Effects of Including a Graphic Warning Label in Advertisements for Reduced‐Exposure Products: Implications for Persuasion and Policy1

Considerable interest has focused on making warning labels on tobacco‐product packaging more effective in communicating risk to current and potential smokers. However, none of this work to date has involved the communication of risk information about reduced‐exposure products, or how a graphic warning label may function in advertisements. Reduced‐exposure products pose an interesting public health challenge in light of the fact that many advertisements for such products convey safety claims that may undermine the likelihood that potential consumers will process warnings about the products. The present study examines the influence of graphic warning labels on ratings of advertisements for 3 different types of tobacco products. Results showed that including a graphic picture lowered the appeal ratings for the product.     

Effects of Exposure to Cigarette Advertisements on Adolescents' Attitudes Toward Smoking1

One hundred seventy-eight adolescents viewed a magazine that either contained or did not contain 4 cigarette advertisements. Adolescents who have tried smoking reported more positive attitudes toward smoking. Of the adolescents who have tried smoking, those in the cigarette-advertisement-present condition expressed more positive attitudes toward smoking than did those in the cigarette-advertisement-absent condition. Consistent with the prediction that adolescents who have tried (vs. never tried) smoking would attend more to cigarette advertisements, adolescents in the cigarette-advertisement-present condition who have tried (vs. never tried) smoking correctly recognized more cigarette advertisements. Taken together, these results suggest that adolescents who have tried smoking are attending to cigarette advertisements and are impacted by cigarette advertisements; specifically, cigarette advertisements bolster these adolescents' attitudes toward smoking.     

College Students' Attitudes Toward Children's Nurturance and Self‐Determination Rights1

Increasing attention is being paid to children's rights issues in policy and law. However, there is little recent research examining adults’ attitudes toward children's rights. This is an important question given that children's rights are unlikely to be fulfilled if they are not supported by the adults involved in their lives. Attitudes toward nurturance and self‐determination rights were examined in 461 undergraduate students from the United States and Canada. Students were asked to think of a “target child” (8, 10, 12, 14, or 16 years) when answering the questions. Students strongly endorsed nurturance rights, but were generally unsupportive of children's rights to self‐determination. Canadians showed greater support for self‐determination than did Americans. In both groups, endorsement increased significantly with the age of the target child. Commenting on factors they considered when responding to the items, participants perceived children's rights as dependent on personal, interpersonal, and societal factors.     

Posture and Prediction on the Attitudes Toward Women Scale

A study was performed investigating the relationship between stated attitudes toward the feminist movement and willingness to help that movement. Results suggested that Attitudes Toward Women Scale (AWS) measures of feminist commitment may be limited by a social desirability variable and that high scores on the AWS do not correlate with a behavioral measure of commitment.     

Bridging the Social and the Symbolic: Toward a Feminist Politics of Sexual Difference

By clarifying the psychoanalytic notion of sexual difference (and contrasting it with a feminist analysis of gender as social reality), I argue that the symbolic dimension of psychical life cannot be discarded in developing political accounts of identity formation and the status of women in the public sphere. I discuss various bridges between social reality and symbolic structure, bridges such as body, language, law, and family. I conclude that feminist attention must be redirected to the unconscious since the political cannot be localized in, or segregated to, the sphere of social reality; sexual difference is an indispensable concept for a feminist politics.     

Attributional and Symbolic Predictors of Abortion Attitudes1

Attributional and symbolic politics approaches were used to develop a model relating symbolic predispositions, perceptions of responsibility for unwanted pregnancy, affects, and attitudes toward abortion. In Study 1, a taxonomy of 12 distinct causes of unwanted pregnancy was identified. College-student subjects in Study 2 rated these causes on importance, controllability, blame, pity, anger, and judgments in favor of abortion. A regression analysis revealed that abortion approval in this student sample is negatively related to conservatism, religiosity, and blame. In Study 3, a more extensive path mode) is offered indicating that abortion approval in a nonstudent sample is linked negatively to religiosity and moral traditionalism, and positively to sympathy. Results of the study demonstrate the utility of applying social psychological theory to abortion attitudes.     

Understanding Public Attitudes Toward Tobacco Harm Reduction: The Role of Attitude Structure1

The present research examines whether and to what extent the underlying structure of attitudes toward harm reduction and specific reduced‐exposure products contributes to an understanding of public attitudes toward harm reduction. Past research has focused on the extent to which some attitude objects are primarily affective or cognitive. Using survey data from a 5‐state Upper Midwest sample, we tested the relevance of 4 pertinent properties of attitudes for predicting overall attitudes toward tobacco harm reduction: affective and cognitive bases of attitudes; knowledge; experience with smoking and reduced‐harm products; and affective/cognitive consistency. We found that feelings about harm reduction are most predictive of overall attitudes toward harm reduction and specific reduced‐harm products. Theoretical and policy implications are discussed.     

Ethnic‐Related Curricula and Intergroup Attitudes in College: Movement Toward and Away From the In‐Group1

Using a 5‐year longitudinal study, we investigated the long‐term effects of courses with ethnic studies content and courses with Latino or Black professors on university students' intergroup attitudes. We found that these curricular variables significantly affected the intergroup attitudes of students beyond pre‐existing differences in attitudes and beyond other curriculum variables. As expected, we found differences between ethnic groups: White students showed movement toward other groups as a result of these curricular factors, whereas Latino and African American students showed both increased tolerance toward other groups and movement toward the in‐group. The results are discussed in terms of group status differences between the dominant White majority and the stigmatized Latino and Black minority groups.     

Attitudes of Master's‐Level Counseling Students Toward Gay Men and Lesbians

The authors examined variables that could be predictive of attitudes toward gay men and lesbians. A survey was conducted with 132 counselors‐in‐training in a program accredited by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (2001). Participants attended a medium‐size, regional university in the southwestern portion of the United States. Religiosity, political views, and previous experience with lesbians were the strongest predictors of attitudes toward gay men and lesbians. Future research ideas and implications for counselor education programs are discussed.     

The Development of the Attitudes Toward Censorship Questionnaire1

Two studies were conducted to develop a psychometrically sound scale to measure attitudes to ward censorship. In the first study, 37 initial items were administered to 109 college and high school students. Additional measures were also included for validation purposes. Factor analysis and item-total correlations were used to select items for the final scale. Results revealed two distinct factors alluding to the possibility of a multidimensional construct. Reliability coefficients indicated that both factors were internally consistent. Correlations with additional measures provided evidence for the criterion and convergent validity of the scale. The second study used a sample of 150 college students to replicate the initial findings and to establish testretest reliability.     

College Students’ Attitudes Toward Blacks and Arabs Following a Terrorist Attack as a Function of Varying Levels of Media Exposure1

Attitudes toward Blacks and Arabs immediately following a terrorist attack on the United States, as well as 1 year later, were investigated. White undergraduate students completed a modified version of the Should‐Would Discrepancy Questionnaire (Monteith & Voils, 1998), assessing beliefs about what they should do in certain situations pertaining to race and what they would do in these situations. Additionally, daily self‐reported levels of news exposure were measured. The result was that the participants both believed that they should and would be more prejudiced toward Arabs than toward Blacks, at both Time 1 and Time 2. Furthermore, at Time 1, there was a trend for participants reporting high levels of daily news exposure (television, radio, Internet, and newspapers) to be more prejudiced toward Arabs than were participants who reported low levels. No effect of news exposure on attitudes toward Blacks was found at Time 1. At Time 2, however, participants reporting greater amounts of news exposure were more prejudiced toward Blacks than were participants reporting medium or low levels. Possible reasons for and implications of these findings are discussed.     

Attitudes Toward Prostitution and Acceptance of Rape Myths1

Rape myths and prostitution myths are a component of culturally supported attitudes that normalize violence against women. Prostitution myths justify the existence of prostitution, promote misinformation about prostitution, and contribute to a social climate that exploits and harms not only prostituted women, but all women. This study investigated the relationship between prostitution myth acceptance and rape myth acceptance in a sample of university undergraduates. Rape myth acceptance was positively correlated with prostitution myth acceptance among 783 university undergraduates from California, Iowa, Oregon, and Texas. College men were significantly more accepting of prostitution myths than were college women. Results suggest that acceptance of prostitution myths are a component of attitudes that justify violence against women.     

Improving Children's Attitudes Toward Refugees: An Evaluation of a School‐Based Multicultural Curriculum and an Anti‐Racist Intervention1

We evaluated the impact of the Friendship Project, a program designed to improve elementary school children's attitudes toward refugees. Participants either received 4 weekly lessons based on the program, or they received no lessons. All participants completed attitude measures before and after implementation of the program. Half completed the post‐test 1 week after completion of the program, while the other half completed the post‐test 7 weeks after its completion. The program led to more positive attitudes toward refugees in the short term, but not in the long term. Moreover, although it did not increase empathy, the program increased the proportion of participants who preferred an acculturation strategy of integration and reduced the number of participants who had conflictual acculturative fit.     

The Instrumental and Symbolic Functions of Attitudes toward Persons with AIDS1

Five studies explored the psychological bases of attitudes toward persons afflicted with Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). These studies examined both instrumental and symbolic bases of these attitudes. In Studies 1, 2, and 3, both instrumental factors (e.g., beliefs about the probability of one's own child contracting AIDS) and symbolic factors (general attitudes toward homosexuality) independently contributed to the prediction of attitudes toward having one's child attend classes with a nonhomosexual person having AIDS. In Study 4, only attitudes toward homosexuality (symbolic factors) and not beliefs about contagiousness related to students' expressing a desire to transfer from a class with an AIDS-infected professor. In Study 5, subjects role played the situation experienced by subjects in Study 4. A wider array of instrumental concerns was assessed. While both instrumental and symbolic factors were related to attitudes of role-playing subjects, the specific instrumental concerns of importance were related to beliefs about subjects' feeling comfortable with the professor and not the contagiousness of AIDS. Thus, these results paralleled those of Study 4. These findings are discussed with regard to their relevance for understanding the varying functions of attitudes and for understanding the stigmatization of disease victims.     

Self‐Stigma,Mental Health Literacy,and Attitudes Toward Seeking Psychological Help

This study examined self‐stigma of seeking psychological help and mental health literacy as predictors of college students’ (N = 1,535) help‐seeking attitudes, with additional attention to psychological and demographic correlates. Results indicated that mental health literacy predicted help‐seeking attitudes above and beyond self‐stigma. Asian American race/ethnicity, male gender, current psychological distress, and help‐seeking history were also significant predictors. Implications for addressing mental health literacy and self‐stigma while attending to demographic and psychological variations in help seeking are discussed.     

Attitudes Toward Male Oral Contraceptives: Implications for Models of the Relationship Between Beliefs and Attitudes1

Four factors (effectiveness, health risks, cost, and convenience) were orthogonally manipulated in a 3 × 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design to determine their relative importance in influencing attitudes toward and intentions to use male oral contraceptives. The experimental design also permitted a test of the assumption of additivity underlying expectancy-value models of attitude and the assumption of absence of context effects. Results were consistent with expectancy-value models of the relationship between beliefs and attitudes. In addition, it was found that health risks and effedtiveness, in that order, were the most important factors influencing receptivity to male oral contraceptives, with the effects of cost and convenience being mediated by these two factors. Sex differences in attitudes toward male oral contraceptives were also observed.     

The Relationship of Antifat Attitudes to Other Prejudicial and Gender‐Related Attitudes1

Overweight people in society face a number of obstacles. Negative attitudes toward overweight people contribute to this experience. This study examined the relationship of antifat attitudes to other prejudicial attitudes (e.g., racism, sexism, homophobia) and gender‐related attitudes. A total of 179 undergraduate participants completed measures of prejudicial attitudes, including antifat attitudes. Multiple regression analyses revealed that a combination of demographic and attitudinal variables predicted antifat attitudes. Antifat attitudes are stronger for men, Caucasians, and gender‐typed individuals; compared to women, African Americans, and androgynous individuals, respectively. After controlling for demographics, weight‐related variables, and social desirability, gender‐role egalitarianism, racism, and homophobia significantly correlated with antifat attitudes. The implications and limitations of this study are discussed regarding the importance of research in antifat and other prejudical attitudes.     

The Discounting Principle and Attitudes Toward Victims of HIV Infection1

Reactions to victims of HIV infection often encompass not only the stigma of disease, but also the stigma of membership in a high-risk group and the stigma of being held responsible for one's own illness. To examine the role the discounting principle might play in the evaluation of victims with multiple stigmas, 181 undergraduate students reacted to vignettes describing an HIV-positive male. Participants received information about the mode of transmission and the sexual preference of the described victim. Results suggested that the stigma of homosexuality had a greater effect when the victim was not viewed as behaviorally responsible than when he was considered to be responsible for the illness. This finding is explained in terms of both the discounting principle and the just world theory. Implications for attitude change are discussed.