{"id":102,"date":"2019-02-08T21:52:37","date_gmt":"2019-02-09T02:52:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/introconsumerbehaviour\/chapter\/understanding-attitudes\/"},"modified":"2021-06-09T18:20:06","modified_gmt":"2021-06-09T22:20:06","slug":"understanding-attitudes","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/introconsumerbehaviour\/chapter\/understanding-attitudes\/","title":{"raw":"Understanding Attitudes","rendered":"Understanding Attitudes"},"content":{"raw":"Although we might use the term in a different way in our everyday life (e.g., \u201cHey, he\u2019s really got an attitude<\/em>!\u201d), social psychologists reserve the term [pb_glossary id=\"277\"]attitude[\/pb_glossary]<\/strong> to refer to our relatively enduring evaluation of something, where the something is called the attitude object<\/em>. The attitude object might be a person, a product, or a social group (Albarrac\u00edn, Johnson, & Zanna, 2005; Wood, 2000).\r\n\r\nWhen we say that attitudes are evaluations, we mean that they involve a preference for or against the attitude object, as commonly expressed in terms such\u00a0as prefer<\/em>, like<\/em>, dislike<\/em>, hate<\/em>, and love<\/em>. When we express our attitudes\u2014for instance, when we say, \u201cI like\u00a0swimming,\u201d \u201cI hate snakes,\u201d or \u201cI\u00a0love my parents\u201d \u2014we are expressing the relationship (either positive or negative) between the self and an attitude object. Statements such as these make it clear that attitudes are an important part of the self-concept.\r\n\r\nEvery human being holds thousands of attitudes, including those about family and friends, political figures, abortion rights, terrorism, preferences for music, and much more. Each of our attitudes has its own unique characteristics, and no two attitudes come to us or influence us in quite the same way. Research has found that some of our attitudes are inherited, at least in part, via genetic transmission from our parents (Olson, Vernon, Harris, & Jang, 2001).\u00a0Other attitudes are learned mostly through direct and indirect experiences with the attitude objects (De Houwer, Thomas, & Baeyens, 2001).\u00a0We may like to ride roller coasters in part because our genetic code has given us a thrill-loving personality and in part because we\u2019ve had some really great times on roller coasters in the past. Still other attitudes are learned via the media (Hargreaves & Tiggemann, 2003; Levina, Waldo, & Fitzgerald, 2000)\u00a0or through our interactions with friends (Poteat, 2007).\u00a0Some of our attitudes are shared by others (most of us like sugar, fear snakes, and are disgusted by cockroaches), whereas other attitudes\u2014such as our preferences for different styles of music or art\u2014are more individualized.\r\n

The Purpose of Attitudes<\/h1>\r\n

Human beings hold attitudes because they are useful<\/em>. Particularly, our attitudes enable us to determine, often very quickly and effortlessly, which behaviours to engage in, which people to approach or avoid, and even which products to buy (Duckworth, Bargh, Garcia, & Chaiken, 2002; Maio & Olson, 2000). You can imagine that making quick decisions about what to avoid or approach has had substantial value in our evolutionary experience.<\/p>\r\n

For example:<\/p>\r\n\r\n