Lecture 3: How do consumers form attitudes?

Question 1

definition of attitudes based on coursebook?

Answer 1

• evaluative responses
• directed towards attitude object
• based on three classes of information

the point of this is not that it is necessarily true, but more of a demarcation of what we are trying to study.

Question 2

two main theories on how attitudes are formed

Answer 2

• attitudes are (stable) predispositions = psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degree of favor or disfavor.
• attitudes are (context-dependent) evaluative responses = the categorization of a stimulus object along an evaluative dimension

Question 3

difference in explanation for behavior by personality or social psychologists?

Answer 3

• personality = traits explain behavior
• social = attitudes explain behavior

Question 4

problem with attitudes defined as responses explaining behavior

Answer 4

if attitudes are defined as an evaluative response how can they explain behavior?
- reason that people often explain behavior with stable underlying dispositions

Question 5

problem with attitudes defined as predispositions explaining behavior

Answer 5

attitudes can change quickly, so how can they be stable predispositions

Question 6

both theories put together?

Answer 6

to say that attitudes are evaluative responses we must mean a mental response and not a physical, because then we can’t use it to explain behavior.
so a psychological evaluation that leads to behavior.

Question 7

Functional theory of Katz (1960)

What are attitudes for?

Answer 7

• adjustment to punishment and reward
• value expression
• ego-defense
• knowledge

Question 8

adjustment to punishment and reward

Answer 8

attitudes reflect past perception of utility of object for individual; sort of summary of past experiences

Question 9

value expression

Answer 9

form/maintain relationships; wearing a football shirt to a game

Question 10

ego-defense

Answer 10

protect self-image/esteem

Question 11

knowledge

Answer 11

provide frame of reference for representing environment. navigation in new environments.

Question 12

functions of consumer goods

Answer 12

• utalitarian goals
• self-expression goals = clothes
• identity building goals = buying running shoes when you want to start running
• hedonic goals

Question 13

implication of the function of consumer goods (why people buy specific products)?

Answer 13

that the persuasion of a consumer is more effective if the message matches te consumer goal.
-> when tested turned out to be true

Question 14

hierarchy of fundamental motives

Answer 14

another perspective of function of consumer goods

Question 15

two models for attitude forming

Answer 15

• file drawer model
• attitudes as constructions model

people use both

the only question left is when people use what model?

Question 16

file drawer model

Answer 16

an attitude is a learnt structure in long term memory that is activated when percieving attitude objects. files with evaluative information in mental database

Question 17

attitudes as constructions model

Answer 17

responses people make up on given moment. depend on what think or feel on the go. evaluation is made on salient or accesible information.

Question 18

3 components of attitudes

Answer 18

• affect
• behavior
• cognitive

Question 19

what do we use for cognitive information?

Answer 19

if-then heuristics.
“if price is high then the quality would be high.”

Question 20

What do we use for affective information?

Answer 20

how we feel about things
- mere exposure (hedonic fluency)
- evaluative conditioning (learning associations/pavlov)
- affect as information = if something smells bad you don’t eat it

Question 21

missatribution of heuristics

Answer 21

how you feel is not an optimal heuristic

Question 22

How do people combine information?

Answer 22

to answer this we can use expected value/utility model.

Question 23

expected value model

Answer 23

attitude towards an object is expectancy X Value.
this was tested with attitudes and outcome beliefs about drugs and alcohol.

Question 24

was the expected value model significant?

Answer 24

no, attitudes are not significantly related to expected value.

Question 25

so are attitudes completely unrelated to expected value?

Answer 25

probably not, if attitudes did not reflect expected value at all then people would make bad decisions very often.

Question 26

stronger attitudes?

Answer 26

• are more stable over time
• have greater impact on behavior
• have greater resistance to persuasion
• have greater influence on information processing.