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An attitude is “a relatively enduring organization of beliefs, feelings, and behavioral tendencies towards socially significant objects, groups, events or symbols” (Hogg & Vaughan 2005, p. 150)
“..a psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degree of favor or disfavor.” (Eagly & Chaiken, 1993, p. 1)
ABC Model of Attitude
The ABC Model of Attitudes, also known as the tri-component model, is a framework in psychology that describes 3 components of attitudes (Eagly & Chaiken 1998):
- Affective component: this involves a person’s feelings/emotions about the attitude object. For example: “I am scared of spiders.”
- Behavioral (or conative) component: the way the attitude we have influenced how we act or behave. For example: “I will avoid spiders and scream if I see one.”
- Cognitive component involves a person’s belief/knowledge about an attitude object. For example: “I believe spiders are dangerous.”
These three components collectively form an individual’s attitude toward an object, person, issue, or situation.
Affective Component
The affective component of an attitude refers to the emotional reactions or feelings an individual has towards an object, person, issue, or situation.
This component involves feelings or emotional responses like liking, disliking, love, hate, fear, etc. It is essentially the emotional aspect of an attitude that can influence an individual’s behavior.
For instance, if someone feels positive about exercising, this is an affective response that may make them more likely to engage in physical activity.
Suppose someone has a fear of spiders (the affective component). In that case, they might avoid places where they believe spiders may be present (the behavioral component) due to their belief that all spiders are harmful (the cognitive component).
Behavioral Component
The behavioral component of an attitude refers to how one behaves or acts towards an object, person, issue, or situation based on their attitude.
It involves an individual’s tendency to behave in a certain way toward the attitude object.
For example, suppose a person has a positive attitude toward healthy eating (affective and cognitive components). In that case, the behavioral component of their attitude may be demonstrated by them frequently choosing to eat fruits and vegetables, avoiding fast food, and cooking meals at home.
Cognitive Component
The cognitive component of an attitude refers to the beliefs, thoughts, and attributes that an individual associates with an object, person, issue, or situation. It involves the mental processes of understanding and interpreting information.
For example, suppose a person believes that recycling benefits the environment and effectively conserves natural resources. In that case, this represents the cognitive component of their positive attitude towards recycling.
This cognitive component can influence their feelings about recycling (affective component) and their likelihood of engaging in recycling behaviors (behavioral component).
The knowledge function is intimately tied to the cognitive component of attitudes as it directly influences how we interpret and make sense of our beliefs and perceptions.
Attitude Strength
The strength with which an attitude is held is often a good predictor of behavior. The stronger the attitude, the more likely it should affect behavior. Attitude strength involves:
Importance / personal relevance refers to how significant the attitude is for the person and relates to self-interest, social identification, and value.
If an attitude has a high self-interest for a person (i.e., it is held by a group the person is a member of or would like to be a member of and is related to a person’s values), it is going to be extremely important.
As a consequence, the attitude will have a very strong influence on a person’s behavior. By contrast, an attitude will not be important to a person if it does not relate in any way to their life.
The knowledge aspect of attitude strength covers how much a person knows about the attitude object. People are generally more knowledgeable about topics that interest them and are likely to hold strong attitudes (positive or negative) as a consequence.
Attitudes based on direct experience are more strongly held and influence behavior more than attitudes formed indirectly (for example, through hearsay, reading, or watching television).
Principle of Consistency
One of the underlying assumptions about the link between attitudes and behavior is that of consistency.
This means that we often or usually expect a person’s behavior to be consistent with their attitudes. This is called the principle of consistency.
The principle of consistency reflects the idea that people are rational and attempt to behave rationally at all times and that a person’s behavior should be consistent with their attitude(s).
Whilst this principle may sound, it is clear that people do not always follow it, sometimes behaving in seemingly illogical ways; for example, smoking cigarettes and knowing that smoking causes lung cancer and heart disease.
There is evidence that behavior’s cognitive and affective components do not always match with behavior. This is shown in a study by LaPiere (1934).
References
Eagly, A. H. Chaiken. S.(1998). Attitude, structure and function. Handbook of social psychology, 269-322.
Eagly, A. H., & Chaiken, S. (1993). The psychology of attitudes. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers.
Hogg, M., & Vaughan, G. (2005). Social Psychology (4th edition). London: Prentice-Hall.
LaPiere, R. T. (1934). Attitudes vs. Actions. Social Forces, 13, 230-237.
