel and distinct tasks and then responded to evaluative questions about the tasks in a reaction time task. Following the reaction time task, subjects completed a questionnaire wherein reaction time data were also collected.

It was hypothesized that: 1) direct experience would produce stronger, more accessible attitudes than indirect experience; 2) consolidation cues would induce attitude formation while the lack of such cues would reduce the need for an attitude; 3) providing choice in task experience order would increase attitude accessibility, enhancing both experience and consolidation effects when compared to no choice conditions; 4) feedback, as opposed to no feedback, would increase personal involvement and enhance the experience manipulation; and 5) reaction time would decrease as subjects responded to repeated attitudinal inquiries.

The data from the reaction time task generally failed to support the hypothesized main effects of the four independent variables as related to attitude accessibility. Reaction time data from the questionnaire revealed a three-way interaction for Time X Experience X Choice. The Experience X Choice interaction was significant only for the first attitudinal expression. Subjects with indirect experience responded significantly slower than direct experience subjects under conditions of no choice. A three-way interaction for Experience X Consolidation X Choice was found for subjective confidence in one's attitude toward the tasks. Subjects hypothesized to express greater attitude accessibility reported higher levels of confidence.

Major implications of the study include the need for further research into what constitutes direct and indirect experience and how to operationalize these different levels, and the reconceptualization of attitude consolidation as a process of gradual boundary definition over expressions rather than as a single expression phenomenon. Attitude formation is described in terms of working memory versus long-term memory processes. The roles of choice and feedback in attitude formation are discussed.

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