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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)
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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
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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