The person-positivity bias.

A "person-positivity bias" is proposed such that attitude objects are evaluated more favorably the more they resemble individual humans. Because perceived similarity should increase liking, individuals should attract more favorable evaluations than should less personal attitude objects, such as inanimate objects or even aggregated or grouped versions of the same persons. Findings from 11 studies with undergraduate Ss support this view. Individuals were overwhelmingly evaluated favorably. Personal versions of a given attitude object were evaluated more favorably than impersonal versions of it. Individual persons, as wholes, were evaluated more favorably than were their specific attributes. Individuals were evaluated more favorably than were the same individuals in aggregates or groups. Attitudes toward groups were cognitively compartmentalized from attitudes toward individual group members. Perceivers tended to underestimate the positivity of their own and others' attitudes toward individual persons. (38 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attitude prototypes as determinants of attitude–behavior consistency.

Hypothesized that individuals determine their attitudes toward a social group by assessing their reactions to an imagined group representative who embodies the defining or central group characteristics—the prototypical group member. When they encounter a specific group member whose characteristics match well those of the "attitude prototype," individuals display attitude–behavior consistency; when the match is poor, they display attitude–behavior inconsistency. This proposition was tested in 2 experiments with 56 undergraduates: Ss completed questionnaires assessing their attitudes toward various groups, and later their behavior toward prototypical and unprototypical individuals of those groups was evaluated. In each experiment, the attitude–behavior relationship was greater in relation to prototypical than to unprototypical group members. Knowledge of an unprototypical group member had little or no effect on attitude prototypes. Rather, the unprototypical group member was dismissed as atypical, leaving the prototype intact to influence future social behavior. (34 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Is a rose always a rose? The role of social category exemplar change in attitude stability and attitude-behavior consistency.

Three experiments tested whether changes in social category exemplars affect attitude stability, attitude–behavior consistency, or attitude change. In Experiment 1, participants displayed greater attitude stability across 1 month, in several social categories, when they named the same rather than different exemplars. In Experiment 2, participants displayed greater attitude–behavior consistency toward each of 2 social categories when they named the same rather than different exemplars at behavior assessment and at attitude assessment. Participants who named a more likable exemplar behaved more positively, and those who named a less likable exemplar behaved more negatively, than their initial attitudes predicted. In Experiment 3, participants changed their attitudes in the predicted direction after estimating the height of an exemplar who was either more or less likable than the one they had earlier named. The results are interpreted as consistent with recent theory and research on attitude introspection, the matching hypothesis, and models of social judgment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Phonological typicality does not influence fixation durations in normal reading.

Using a word-by-word self-paced reading paradigm, T. A. Farmer, M. H. Christiansen, and P. Monaghan (2006) reported faster reading times for words that are phonologically typical for their syntactic category (i.e., noun or verb) than for words that are phonologically atypical. This result has been taken to suggest that language users are sensitive to subtle relationships between sound and syntactic function and that they make rapid use of this information in comprehension. The present article reports attempts to replicate this result using both eyetracking during normal reading (Experiment 1) and word-by-word self-paced reading (Experiment 2). No hint of a phonological typicality effect emerged on any reading-time measure in Experiment 1, nor did Experiment 2 replicate Farmer et al.’s finding from self-paced reading. Indeed, the differences between condition means were not consistently in the predicted direction, as phonologically atypical verbs were read more quickly than phonologically typical verbs, on most measures. Implications for research on visual word recognition are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Contact with out-group friends as a predictor of meta-attitudinal strength and accessibility of attitudes toward gay men.

Two studies examined the effects of cross-group friendships on heterosexuals' attitudes toward gay men. In Study 1, the authors tested the effects of cross-group friendships with gay men on out-group attitudes, meta-attitudinal strength, and attitude accessibility. The authors simultaneously explored mediational effects of intergroup anxiety. Path analysis showed that cross-group friendships were associated with meta-attitudinally stronger and more accessible out-group attitudes, and the effects on all 3 criterion variables were mediated by intergroup anxiety. In Study 2, the authors sought to replicate the basic results of Study 1, while additionally exploring mediational effects of closeness of cross-group friendship and moderational effects of perceived group typicality. Structural equation modeling showed that cross-group friendships were associated with meta-attitudinally stronger and more accessible out-group attitudes; friendships had indirect effects on all 3 criterion variables, via closeness of friendship and intergroup anxiety. Closeness of friendship only predicted lower intergroup anxiety, however, when the out-group friend was perceived as highly typical. The authors emphasize the importance of considering the nature of out-group attitudes more completely when evaluating the effectiveness of intergroup contact in reducing prejudice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Turning up the contrast: Self-enhancement motives prompt egocentric contrast effects in social judgments.

Contrast effects occur when people judge the behavior and attitudes of others relative to their own. We tested a motivational account suggesting that these effects arise because people tailor their judgments of others to affirm their own self-worth. Consistent with that interpretation, participants displayed more egocentric contrast in their judgments of another person's intelligence (i.e., their evaluation of his score on the Scholastic Aptitude Test was more negatively related to their own score) after their self-esteem was threatened than after it was bolstered (Studies 1 and 2). High-self-esteem individuals displayed more judgmental contrast overall than did their low-esteem counterparts (Study 2). Strongly pro-choice participants whose esteem was threatened also displayed more contrast in their judgments of another person's attitude on abortion, relative to esteem-bolstered participants (Study 3). Discussion centers on the implications of these findings for theory on social comparison, self-affirmation, and social judgment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Activation of exemplars in the process of assessing social category attitudes.

Three experiments used process measures of concept activation to provide evidence—consistent with previous research, which had used only outcome and self-report measures—that people use category exemplars to assess their social category attitudes. The studies were based on the well-established principle that individuals selectively activate different aspects of their knowledge about a topic, depending on which aspect is relevant for a specific judgment. Exemplar activation was measured through ambiguous anagrams (Experiment 1), word fragment completions (Experiment 2), and response latencies (Experiment 3). In each case, exemplar activation was greater when participants had recently judged their attitudes toward a social category than when they had recently judged a definition of the category. Implications for theories of attitude change and attitude-behavior consistency are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Multiple stereotypes of elderly and young adults: A comparison of structure and evaluations.

Following D. F. Schmidt and S. M. Boland's (see record 1987-01097-001) method, college student informants sorted a trait set into 1 or more groups with reference to elderly or young adults. Analysis of these data confirmed the existence of multiple stereotypes of both age groups but showed little similarity between stereotypes of the elderly and the young. Other informants made attitude, age, and typicality judgments of persons representing either the elderly or young adult stereotypes. Results showed that attitudes varied with the stereotype activated and were similar for analogous elderly and young adult stereotypes. Results also suggested that young adults do not view negative stereotypes as more typical of the elderly than positive ones; however, they believe the negative stereotypes are more characteristic of the old–old than are the positive and see positive stereotypes as more typical of young adults than negative ones. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Same- and cross-gender attitudes toward persons with physical disabilities.

Used the Disability Factor Scale-General (DFS-G) of J. Siller et al (1967) to measure 147 male and 139 female 11th-graders' attitudes toward persons with physical disabilities. A subgroup of Ss responded to a specially prepared version of the DFS-G that referred to males with disabilities, while a 2nd subgroup responded to a 2nd version of the questionnaire that referred to females with disabilities. A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was performed, with scores on the 6 attitude scales of the DFS-G as the dependent variables. The 2 independent variables were Ss' gender and the sex of the person with the disability. Attitudes toward females with disabilities were less positive than attitudes toward males with disabilities. These less positive attitudes were expressed more by boys than by girls. Findings support the theoretical assumption that being disabled and female represents a double minority status. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Implicit ambivalence from attitude change: An exploration of the PAST model.

Traditional models of attitude change have assumed that when people appear to have changed their attitudes in response to new information, their old attitudes disappear and no longer have any impact. The present research suggests that when attitudes change, the old attitude can remain in memory and influence subsequent behavior. Four experiments are reported in which initial attitudes were created and then changed (or not) with new information. In each study, the authors demonstrate that when people undergo attitude change, their old and new attitudes can interact to produce evaluative responses consistent with a state of implicit ambivalence. In Study 1, individuals whose attitudes changed were more neutral on a measure of automatic evaluation. In Study 2, attitude change led people to show less confidence on an implicit but not an explicit measure. In Studies 3 and 4, people whose attitudes changed engaged in greater processing of attitude-relevant information than did individuals whose attitudes were not changed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Presence versus absence of others: The effect on verbally expressed attitudes toward the disabled.

Tested the hypothesis that individuals express more favorable attitudes toward the disabled when in the presence of others than when alone. 36 students in a graduate rehabilitation course completed a 7-point rating scale pretest concerning 5 rehabilitation concepts, and adjective pairs were developed following the semantic differential model of C. E. Osgood et al (1957). Ss then viewed a film about meeting a blind person, following which they heard a presentation by and interacted with a blind model. Ss were randomly assigned to either individual or group conditions. Individual Ss again completed the 7-point rating scale in isolation. Ss in the groups discussed the film and the presentation together for 15 min before completing the posttest. All Ss were retested at 30-day follow-up. Results fail to reveal differences between conditions; however, Ss in both conditions demonstrated a significant shift in their attitudes toward blind persons. It is suggested that while the presence or absence of others did not contribute to an attitude change, the specificity of the attitude change strategy may bring about attitude change. (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The structure of attitudes toward alcohol: Specific beverages differ from generic alcohol.

Examined the extent to which attitudes about alcohol in general differ from attitudes toward specific types of alcoholic beverages (e.g., beer, wine) and whether S variables such as drinking status and drink preference moderate alcohol-related attitudes. 82 male and 102 female college students completed a computerized attitude and drinking habits assessment. Ss did discriminate among alcoholic beverages on the dimensions of potency and positivity. Five of the 6 specific beverages were rated as less potent than generic alcohol (GA); mixed drinks were rated more positively than GA. Ss consistently rated their preferred beverage more positively than GA. Results suggest that the attitude structure characterizing specific alcoholic beverages differs from that of GA. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A solution to the problem of jail suicide

In American studies in the sixties and seventies caregivers, including physicians, showed a negative attitude towards the elderly. There are indications that such a negative attitude affects the quality of care and the communication with the elderly. Based on predominantly American literature this article reviews research on medical students' knowledge about and attitudes towards older people as well as the impact of geriatric training on the image of older patients and physician-patient communication. In medical students who did not receive a geriatric training, attitudes improved in the eighties and nineties up till a slightly positive level but general gerontological knowledge displayed as many shortcomings as in former days. A few studies show that instructional modules in geriatrics do not have an impact on the attitude towards the elderly. Several studies show that contact with aged persons has a positive influence. Rather than geriatric residency or work in a nursing home, contact with healthy elderly has favourable effects. Attitude improvement based on interactions with older people is maintained during medical education. A program in gerontology as well as geriatric instructional modules can lead to knowledge improvement. Since significantly positive correlations between knowledge and attitude are sometimes demonstrated, increasing gerontological knowledge may lead to more positive attitudes.     

Gender labeling, gender stereotyping, and parenting behaviors.

Are gender labeling and gender stereotyping in 24-, 30-, and 36-mo-old children related to each other and to mothers' sex-role attitudes and responses to sex-typed behavior in a free-play situation with their children? The gender stereotyping measure indicated that gender schemata include information that is metaphorically rather than literally associated with each sex. Children who understood labels for boys and girls displayed more knowledge of gender stereotypes than children who did not. Mothers whose children had mastered labels for boys and girls endorsed more traditional attitudes toward women and toward sex roles within the family. The same mothers also initiated and reinforced more sex-typed toy play with their children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Forming implicit and explicit attitudes toward individuals: Social group association cues.

The authors explored how social group cues (e.g., obesity, physical attractiveness) strongly associated with valence affect the formation of attitudes toward individuals. Although explicit attitude formation has been examined in much past research (e.g., S. T. Fiske & S. L. Neuberg, 1990), in the current work, the authors considered how implicit as well as explicit attitudes toward individuals are influenced by these cues. On the basis of a systems of evaluation perspective (e.g., R. J. Rydell & A. R. McConnell, 2006; R. J. Rydell, A. R. McConnell, D. M. Mackie, & L. M. Strain, 2006), the authors anticipated and found that social group cues had a strong impact on implicit attitude formation in all cases and on explicit attitude formation when behavioral information about the target was ambiguous. These findings obtained for cues related to obesity (Experiments 1 and 4) and physical attractiveness (Experiment 2). In Experiment 3, parallel findings were observed for race, and participants holding greater implicit racial prejudice against African Americans formed more negative implicit attitudes toward a novel African American target person than did participants with less implicit racial prejudice. Implications for research on attitudes, impression formation, and stigma are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predictors of working with older adults in an Australian psychologist sample: Revisiting the influence of contact.

Despite increasing numbers of older people in most global populations and increasing evidence of the efficacy of psychological therapy in older clinical populations, few psychologists work with older clients as compared with other clinical groups. In the present research, the authors examine potential influences on psychologists choosing to specialize in working in the field of aging. The authors surveyed 1,498 psychologists Australia-wide to examine which factors exerted the most influence on choosing to specialize in clinical work with older clients. Clinical exposure to older clients and age-related course content within training programs, together with further education external to formal training, were significantly correlated with specializing in aged care. Holding a more negative attitude toward one's own aging was another predictor of specialist category membership, with interest in working with older clients also being a significant factor based on direct logistic regression analysis. In contrast to previous work, amount or quality of contact with older persons did not appear to relate to working with older adults. These findings highlight the importance of quality training experiences in influencing attitudes toward working with older adults. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Generalization of dissonance reduction: Decreasing prejudice through induced compliance.

Three studies involving a total of 318 White college students demonstrated that induced compliance can change socially significant attitudes and that the change generalizes to broader beliefs. Ss wrote an essay endorsing a pro-Black policy that was costly to Whites. In Exps 1 and 2, attitudes and general beliefs about Blacks became more favorable in both high- and low-choice conditions, provided publicity of the essay was high. Overall, choice and publicity had additive effects on attitude change. Some high-choice Ss wrote only semipositive (semicompliant) essays and did not change their essay attitudes. Yet their beliefs about Blacks still became more favorable. In Exp 3, racial ambivalence, but not prior attitude, predicted essay compliance. Ambivalent Ss were more likely to comply than were less ambivalent Ss. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of public and private self-consciousness on the public expression of personal beliefs.

Examined the joint effects of private and public self-consciousness (SC) on attitudinal consistency. 113 male undergraduates (categorized as high and low private and high and low public SC) reported their own attitudes toward punishment. Later, each S was asked to write an essay in which he restated his attitude. Immediately prior to writing the essay, S learned that he would also be discussing his opinion with either a partner who held an attitude opposite to his own or a partner whose attitude was unknown. As predicted, the attitudes expressed in the essays of high public SC Ss were more moderate than those expressed by low public SC Ss. One effect of this moderation strategy was to lower the correlation between privately held and publicly expressed beliefs among Ss high in public SC. In contrast, attitudinal consistency was substantial among Ss who were low in public and high in private SC. (14 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attitude variables associated with patient response to hospitalization.

Administered the CPH Factor Attitude Scale to 51 male veterans before and after treatment in a psychiatric ward, to assess the effects of patient attitudes toward hospitilization. A direct relationship was found between negative attitude and length of hospitalization. However, Ss' attitudes did not (a) change from admission to discharge, (b) predict response to treatment as measured by therapist ratings, or (c) correlate with educational level. In addition, Ss viewed the hospital as more authoritarian than ward personnel. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Group norms and attitude–behavior consistency: The role of group salience and mood.

This study tested the social identity–self-categorization theory reconceptualization of the role of norms in attitude–behavior relations. Specifically, the study investigated how the effects of in-group norms on the relationship between people's attitudes and their behavior vary as a function of the salience of group membership and mood. Participants' (N?=?131) attitudes toward students being responsible for picking up litter on campus grounds were examined. As expected, the effects of the attitudinal congruency of norms varied as a function of group salience under neutral mood (i.e., deliberative processing) conditions. In-group norms were more influential for high-salience individuals than for low salience individuals in a neutral mood. These findings indicate that in-group norms influence behavioral decision making for individuals high in group salience only when there is an opportunity to carefully process the normative information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)