Formation and Change of Attitudes

Attitudes are basically learnt through interaction with others and personal experiences. Usually children acquire the attitudes of their parents. Attitudes are the result of many different influences yet the common aspect is that it is acquired through different types of learning.

Direct Contact

A neutral object gets associated with an established stimulus-response. Repeated association with the stimuli evokes positive or negative feelings. The attitude object now comes to have the same feelings. This involves classical conditioning. Strong smells, tastes and sensory information can bring about strong emotional responses.

For example, if a child eats sprouts and dislikes it, there are chances that this dislike will be generalized to other food items similar in colour and taste.

Direct Instruction

Instructions given by parents, teachers, or leaders, lead to formation of specific attitudes. Parents tell their children not to smoke and drink because it is unhealthy. Teachers may also reinforce this attitude. The child may develop a negative attitude towards smoking and drinking.

Interaction with others

We are usually in the company of others and adopt attitudes similar to the group we belong to. For example, if your group of friends think it is ‘cool’ to wear black jeans and shirts decorated with chains, you may think it cool to be dressed in such clothes. Also, if your friends think it ‘cool’ to smoke and drink then you may not listen to your parents and teachers but agree with the peer group.

You choose such a way of behaving, as this behaviour is reinforced by the reward you get from your friends, that is, praise, approval and acceptance as a group member.

Further, such actions make you ‘feel good’, increase your self-esteem and make your attitude even stronger. The use of rewards involves instrumental learning. By controlling rewards and punishments children are taught specific attitudes.

Observational Learning

Attitudes are often learnt through observation of other people’s actions. As a child do you remember how your grand parents sang bhajans everyday during prayer time? As a young adult you may also now enjoy such songs. Or, how did your mother react when she saw a stray dog? If she showed fear and an attempt to run away from the dog, it is likely that you may also have developed the same attitude.

In addition, the educational system, media particularly television, movies, magazines and newspapers all influence attitude formation. Belonging to an impressionable age children believe in what they watch on the TV. Advertisers take advantage of this and try to get children to form specific attitudes towards what they want to sell.

Almost all companies and organizations spend a lot of money on advertisement aimed at pursuading people for change in their attitude.

Attitude Change

No doubt, attitudes once formed are difficult to change. Yet, because attitudes are learnt they can also change with new learning. Attitude change depends upon the following factors:

• Source: The person who delivers the message is called the communicator. The probability, that you will change your attitude is higher if the message is conveyed by experts, who are considered to be trustworthy, attractive and similar to the person receiving the message. Thus, if the cricketer Sachin Tendukar says that a particular drink gives him energy, the target audience is likely to be young children who consider him as a role model in the field of sports. They are likely to buy the drink because they assume that they would be able to ‘play like him’.

• Message: The nature of message is important because it provides the information for attitude change. The message should be clear and well organized. Messages that produce anxiety and fear are more effective. Thus an advertisement on soap may explain that perspiration from the body results in bad odour and your friends will turn away from you. Or, if you have a bath with a particular soap then you are likely to be flooded with friends!

• Person: The characteristics of the person whose attitude is to be changed plays an important role in attitude change. Attitudes that are strong, personally important, complex and interconnected are difficult to change. Thus your attitude towards family would be difficult to change rather than preference of a soap or drink.

Thus ‘who’ (communicator) says ‘what’ (message) to ‘whom’ (person for whom the communication is meant for) will determine whether attitude change will take place or not. What other people say and do has an effect on us.

The advertising industry’s aim is to change attitudes towards a particular product or services. They use these three aspects of attitude change in their advertisements.