When message tailoring backfires: The role of initial attitudes in affect–cognition matching

This research explores when and how tailoring messages to attitudinal bases backfires. Study 1 demonstrated that for attitudes (toward education subsidies) that were based more on beliefs than emotions, recipients whose initial attitudes were incongruent with the message position (i.e., message opponents) showed mismatching effects, such that the affective message was more persuasive than the cognitive message. Study 2 replicated these mismatching effects among message opponents for attitudes (toward a rival university) that were primarily affective. Study 3 controlled for effects of initial attitude certainty and replicated the mismatching effects of Study 2 for affective attitudes toward an increase in tuition. Finally, Study 4 suggested a potential mechanism for mismatching effects, revealing that for attitudes (toward an online course management system) that were based more on beliefs than emotions, message opponents counter‐argued with the cognitive appeal more intensely than the affective appeal. Contrary to the notion in the extant literature that mismatching effects are relatively rare compared with matching effects, the current research suggests that mismatching effects occur for both primarily affective and cognitive attitudes when the recipient is highly opposed to the message position. The present findings also demonstrate the utility of examining attitudinal bases at the object level in the context of message tailoring. Implications for message tailoring and for affective versus cognitive attitudes are discussed. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Tracing Attitude Expressions: An Eye‐Tracking Study

Attitudes represent object evaluations, comprising complex underlying cognitive and affective knowledge structures. When people are asked to judge an object, they can use their primary response (i.e., the immediate object‐evaluation linkage) or underlying affective and cognitive knowledge structures. In many situations, a primary response satisfices, but if not, more elaboration is required. Both processes are fundamentally different but may lead to the same attitude. For monitoring underlying processes during attitude expression, we developed an innovative eye‐tracking procedure using eye‐gaze on response scale options. This procedure was applied in three studies to identify the extent to which elaboration differs for attitude objects with weak or strong, univalent or mixed object evaluations (i.e., univalent, neutral and ambivalent). In Study 1, the overall judgment preceded processing of more specific affective and cognitive linkage evaluations. In Studies 2 and 3, the order was reversed, and affective and cognitive bases were assessed prior to overall attitude outcomes. For attitude objects with strong univalent or strong mixed object evaluations, we found similar outcomes on underlying processes. For weak object evaluations, cognition was found to be more predictive and easily accessible if an overall judgment was required first; affect for these objects was more predictive if people had to elaborate on affect and cognition first. We concluded that both affective and cognitive attitudes may require substantial elaboration, albeit in different situations. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Exploring the Attitudinal Structure of Partisanship

This study examined the structure of attitudes toward the political party an individual primarily identifies with and attitudes toward the other party with an emphasis on differentiating between the cognitive and affective components. Participants responded to a telephone survey that included measures of party identification, partisan attitudes, political information involvement activities, and voting behavior. Results indicated attitudes toward the parties were a function of both cognitive and affective components, although strong partisans had an attitudinal structure characterized as having a stronger cognitive component. Strong partisans were more polarized in their attitudes across parties. In addition, individuals with more cognitive‐affective ambivalence toward their own parties were less likely to vote, and their votes were less likely to be along party lines.     

Cognitive and affective matching effects in persuasion: an amplification perspective

Past research suggests that cognitive and affective attitudes are more open to change toward cognitive and affective (i.e., matched) persuasive attacks, respectively. The present research investigates how attitude certainty influences this openness. Although an extensive literature suggests that certainty generally reduces an attitude's openness to change, the authors explore the possibility that certainty might increase an attitude's openness to change in the context of affective or cognitive appeals. Based on the recently proposed amplification hypothesis, the authors posit that high (vs. low) attitude certainty will boost the resistance of attitudes to mismatched attacks (e.g., affective attitudes attacked by cognitive messages) but boost the openness of attitudes to matched attacks (e.g., affective attitudes attacked by affective messages). Two experiments provide support for this hypothesis. Implications for increasing the openness of attitudes to both matched and mismatched attacks are discussed.     

The effects of affective and cognitive elaborations from Facebook posts on consumer attitude formation

This research investigates the effects of affect and cognition in consumers' information processing of branded content on Facebook pages. A model was suggested to delve into the elaboration process leading to consumer attitude formation. A 2 (purchase‐decision involvement: low versus high) × 2 (product categories: hedonic versus utilitarian) × 2 (sources of Facebook posts: brand posts versus consumer posts) between‐subjects experiment was conducted online. The validated model demonstrates the main effects that affective elaboration significantly supersedes cognitive elaboration in forming attitudes toward the posts and attitudes toward the brand. Post hoc analyses show further evidence of the interaction effects that affective elaboration is the dominant influencer when consumers process brand‐related information in Facebook posts across situations. Theoretical implications for future research and managerial suggestions for social media marketing are discussed. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Off‐Target? Changing Cognitive‐Based Attitudes

Researchers argue that the effectiveness of cognitive versus affective persuasive appeals depends in part on whether the appeal is congruent or incongruent with a primarily cognitive or affective attitude base. However, considerable research suggests that these persuasion effects may hold only for predominantly affective attitudes and not cognitive attitudes. Indeed, results of Experiment 1 show that the relative effectiveness of congruent relative to incongruent persuasion appeals holds for brands with predominantly affective associations, but not those with predominantly cognitive associations. Experiment 2 explores one reason for this anomalous finding: Cognitive attitudes may be relatively impervious to persuasive appeals because the probability of targeting the specific attribute on which the cognitive attitude is based is smaller. The results are supportive, showing that significant persuasion effects are found when the specific beliefs on which cognitive attitudes are based are taken into account. However, these effects only occur under conditions of low cognitive load and not high cognitive load where resources for the cognitive processing of the appeals are limited. We discuss the implications of the research for the role of attitude structure in understanding persuasion effects and the interplay of affective and cognitive elements in persuasion processes.     

The role of affect in attitudes toward organ donation and donor-relevant decisions

We argue that affect plays a vital role in attitudes toward organ donation and that reluctance to become an organ donor is likely to be related to the experience of affective ambivalence. Assessing the affect associated with organ donation could help to predict donor-relevant decisions. Results of a confirmatory factor analysis on 464 students showed that affective evaluations can be distinguished both from cognitive evaluations and from overall evaluations. As expected, affective evaluations revealed ambivalence (using the ‘Griffin’ measure of ambivalence) toward organ donation, whereas the two other types of evaluations did not. Results of a follow-up study using logistic regression (n?=?85), showed that affective evaluations predicted donor-relevant decisions six months later. The present findings support the proposal to include separate affective evaluations in measures of attitudes to organ donation. More general implications for the measurement and structure of attitudes in health related domains are discussed.     

Category Attitude Measures: Exemplars as Inputs

The role of exemplars in formation of attitudes toward a category has, surprisingly, been ignored in prior consumer research. In the present research we seek to develop a better understanding of the relationship between category exemplars (e.g., the products in a brand category) and overall attitudes toward the category. Attitude measures that incorporate evaluations of individual branded products may be useful, both conceptually and practically, and can complement more traditional multi‐attribute measures of attitude. Across 3 studies we present evidence that a composite index of attitudes toward category exemplars, weighted by exemplar typicality, is related to overall category attitudes, sometimes more strongly than a traditional multi‐attribute index. We also demonstrate that elaboration upon the individual exemplars further strengthens the relationship between category attitudes and this composite index. Theoretical implications for attitude theory, as well as managerial implications, are discussed.     

Primacy of Affect Over Cognition in Determining Adult Men's Condom–Use Behavior: A Review1

Prior research suggests that failure to use condoms can be understood within the context of condom‐related attitudes. We reviewed quantitative and qualitative literature on adult men's condom‐use attitudes; condom‐related attitudinal beliefs were classified as cognitive (e.g., effectiveness) or affective (e.g., pleasure‐related), and their relationships to behavior were examined. To determine differences in the effects of cognitive and affective beliefs, we conducted a critical qualitative review, a meta‐analysis, and a “vote‐count.” In support of the primacy of affect hypothesis (Zajonc, 1984), cognitive beliefs were weaker predictors of condom use than were affective beliefs. Results suggest that HIV‐prevention interventions will have greater success by addressing negative affective reactions to condom use in addition to promoting the protective value of condoms.     

Self‐ambivalence and reactions to success versus failure

People differ in the extent to which their self‐evaluations fluctuate in response to positive and negative events. This research tests whether self‐ambivalence predicts this self‐evaluative reactivity. Participants first completed measures of self‐ambivalence and baseline self‐esteem. Next, they were induced a success or failure experience in a cognitive task and finally rated their cognitive self‐evaluations (task‐specific ability, state self‐esteem) and affective reactions (self‐feelings, mood). Self‐ambivalence was associated with stronger effects of the success/failure manipulation on cognitive self‐evaluations but not on affective reactions, with baseline self‐esteem controlled. Possible underlying mechanisms are discussed. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Intellectual Humility as Attitude

Intellectual humility, I argue in this paper, is a cluster of strong attitudes (as these are understood in social psychology) directed toward one's cognitive make‐up and its components, together with the cognitive and affective states that constitute their contents or bases, which serve knowledge and value‐expressive functions. In order to defend this new account of humility I first examine two simpler traits: intellectual self‐acceptance of epistemic limitations and intellectual modesty about epistemic successes. The position defended here addresses the shortcomings of both ignorance and accuracy based accounts of humility.     

Support for the Death Penalty and Rehabilitation: Question Order or Communication Effect?1

Response‐effects research has shown that survey questions shape and channel public opinion. Our study examines the degree to which the variance in people's cognitions about and attitudes toward crime policy proposals is a methodological artifact and the degree to which it represents media effects. Four different forms of a survey were used to manipulate the order of the proposal (death penalty vs. rehabilitation) and criterion (cognition vs. attitude). Results show that experimental manipulations affected cognitions or attitudes only for the death penalty. Respondents who were asked the cognition measure first showed a high level of consistency between the net valence of their arguments and their attitudes. Respondents who were asked their attitudes first reported relatively more affective arguments, a phenomenon that we label affective priming. Exposure and attention to specific media content influenced cognitions and attitudes differentially.     

Depressive symptom manifestation and help‐seeking among Chinese college students in Taiwan

One longstanding hypothesis in the research of depression among Chinese populations is that they tend to express depressive symptoms in somatic terms, which, in turn, prevent them from seeking assistance from mental health services. This study aimed to examine the manifestation of depressive symptoms and its relationship to help‐seeking attitudes among Chinese college students. The Chinese Beck Depression Inventory‐II (BDI‐II; Beck, Steer, & Brown, 1996 ) and the Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help: Shortened Form (ATSPPH‐SF; Fischer & Farina, 1995 ) were administered to 1039 Chinese college students in a private university in Taiwan. Factor ratio scores analyses revealed that Chinese college students generally emphasized somatic complaints compared to cognitive‐affective complaints in expressing depressive symptoms. Probably‐depressed Chinese students (BDI‐II scores?16), however, placed significantly less emphasis on somatic symptoms than did nondepressed students. Additionally, multiple regression analyses showed that while Chinese students with elevated BDI‐II scores were less likely to seek professional psychological help, neither somatic nor cognitive‐affective symptoms were correlated with their attitudes toward seeking and avoiding professional psychological help. These findings seem to run counter to the common assumption that Chinese people tend to express depression in somatic terms and that somatic complaints help to explain their reluctance to seek professional psychological assistance. The current results suggest that Chinese students with elevated depressive symptoms readily acknowledged and expressed cognitive‐affective symptoms of depression and they were likely to distance themselves from professional psychological help. However, somatic symptoms did not explain their reluctance to utilize mental health services.     

Job emotions and job cognitions as determinants of job satisfaction: The moderating role of individual differences in need for affect

Research has shown that job satisfaction is determined by both cognitions about the job and affect at work. However, findings from basic and applied attitude research suggest that the extent to which attitudes are based on affective and cognitive information is contingent on stable individual differences, in particular need for affect. Based on current conceptualizations of job satisfaction as an attitude toward the job, we hypothesized that job satisfaction depends more on affect and less on cognitions, the higher a person's need for affect is. To test these hypotheses, we conducted two correlational studies (N = 194 university employees; N = 134 employees from various organizations) as well as an experimental study (N = 191 university employees) in which the salience of positive versus negative job cognitions was varied. Results supported our hypotheses. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of these differences in affective and cognitive underpinnings of job satisfaction.     

The impact of personality on cognitive, behavioral, and affective political processes: the effects of need to evaluate

Need to evaluate (NE) is a personality trait that reflects a person's proclivity to create and hold attitudes; people high in NE are especially likely to form attitudes toward all sorts of objects. Using data from the 1998 National Election Survey Pilot and the 2000 National Election Survey, NE was shown to predict a variety of important attitude-relevant cognitive, behavioral, and affective political processes beyond simply holding attitudes: NE predicted how many evaluative beliefs about candidates a person held, the likelihood that a person would use party identification and issue stances to determine candidate preferences, the extent to which a person engaged in political activism, the likelihood that a person voted or intended to vote, the extent to which a person used the news media for gathering information, and the intensity of emotional reactions a person felt toward political candidates. Thus, NE appears to play a powerful role in shaping important political behavior, emotion, and cognition.     

Financial product sensitivity predicts financial health

Recent research has aimed to understand how people consider financial decisions because they have important consequences for well-being. Yet existing research has largely failed to examine how attitudes and behaviors vary as a function of the specific financial product (e.g., debt type). We ask to what extent people differentiate between similarly categorized financial products (e.g., debt or investment) as a function of their terms (e.g., interest costs and expected returns) and whether such differentiation predicts financial health. Across four studies, we find not only that there are individual differences in attitudes toward similar financial products (e.g., two distinct loans), but also that the extent to which a consumer is averse to high-cost versus low-cost products predicts financial health. This relationship cannot be fully explained by financial literacy, numeracy, or intertemporal discounting. In addition, nudging people toward differentiating between financial products promotes decisions that are aligned with financial health.     

The Interactive Effects of Role Conflict and Role Ambiguity on Job Satisfaction and Attitudes Toward Organizational Change: A Moderated Multiple Regression Approach

This study investigates the joint effects of both role conflict and role ambiguity on job satisfaction and three dimensions of attitudes toward organizational change, namely affective, cognitive, and behavioral tendency in a multicultural work setting. The study used a sample of 397 employees from several manufacturing and service organizations in the United Arab Emirates. Results of the moderated regression analysis revealed that role conflict and role ambiguity have no interactive effects on job satisfaction and the three dimensions of attitudes toward organizational change. Results of the moderated regression analysis revealed that role conflict and role ambiguity independently and negatively affect job satisfaction, cognitive attitudes, and behavioral tendency attitudes toward organizational change. Results further pointed out that role ambiguity affected attitude toward organizational change independently and negatively. Implications, limitations, and lines of future research were discussed.     

Predicting policy attitudes from general prejudice versus specific intergroup emotions

How are people’s social policy attitudes related to their affective reactions to the social groups affected by those policies? From a threat-based perspective, specific emotions toward a group—above and beyond general prejudice toward that group—should predict attitudes toward a policy affecting the group. To test this, 128 participants reported their support for four social policies, their general and specific affective reactions to each affected group, and the threats ostensibly posed by that group. Although general prejudice failed to predict each policy attitude after controlling for the specific emotions, specific emotions did indeed significantly predict each policy attitude after controlling for general prejudice. Moreover, these specific emotions tended to mediate predicted relationships between perceived threats and policy attitudes. In all, these results highlight the benefits of assessing specific intergroup emotions as they relate to political arenas.     

Does threatening imagery sensitize distress during contaminant exposure?

Prominent models of fear focus on the role of cognition in the development and maintenance of maladaptive responses. Little research, however, has evaluated the impact of cognition on distress reduction. The current study uses an experimental design to examine the effect of different types of imagery (moving harm, static harm, and safety) on reduction of distress associated with a contaminating stimulus in a normal university sample. Results indicate that use of moving harm imagery sensitizes distress during a 30-min exposure, whereas static harm and safety imagery reduce distress. These findings demonstrate that cognitive factors can moderate affective response during exposure. Clinical implications for the treatment of anxiety disorders are discussed.