Attitude Formation and Change

What is an attitude?
• A learned predisposition to respond to an
object or a class of objects in a consistently
favorable or unfavorable way.

• Attitudes are relatively enduring.

• Attitudes are situation-related.

 Functions of Attitudes
• Utilitarian function

• Ego-defensive function

• Knowledge function

• Value-expressive function
 How do we form attitudes?
• Three different paths to attitude formation:

– Attitudes are created by first creating beliefs.

• Consumer beliefs are the knowledge that a consumer
has about objects, their attributes, and the benefits
provided by the objects.
• Consumer beliefs are created by processing
information--cognitive learning.
 Forming Attitudes, continued
– Attitudes are created directly.
• Behavioral learning
• Mere exposure

– Attitudes are created by first creating behaviors.

• Consumers respond to strong situational or
environmental forces, and after engaging in the
behavior, form attitudes about the experience.
 Structural Model of Attitude
• Tricomponent Attitude Model
 Tricomponent Model
• Cognitive component
– The knowledge and perceptions that are acquired by
a combination of direct experience with the attitude
object and related information from various sources.
• Affective component
– The emotions or feelings associate with a particular
product or brand.
• Conative component
– The likelihood or tendency that an individual will
undertake a specific action or behave in a particular
way with regard to the attitude object.
 Changing attitudes...
• Changing attitudes directly though behavior

• Cognitive Dissonance Theories

– Balance Theory
– Social Judgment Theory

• Attribution Theory
 Balance Theory
• Consumers strive for consistency between
interconnected attitudes.

• Marketers can influence attitudes by creating

imbalance within the target of persuasion--
motivates consumer to change one or more of
the interconnected attitudes to restore
balance.
 Social Judgment Theory
• Consumers use attitudes as a frame of reference
to judge new information.
• If high involvement:
– Narrow latitude of acceptance
– Wide latitude of rejection
– Assimilation effect
– Contrast effect
• If low involvement:
– Wide latitude of acceptance
– Wide latitude of noncommitment
 Attribution Theory
• Consumers make inferences about behaviors,
assign causality--blame or credit--to events on
the basis of their or others’ behaviors.
• In the process of assigning causality, form
attitudes.
• Marketing implications:
– Offer high quality products
– Advertising should emphasize quality.
– Moderate-sized incentives.