Attitude Formation and Change

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Attitude Formation and Change
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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.

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Functions of Attitudes

• Utilitarian function
• Ego-defensive function
• Knowledge function
• Value-expressive function

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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.

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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.

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Structural Model of Attitude

• Tricomponent Attitude Model

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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.

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Measurement Models of Attitude

• Multiattribute model
• Fishbein and Azjen
• Measures attitude score using consumers beliefs
  and evaluations about attributes of the attitude
  object.
• Several different contexts in which attitude
  scores are measured.
• Attitude-toward-the-object model
• Attitude-toward-the-behavior model

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Multiattribute Model

• Aj ?BijIi
• Where
• i attribute or product characteristic
• j brand
• Such that
• A the consumers attitude score for brand j
• I the importance weight given to attribute
  i by the
• consumer
• B the consumers belief as to the extent to
  which a
• satisfactory level of attribute i is
  offered by brand j

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Understanding the Multiattribute Model

• All relevant product attributes, based on
  consumers perceptions, need to be included in
  the model to provide dimensionality.
• Even though there may be several relevant
  attributes, they are not generally equally
  important. The importance weight of the formula
  allows adjustment of the importance of each
  attribute individually.

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Understanding the Multiattribute Model...

• Beliefs represent the extent to which each
  product offers satisfaction for the attribute in
  question.
• Compensatory model.

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Advantages of Multiattribute Model

• Clearly shows what is important to consumers
  about a given product.
• Shows how well brands do relative to each other.
• Shows how well a specific brand does with respect
  to attributes perceived as important to consumers.

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Weakness of Multiattribute Model

• Not a perfect predictor of consumer behavior
• Lots of variables determine behavior in addition
  to attitude
• Involvement
• Friends
• Family
• Financial resources
• Availability of product

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Theory of Reasoned Action

• Extends multiattribute model tries to
  compensate for the inability of the
  multiattribute model to predict behavior.
• Assumes that consumers consciously consider the
  consequences of alternative behaviors under
  consideration and choose the one that leads to
  the most desirable consequences.
• The outcomes of this reasoned choice process is
  an intention to engage in a selected
  behavior--behavioral intention.

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Theory of Reasoned Action

• BBI Aact(w1) SN(w2)
• Where
• B a specific behavior
• BI consumers intention to engage in
  that
• behavior
• Aact consumers attitude toward
  engaging in that
• behavior
• SN subjective norm regarding whether
  other
• people want the consumer to
  engage in that
• behavior
• w1 w2 weights that reflect the relative
  influence of
• the Aact and SN components on
  BI

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Simplified Version
Beliefs that the behavior leads
to certain outcomes
Motivation to comply with the specific referents
Beliefs that specific referents think I should
or should not perform the behavior
Evaluation of the outcomes
Attitude toward the behavior
Subjective Norm
Intention
Behavior
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Comparing A vs. Aact
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Attitude-toward-the-Ad Model

• Very specific to understanding the impact of
  advertising on consumer attitudes about a
  particular product or brand.
• Exposure to advertising affects
  attitude-toward-the ad and attitude-toward-the
  brand.

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Attitude-toward-the-Ad Model

• Very specific to understanding the impact of
  advertising on consumer attitudes about a
  particular product or brand.
• Exposure to advertising directly affects beliefs
  about the ad and brand, and feelings about the
  ad.
• Exposure to advertising indirectly affects
  attitude toward the brand and attitude toward the
  ad.

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Exposure to ad
Feelings from the ad (affect)
Judgments about the ad (cognition)
Attitude toward the ad
Beliefs about the brand
Attitude toward the brand
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How Can Marketers Change Attitudes?

• Alter components of multiattribute model
• Increase belief ratings for the brand
• Increase the importance of a key attribute
• Decrease the importance of a weak attribute
• Add an entirely new attribute
• Decrease belief ratings for competitive brands

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Changing attitudes.

• Change beliefs and attitudes through persuasion
• Elaboration likelihood model of persuasion (ELM)

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Motivation to Elaborate
Ability to Elaborate
Amount of Elaboration
Low
High
Peripheral Route to Persuasion
Central Route to Persuasion
Message Arguments Determine persuasion
Peripheral Cues Determine persuasion
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High-involvement processing
Cognitive responses
Belief and attitude change
Behavior change
Central route
Communication (source,message, channel)
Attention and comprehension
Peripheral route
Low-involvement processing
Belief change
Behavior change
Attitude change
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Changing attitudes...

• Changing attitudes directly though behavior
• Cognitive Dissonance Theories
• Balance Theory
• Social Judgment Theory
• Attribution Theory

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Balance Theory

• Consumers strive for consistency between
  interconnected attitudes.
• Marketers can influence attitudes by creating
  imbalance within the target of persuasion--motivat
  es consumer to change one or more of the
  interconnected attitudes to restore balance.

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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

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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.