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Chapter 8: ATTITUDES AND PERSUASIVE
COMMUNICATION
CHAPTER OBJECTIVES
When students have finished reading this chapter, they should understand why:
1. It is important for consumer researchers to understand the nature and power of attitudes.
2. Attitudes are more complex than they first appear.
3. We form attitudes in several ways.
4. A need to maintain consistency among all our attitudinal components often motivates us to
alter one or more of them.
5. Attitude models identify specific components and combine them to predict a consumer’s
overall attitude toward a product or brand.
6. The communications model identifies several important components for marketers when they
try to change consumers’ attitudes toward products and services.
7. The consumer who processes a message is not the passive receiver of information marketers
once believed him or her to be.
8. Several factors influence the effectiveness of a message source.
9. The way a marketer structures his message determines how persuasive it will be.
10. Many modern marketers are reality engineers.
11. Audience characteristics help to determine whether the nature of the source or the message
itself will be relatively more effective.
CHAPTER SUMMARY
It is important for consumer researchers to understand the nature and power of attitudes.
An attitude is a predisposition to evaluate an object or product positively or negatively. We form
attitudes toward products and services that often determine whether we will purchase them or
not.
Attitudes are more complex than they first appear.
Three components make up an attitude: beliefs, affect, and behavioral intentions.
We form attitudes several ways.
Attitude researchers traditionally assumed that we learn attitudes in a fixed sequence: First, we
form beliefs (cognitions) about an attitude object, then we evaluate that object (affect), and then
we take some action (behavior). Depending on the consumer’s level of involvement and the
circumstances, though, his attitudes can result from other hierarchies of effects as well. A key to
attitude formation is the function the attitude holds for the consumer (e.g., is it utilitarian or ego
defensive?).
A need to maintain consistency among all of our attitudinal components often motivates us to
alter one or more of them.
One organizing principle of attitude formation is the importance of consistency among attitudinal
components—that is, we alter some parts of an attitude to be in line with others. Such theoretical
approaches to attitudes as cognitive dissonance theory, self-perception theory, and balance
theory stress the vital role of our need for consistency.
Attitude models to identify specific components and combine them to predict a consumer’s
overall attitude toward a product or brand.
Multi-attribute attitude models underscore the complexity of attitudes—they specify that we
identify and combine a set of beliefs and evaluations to predict an overall attitude. Researchers
integrate factors such as subjective norms and the specificity of attitude scales into attitude
measures to improve predictability.
The communications model identifies several important components for marketers when they try
to change consumers’ attitudes toward products and services.
Persuasion refers to an attempt to change consumers’ attitudes. The communications model
specifies the elements marketers need to transmit meaning. These include a source, a message, a
medium, a receiver, and feedback.
The consumer who processes a message is not necessarily the passive receiver of information
marketers once believed him or her to be.
The traditional view of communications regards the perceiver as a passive element in the
process. New developments in interactive communications highlight the need to consider the
active roles a consumer plays when he or she obtains product information and builds a
relationship with a company. Advocates of permission marketing argue that it is more effective to
send messages to consumers who have already indicated an interest in learning about a product
than trying to hit people “cold” with these solicitations.
Several factors influence the effectiveness of a message source.
Two important characteristics that determine the effectiveness of a source are its attractiveness
and credibility. Although celebrities often serve this purpose, their credibility is not always as
strong as marketers hope. Marketing messages that consumers perceive as buzz (those that are
authentic and consumer generated) tend to be more effective than those categorized as hype
(those that are inauthentic, biased, and company generated).
The way a marketer structures his or her message determines how persuasive it will be.
Some elements of a message that help to determine its effectiveness include the following: The
marketer conveys the message in words or pictures; the message employs an emotional or a
rational appeal; how often it’s repeated; whether it draws a conclusion; whether it presents both
sides of the argument; and whether the message includes fear, humor, or sexual references.
Advertising messages often incorporate elements from art or literature, such as dramas, lectures,
metaphors, allegories, and resonance.
Many marketers are reality engineers
Reality engineering occurs when marketers appropriate elements of population culture and use
them as promotional vehicles.
Audience characteristics help to determine whether the nature of the source or the message itself
will be relatively more effective.
The relative influence of the source versus the message depends on the receiver’s level of
involvement with the communication. The elaboration likelihood model (ELM) specifies that
source effects are more likely to sway a less-involved consumer, whereas a more-involved
consumer will be more likely to attend to and process components of the actual message.
CHAPTER OUTLINE
I. The Power of Attitudes
A. An attitude is a lasting, general evaluation of people (including oneself), objects,
advertisements, or issues.
1. Anything that one has an attitude toward is called an attitude object (Ao).
2. An attitude is lasting – it tends to endure over time and is general – it applies to more
than a momentary event.
Discussion Opportunity—Ask the class to brainstorm all the ways the term attitude is used in our
society. List them on the board.
3. The functional theory of attitudes was initially developed by psychologist Daniel
Katz to explain how attitudes facilitate social behavior. The following attitude
functions were identified by Katz:
a. Utilitarian function—based on reward and punishment; straightforward product
benefits.
b. Value-expressive function—goes to the consumer’s central values or
self-concept.
c. Ego-defensive function—protects the person from external threats or internal
feelings.
d. Knowledge function—the need for order, meaning, and structure.
Discussion Opportunity—Ask students to bring in advertisements that display each of the
attitude functions.
B. The ABC Model of Attitudes
1. An attitude has three components: affect, behavior, and cognition.
a. Affect refers to the way a consumer feels about an attitude object.
b. Behavior involves the person’s intentions to do something with regard to an
attitude object (this intention always results in behavior).
c. Cognition refers to the beliefs a consumer has about an attitude object.
2. The ABC model emphasizes the interrelationships among knowing, feeling and
doing.
Discussion Opportunity—Construct an example to illustrate each of the components of the ABC
model of attitudes.
Discussion Opportunity—Ask: Which of the three components of the ABC model of attitudes do
you believe is the most common explanation of attitudes? Why?
C. Hierarchies of Effects
1. Attitude researchers have developed the concept of a hierarchy of effects to explain
the relative impact of the three components of attitudes.
Discussion Opportunity—Ask: As far as you are concerned, which of the ABCs (in the
hierarchy of effects model) do you believe has the strongest influence over you when you
want to buy a CD player? When you take a special friend out to lunch? When you take this
same friend out to dinner? When you buy a soft drink? When you turn on the radio and the
Rush Limbaugh or Howard Stern program is on? Explain your reasoning in each case.
2. The three hierarchies are:
The standard learning hierarchy—Think Feel Do: (CAB) this is a
problem-solving process, so it assumes the consumer is highly involved,
motivated to seek out information, weigh alternatives and come to a thoughtful
decision.
The low-involvement hierarchy—Do Feel Think: (BAC) consumer acts on
limited knowledge and forms an evaluation after she buys the product.
The experiential hierarchy—Feel Do Think: (ABC) consumer acts based on
emotional reactions. (this is correct in the diagram right now but incorrect in the
text of the chapter, where it says Feel Think Do)
*****Use Figure 8.1 Here*****
Discussion Opportunity—Give an illustration of the three different hierarchy of effect models.
Ask students how each of them apply to consumer behavior?
Discussion Opportunity—Ask: How can the three different hierarchy of effects models be applied
to e-commerce and shopping on the Internet? Give illustrations of how marketers might use this
information to make better decisions.
II. How Do We Form Attitudes?
A. Attitudes can form through:
1. Classical conditioning—e.g. pairing an attitude object (brand name) with a jingle.
2. Instrumental conditioning—use of the attitude object is reinforced.
3. Leaning through complex cognitive processes—e.g. one learns what to do in social
situations by modeling the behavior of friends and media endorsers.
Discussion Opportunity—Pick one area and demonstrate how you think you learned an attitude.
Give examples to illustrate. How could a marketer have influenced you?
B. All Attitudes Are Not Created Equal
1. Consumers vary in their commitment to an attitude; the degree of commitment is
related to their level of involvement with the attitude object.
2. There are three levels of commitment:
a. Compliance means that we form an attitude because it helps us to gain rewards or
avoid punishment; this type of commitment requires the lowest level of
involvement.
b. Identification occurs when we form an attitude to conform to another person or
group’s expectations (e.g. imitating the behavior or desirable models).
c. Internalization means that deep-seated attitudes have become part of our value
system.
Discussion Opportunity—Give an illustration of how attitudes were formed by you in each of the
three ways (levels of commitment). Which were the stronger attitudes? Which were eventually
replaced?
C. The Consistency Principle
1. According to the principle of cognitive consistency, consumers value harmony
among their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and they are motivated to maintain
uniformity among these elements. People will change thoughts, feelings or behaviors
to remain consistent with prior experiences.
2. The theory of cognitive dissonance states that when a person is confronted with
inconsistencies among attitudes or behaviors, he or she will take some action to
resolve this “dissonance,” perhaps by changing an attitude or modifying a behavior.
People seek to reduce dissonant behavior or feelings.
a. The theory focuses on situations in which two cognitive elements clash. A
cognitive element can be something a person believes about himself, a
behavior he performs, or an observation about his surroundings.
b. The magnitude of dissonance depends on the importance and number of
dissonant elements, so dissonance is more likely in high involvement
situations where there is more pressure to reduce inconsistencies.
c. Eliminating, adding, or changing elements can reduce dissonance.
d. Dissonance theory can help to explain why evaluations of a product tend to
increase after we buy the product (in response to post purchase dissonance).
e. Marketers can provide customers with additional reinforcement after they
purchase to help customers justify the decisions after the fact.
Discussion Opportunity—Ask students to demonstrate when the principle of cognitive
consistency has occurred in their purchase decisions. Repeat the question for the theory of
cognitive dissonance. Ask them if they ever catch themselves reading ads (e.g., for a car) for
products that they have already purchased?
Discussion Opportunity—Find an advertisement that illustrates the theory of cognitive
dissonance and the principle of cognitive consistency. Show them to the class and ask how the
advertisers use these theories in their ads. How effective is each ad?
D. Self-Perception Theory
1. Self-perception theory provides an alternative explanation of dissonance effects. It
assumes that people use observations of their own behavior to determine what their
attitudes are. We maintain consistency as we infer we have a positive attitude toward
an object if we bought/consumed it in the past.
2. Self-perception theory helps to explain the effectiveness of a strategy called the
foot-in-the-door technique. This technique explains that people are more likely to
comply with a big request if they agree to a smaller one.
3. Recent research suggests when consumers are asked to make a series of cognitively
demanding choices, they deplete resources needed to monitor behavior and opt for
easier decisions. This may result in a consumer saying yes to a salesperson instead of
looking for reasons to say no.
Discussion Opportunity—Ask: Think of an illustration when someone has used the
foot-in-the-door approach on you. Did you buy the product? Why or why not?
E. Social Judgment Theory
1. Social judgment theory stipulates that (like self-perception theory) people assimilate
information in light of what they know or feel. The initial attitude acts as a frame of
reference, and new information is categorized in terms of this existing standard.
2. People find information to be acceptable or unacceptable. They form latitudes of
acceptance and rejection around an attitude standard.
3. Messages that fall within the latitude of acceptance tend to be seen as more consistent
with one’s position than they actually are (the assimilation effect), and messages
within the latitude of rejection tend to be seen even farther from one’s own position
than they actually are (the contrast effect).
Discussion Opportunity—Create a demonstration that illustrates the latitudes of acceptance and
rejection for some product category as evidenced by your attitudes toward the object. Ask
students if they can think of marketing activities that illustrate the topic.
Discussion Opportunity—Have students apply the concept of latitudes of acceptance and
rejection to shopping on the Internet. Have them explain what they did and why the concept
might apply.
F. Balance theory
1. Balance theory considers relations among elements a person might perceive as
belonging together. A person alters attitudes to ensure these relationships remain
consistent/balanced.
2. This perspective includes triads. Each contains:
a. A person and his or her perceptions.
b. An attitude object.
c. Some other person or object.
3. Elements are linked by a unit relation (we think the person is connected to an attitude
object; like a belief) or a sentiment relation (a person expresses liking or disliking for
an attitude object).
4. Perceptions (under balance theory) are either positive or negative. Perceptions are
altered to make them consistent. When we have balanced perceptions, attitudes are
stable.
*****Use Figure 8.2 Here*****
Discussion Opportunity—Ask students to think of a consumer behavior situation where balance
theory would seem to be operating.
III. Attitude Models
Attitude models specify and explore the different elements that affect attitudes.
A. Multi-attribute attitude models assume a consumer’s attitude toward an attitude object
depends on the beliefs she has about several of its attributes, which can be identified and
used to derive a measure of overall attitude.
1. Basic multi-attribute models specify attributes (characteristics of the Ao), beliefs
(cognitions about the specific Ao), and importance weights (the relative priority
of an attribute to the consumer).
Discussion Opportunity—Create a brief illustration of a basic multi-attribute model. Explain
your reasoning.
2. The Fishbein Model is the most influential multi -attribute model and measures three
components of attitude: salient beliefs (beliefs about the object a person considers
during evaluation); object-attribute linkages (probability that a particular object has
an important attribute); and evaluation of each of the important attributes. Attitudes
are equal to the sum of the beliefs about each attribute multiplied times the
importance of each attribute.
*****Use Table 8.1 Here *****
3. Strategic applications of the multi-attribute model would include:
a. Capitalize on relative advantage.
b. Strengthen perceived product/attribute linkages.
c. Add a new attribute.
d. Influence competitors’ ratings.
Discussion Opportunity—Create an illustration to apply to the Fishbein model. Then, using the
material and formula from the chapter, have the students work through this application.
B. Do Attitudes Predict Behavior?
A person’s attitude is not a very good predictor of behavior.
1. The Extended Fishbein model is called the theory of reasoned action. Additions
include:
a. Intentions versus behavior—strongly held attitudes are distinguished from weakly
held attitudes; past behavior is a better predictor of future behavior than
intentions.
b. Social pressure—others have a strong influence on behavior, including what we
think others would like us to do. Subjective norms account for the effects of
what we believe other people think we should do. They have two factors:
1. Intensity of normative belief that others believe we should take or not take
some action.
2. The motivation to comply with that belief (the degree to which the consumer
takes others’ anticipated reactions into account when she evaluates a
purchase).
c. Attitude toward buying—attitude toward the act of buying (Aact) focuses on
perceived consequences of purchase.
Discussion Opportunity—Ask: Who are some people who tend to have a strong influence on your
behavior? Can you think of anyone whose behavior you have influenced? What was the result?
Discussion Opportunity—Ask: Can you think of something you bought that you really did not
want to buy? Do you know why you bought it anyway?
2. There are certain obstacles to predicting behavior (the improved Fishbein model):
a. It was designed to deal with actual behavior—not outcomes of behavior.
b. Some outcomes are beyond the consumer’s control.
c. Behavior is not always intentional (impulsive actions; situation changes, novelty
seeking).
d. Measures of attitudes do not always correspond with the behavior they are
supposed to predict. It is very important to match the level of specificity between
the attitude and the behavioral intention.
e. A problem can exist with respect to the time frame of the attitude measure.
f. Direct personal experience is stronger than indirect exposure (through an
advertisement). The problem of personal experiences versus receiving information
such as advertising (attitude accessibility perspective).
g. There are also cultural roadblocks, which limit the universality of the theory of
reasoned action.
1. Some acts are not voluntary, and the model predicts the performance of a
voluntary act.
2. The relative impact of subjective norms may vary across cultures.
3. The model presupposes consumers are thinking ahead, while not all cultures
subscribe to the linear perspective on time.
4. Some (more fatalistic) cultures do not believe the consumer controls his/her
actions.
C. Trying to Consume
1. The multiple pathway anchoring and adjustment model (MPAA) emphasizes
multiple pathways to attitude formation, including outside-in and inside-out
pathways.
2. There is another way of looking at consumers’ goals and trying to attain them. The
theory of trying states that the criterion of behavior is the reasoned action model that
should be replaced with trying to reach a goal. It recognizes barriers that might arise.
*****Use Figure 8.3 Here *****
IV. How Do Marketers Change Attitudes?
A. Persuasion involves an active attempt to change attitudes.
B. Some psychological principles that function in the persuasion process are:
1. Reciprocity – we are more likely to give if we receive.
