CHAPTER 13
Attitudes in Social Behavior
JAMES M. OLSON AND GREGORY R. MAIO
299WHAT ATTITUDES ARE AND WHAT ATTITUDES
ARE NOT 299
STRUCTURE OF ATTITUDES 300
Attitude Content 300
The Dimensionality of Attitudes 303
Alternative Attitude Measures 304
Implicit Attitudes 305
ATTITUDE FUNCTIONS 305
Object Appraisal 306
Instrumental Versus Symbolic Attitudes 306
ATTITUDES AND HIGHER-ORDER CONSTRUCTS 307
Interattitude Structure 307
Relations Between Attitudes, Values, and Ideologies 308
CHARACTERISTICS OF ATTITUDES 309
Extremity 309
Direct-Indirect Experience 309
Accessibility 309
Embeddedness 309
Evaluative Consistency 309
Ambivalence 310
Strength: An Integrative Concept? 310
ATTITUDE FORMATION 311
Cognitive Processes 311
Affective Processes 311
Behavioral Processes 312
Biological Processes 312
ATTITUDES AND INFORMATION PROCESSING 313
Selective Attention 313
Selective Perception 313
Selective Memory 314
Attitude Polarization 314
ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIOR 314
Compatibility of Attitude and Behavior Measures 315
Nature of the Behavior 315
Nature of the Attitude 316
Personality Variables 316
Composite Model of Attitude-Behavior Consistency 317
Applications to Social Behavior 317
CONCLUSIONS 318
REFERENCES 318Popular culture seems obsessed with the concept of attitude.
Entering the wordattitudeinto an Internet search engine gen-
erates many listings, including “Art with Attitude,” “Animals
with Attitude,” “Attitude Bikes,” and “Spice Girls—Spicy
Attitude.” Moreover, the importance of attitude is frequently
cited in promotional media (e.g., gym posters), self-help
books (e.g., Russell-McCloud, 1999; Ryan, 1999), and even
large-scale business conferences (e.g., Wal-Mart Canada,
1997). All of these examples support (albeit indirectly)
Gordon Allport’s (1935) famous assertion that attitude is one
of the most indispensable constructs in social psychology.
In this chapter, we review social psychological research
and theory about attitudes. In the first portion of the chapter,
we define attitudes and compare this construct to other impor-
tant social psychological constructs. Next, we discuss differ-
ent theories about the psychological structure of attitudes,
focusing on the theories’ implications for measuring attitudes
and the evidence supporting or refuting them. Third, we
examine the psychological functions served by attitudes.
Fourth, we consider the relations among attitudes and between
attitudes and higher-order constructs such as ideologies. Fifth,
we identify important ways in which attitudes vary. Sixth, we
address briefly how attitudes form. Seventh, we discuss the ef-
fects of attitudes on information processing. Finally, we con-
sider the relation between attitudes and behavior.WHAT ATTITUDES ARE AND WHAT
ATTITUDES ARE NOTWhen they define attitudes,social psychologists focus on
the tendency to like or dislike an attitude object or behavior.
That is, attitudes are defined as tendencies to evaluateobjects
favorably or unfavorably (Bem, 1970; Eagly & Chaiken,
1993; Fazio, 1990; Olson & Zanna, 1993; Petty, Wegener, &
Fabrigar, 1997; Wood, 2000). Attitudes can be directed
toward any identifiable object in our environment, including