Key Points

An attitude is a state of mind, a set of views regarding an attitude object, which has an evaluative feature like positive, negative or neutral. It represents a tendency to behave or act in certain ways.

Attitudes consist of three components: the Affective (emotional feelings), the Behavioural (tendency to act), and the Cognitive (thoughts and beliefs). These are often referred to as the A-B-C components.

Beliefs are the cognitive component of attitudes. Values are attitudes or beliefs that contain a 'should' or 'ought' aspect, are deeply ingrained, and guide one's outlook on life.

The four significant features of attitudes are Valence (positivity or negativity), Extremeness (how positive or negative), Simplicity or Complexity (number of member attitudes), and Centrality (importance in the attitude system).

Attitudes are primarily learned through association, being rewarded or punished, modelling (observing others), group or cultural norms, and exposure to information from various media.

The main factors providing the context for attitude formation are family and school environment, reference groups, direct personal experiences, and media-related influences.

This theory suggests that attitudes change to resolve imbalance in the P-O-X triangle (Person, Other person, attitude object). Balance exists when there are three positive relationships, or two negative and one positive.

This theory states that holding two inconsistent cognitions (thoughts) creates mental discomfort or dissonance. To reduce this dissonance, an individual will change one of the cognitions to achieve consistency.

According to this concept, attitude change occurs in two steps. First, the target identifies with the source. Second, the source changes their own behavior, which the target then imitates.

Attitude change is influenced by characteristics of the existing attitude, source characteristics (credibility, attractiveness), message characteristics (rational vs. emotional appeal), and target characteristics (persuasibility, self-esteem).

Attitudes do not always predict behavior. Consistency between attitude and behavior is higher when the attitude is strong and central, and when there is little external pressure on the person.

Richard LaPiere's classic study demonstrated a gap between attitudes and behavior. He found that hotels that served a Chinese couple in person later stated in a survey that they would not, showing prejudice in attitude but not in behavior.

Prejudice is a negative attitude toward a group, often based on stereotypes (cognitive beliefs about the group). Discrimination is the behavioral component, involving negative actions against the group.

Prejudice can be learned and is often sourced from a strong social identity (ingroup bias), scapegoating (blaming a minority group), the kernel of truth concept, and self-fulfilling prophecies.

Effective strategies to reduce prejudice include education and information dissemination, increasing intergroup contact in cooperative contexts, and highlighting individual identity rather than group identity.