Examining conflict between components of attitudes: Ambivalence and inconsistency are distinct constructs.

Past research has shown that attitudes can be based on different types of psychological information or components. It has also been suggested that the amount of ambivalence and inconsistency between and within these components are important aspects of attitude structure. In this paper, the authors discuss the relation between ambivalence and inconsistency, and the effects on message processing. To test predictions about the independence of ambivalence and inconsistency, the authors reanalyzed the data from their previous experiment (G. R. Maio et al, 1996; see record 1996-06722-001). The new analyses focused on intercomponent ambivalence and attiduinal inconsistency, in addition to intracomponent ambivalence. Using open-ended measures, the authors calculated indices of ambivalence and inconsistency within Canadian college students' attitudes toward Oriental people. The relations between these constructs were then examined, as were their effects on the processing of strong and weak persuasive messages advocating immigration from Hong Kong. Based on past theorizing and research, and on reanalyses of data, the authors conclude that ambivalence and inconsistency are distinct constructs, which are empirically unrelated and produce different effects on message processing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The moderator effect that wasn't there: Statistical problems in ambivalence research.

Ambivalence researchers often collapse separate measures of positivity and negativity into a single numerical index of ambivalence and refer to it as objective, operative, or potential ambivalence. The authors argue that this univariate approach to ambivalence models undermines the validity of subsequent statistical analyses because it confounds the effects of the index and its components. To remedy this situation, they demonstrate how the assumptions underlying the indices derived from the conflicting reactions model and similarity-intensity model can be tested using a multivariate approach to ambivalence models. On the basis of computer simulations and reanalyses of published moderator effects, the authors show that the frequently reported moderating influence of ambivalence on attitude effects may be a statistical artifact resulting from unmodeled correlations of positivity and negativity with attitude and the dependent variable. On the basis of extensive power analyses, they conclude that it may be extremely difficult to detect moderator effects of ambivalence in observational data. Therefore, they encourage ambivalence researchers to take an experimental approach to study design and a multivariate approach to data analysis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of message recipients' power before and after persuasion: A self-validation analysis.

In the present research, the authors examined the effect of a message recipient's power on attitude change and introduced a new mechanism by which power can affect social judgment. In line with prior research that suggested a link between power and approach tendencies, the authors hypothesized that having power increases confidence relative to being powerless. After demonstrating this link in Experiment 1, in 4 additional studies, they examined the role of power in persuasion as a function of when power is infused into the persuasion process. On the basis of the idea that power validates whatever mental content is accessible, they hypothesized that power would have different effects on persuasion depending on when power was induced. Specifically, the authors predicted that making people feel powerful prior to a message would validate their existing views and thus reduce the perceived need to attend to subsequent information. However, it was hypothesized that inducing power after a message has been processed would validate one's recently generated thoughts and thus influence the extent to which people rely upon their thoughts in determining their attitudes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Invisible support and adjustment to stress.

Although there is abundant evidence that perceived availability of support buffers the effects of stressors on mental health, the relatively meager research on support transactions has failed to show an association between actual receipt of support and adjustment to stressors. The authors examined a possible explanation for this inconsistency, that awareness of receiving support entails an emotional cost and that the most effective support is unnoticed by the recipient. Using data from a daily diary study of support provision and receipt in couples, the authors show that many transactions reported by supporters are not reported by recipients. They also show that these invisible support transactions promote adjustment to a major stressor. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Thought confidence as a determinant of persuasion: The self-validation hypothesis.

Previous research in the domain of attitude change has described 2 primary dimensions of thinking that impact persuasion processes and outcomes: the extent (amount) of thinking and the direction (valence) of issue-relevant thought. The authors examined the possibility that another, more meta-cognitive aspect of thinking is also important--the degree of confidence people have in their own thoughts. Four studies test the notion that thought confidence affects the extent of persuasion. When positive thoughts dominate in response to a message, increasing confidence in those thoughts increases persuasion, but when negative thoughts dominate, increasing confidence decreases persuasion. In addition, using self-reported and manipulated thought confidence in separate studies, the authors provide evidence that the magnitude of the attitude-thought relationship depends on the confidence people have in their thoughts. Finally, the authors also show that these self-validation effects are most likely in situations that foster high amounts of information processing activity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Bringing the Frame Into Focus: The Influence of Regulatory Fit on Processing Fluency and Persuasion.

This research demonstrates that people's goals associated with regulatory focus moderate the effect of message framing on persuasion. The results of 6 experiments show that appeals presented in gain frames are more persuasive when the message is promotion focused, whereas loss-framed appeals are more persuasive when the message is prevention focused. These regulatory focus effects suggesting heightened vigilance against negative outcomes and heightened eagerness toward positive outcomes are replicated when perceived risk is manipulated. Enhanced processing fluency leading to more favorable evaluations in conditions of compatibility appears to underlie these effects. The findings underscore the regulatory fit principle that accounts for the persuasiveness of message framing effects and highlight how processing fluency may contribute to the "feeling right" experience when the strategy of goal pursuit matches one's goal. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of inconsistency between counselor verbal and nonverbal behavior on perceptions of counselor attributes.

Investigated the effects of inconsistency between a counselor's verbal and nonverbal behaviors on perceptions of the counselor as empathic, genuine, and expert and on willingness to seek the counselor's help. 120 undergraduate women, randomly assigned to 4 groups, viewed 1 of 4 8-min videotaped role plays of a counseling session. Each videotape demonstrated a combination of the counselor's responsive and unresponsive verbal statements and nonverbal behaviors. Ss rated the counselor on empathy, genuineness, expertness, and willingness to seek the counselor's help for themselves and others. Consistent with prior research, results indicate that nonverbal behavior seemed to increase the impact of a congruent verbal message and to alter an accompanying incongruent verbal message in the direction of the nonverbal cues. The significance of results for communication theory is discussed. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Neurocognitive markers of cognitive impairment: Exploring the roles of speed and inconsistency.

A well-known challenge for research in the cognitive neuropsychology of aging is to distinguish between the deficits and changes associated with normal aging and those indicative of early cognitive impairment. In a series of 2 studies, the authors explored whether 2 neurocognitive markers, speed (mean level) and inconsistency (intraindividual variability), distinguished between age groups (64-73 and 74-90+ years) and cognitive status groups (nonimpaired, mildly impaired, and moderately impaired). Study 1 (n = 416) showed that both level and inconsistency distinguished between the age and 2 cognitive status (not impaired, mildly impaired) groups, with a modest tendency for inconsistency to predict group membership over and above mean level. Study 2 (n = 304) replicated these results but extended them because of the qualifying effects associated with the unique moderately impaired oldest group. Specifically, not only were the groups more firmly distinguished by both indicators of speed, but evidence for the differential contribution of performance inconsistency was stronger. Neurocognitive markers of speed and inconsistency may be leading indicators of emerging cognitive impairment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of majority versus minority source status on persuasion: A self-validation analysis.

The present research proposes that sources in the numerical majority (vs. minority) can affect persuasion by influencing the confidence with which people hold their thoughts in response to the persuasive message. Participants received a persuasive message composed of either strong or weak arguments that was presented by a majority or a minority source. Consistent with the self-validation hypothesis, we predicted and found that the majority (vs. minority) status of the source increased the confidence with which recipients held their thoughts. As a consequence, majority (vs. minority) sources increased argument quality effects in persuasion when source status information followed message processing (Experiment 1). In contrast, when the information regarding source status preceded (rather than followed) the persuasive message, it validated the perception of the position advocated, reducing message processing. As a consequence of having more confidence in the position advocated before receiving the message, majority (vs. minority) sources reduced argument quality effects in persuasion (Experiment 2). Finally, Experiment 3 isolated the timing of the source status manipulation, revealing that sources in the numerical majority (vs. minority) can increase or decrease persuasion to strong arguments depending on whether source status is introduced before or after processing the message. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Memory for Star Trek : The role of prior knowledge in recognition revisited.

Prior studies have found robust knowledge effects on recall of text ideas but have seldom found comparable effects on recognition. This inconsistency was examined in light of recent research on the component processes that underlie recognition memory. Using the remember/know paradigm, the authors found that experts made more remember judgments than novices, but only in response to text ideas relevant to their domain of expertise. Using the process-dissociation procedure, the authors found knowledge effects on recollection estimates, but not on familiarity estimates. The authors contend that knowledge effects have been difficult to detect in recognition because knowledge primarily affects recollection, whereas familiarity gives rise to good performance even among novices. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Ambivalent Sexism Inventory: Differentiating hostile and benevolent sexism.

The authors present a theory of sexism formulated as ambivalence toward women and validate a corresponding measure, the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (ASI). The ASI taps 2 positively correlated components of sexism that nevertheless represent opposite evaluative orientations toward women: sexist antipathy or Hostile Sexism (HS) and a subjectively positive (for sexist men) orientation toward women, Benevolent Sexism (BS). HS and BS are hypothesized to encompass 3 sources of male ambivalence: Paternalism, Gender Differentiation, and Heterosexuality. Six ASI studies on 2,250 respondents established convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity. Overall ASI scores predict ambivalent attitudes toward women, the HS scale correlates with negative attitudes toward and stereotypes about women, and the BS scale (for nonstudent men only) correlates with positive attitudes and stereotypes about women. A copy of the ASI is provided, with scoring instructions, as a tool for further explorations of sexist ambivalence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An analysis of item gains and losses in retroactive interference.

The repeated-testing paradigm is used to study both retroactive interference and hypermnesia (the improvement in memory across repeated tests). Considerable theoretical progress has been made by separately analyzing the 2 components of hypermnesia: the recovery of previously unrecalled items on later tests (item gains) and the forgetting of previously recalled items on later tests (item losses). Item gains increase with increases in item-specific processing, whereas item losses decrease with increases in relational processing. The authors suggest that separate analysis of item gains and losses in retroactive interference research may also prove fruitful. Three experiments showed that an interpolated list affects item gains but not losses, whereas processing similarity between the target and interpolated lists affects losses but not gains. These results are interpreted within the relational-item-specific processing framework. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A model of the go/no-go task.

In this article, the first explicit, theory-based comparison of 2-choice and go/no-go variants of 3 experimental tasks is presented. Prior research has questioned whether the underlying core-information processing is different for the 2 variants of a task or whether they differ mostly in response demands. The authors examined 4 different diffusion models for the go/no-go variant of each task along with a standard diffusion model for the 2-choice variant (R. Ratcliff, 1978). The 2-choice and the go/no-go models were fit to data from 4 lexical decision experiments, 1 numerosity discrimination experiment, and 1 recognition memory experiment, each with 2-choice and go/no-go variants. The models that assumed an implicit decision criterion for no-go responses produced better fits than models that did not. The best model was one in which only response criteria and the nondecisional components of processing changed between the 2 variants, supporting the view that the core information on which decisions are based is not different between them. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Applying persuasion strategies to alter HIV-relevant thoughts and behavior.

Health communication strategies are at the core of both mass media campaigns and public health interventions conducted at the community level concerning the prevention of HIV/AIDS. They are often nested in complex contexts that prevent us from being able to identify the persuasive impact of a specific message. The authors attempt to account for an array of factors contributing to the persuasiveness of messages about HIV. The aim is to synthesize the psychological literature on persuasion and thus provide a conceptual framework for understanding message effects in HIV communications. This discussion concerns fear appeals, message framing, tailoring, cultural targeting, and additional factors pertaining to the message, source, and channel of the communication. Whenever possible, recommendations for further research are formulated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personal involvement and the robustness of perceptual salience effects.

Conducted 2 experiments, using a total of 146 undergraduates, to examine the generalizability of perceptual salience effects. Previous research in social cognition established that "top of the head" processing is a robust inferential bias even in involving task situations. It was expected, however, that perceivers who were personally involved in an issue would be more motivated than less-involved perceivers to shift attention from salient cues to attitudinally congruent but nonsalient message cues. In both experiments, salience was manipulated by varying the visual prominence of discussants in a 2-person conversation. In Exp I, involvement was experimentally manipulated by varying whether perceivers would be personally affected by an issue. In Exp II, involvement was operationalized as a subject variable. The results suggest that personal involvement indeed constitutes a boundary condition for salience effects. As expected, ratings of highly involved perceivers reflected more systematic processing of message arguments, regardless of which discussant was visually salient, whereas ratings of less-involved perceivers reflected "top of the head" processing. The analogous influence of personal involvement in persuasion research and the role of individual difference variables in research on inferential biases are discussed. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Opening the mind to close it: Considering a message in light of important values increases message processing and later resistance to change.

Past research showed that considering a persuasive message in light of important rather than unimportant values creates attitudes that resist later attack. The traditional explanation is that the attitudes come to express the value or that a cognitive link between the value and attitude enhances resistance. However, the current research showed that another explanation is plausible. Similar to other sources of involvement, considering important rather than unimportant values increases processing of the message considered in light of those values. This occurs when the values are identified as normatively high or low in importance and when the perceived importance differs across participants for the same values. The increase in processing creates resistance to later attacks, and unlike past research, individual-level measures of initial amount of processing mediate value importance effects on later resistance to change. Important values motivate processing because they increase personal involvement with the issue, rather than creating attitudes that represent or express core values. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age-related equivalence and deficit in knowledge updating of cue effectiveness.

Knowledge updating involves learning about cue effectiveness based on task experience. Prior research has yielded inconsistent conclusions regarding age and knowledge updating. To resolve this inconsistency, the authors analyzed the effects of aging within a single paradigm. Participants studied cue-target associates during 2 study-test trials. Cues included rhyme cues and highly effective category cues. On each study-test trial, different items were presented, and participants predicted recall performance, received a cued recall test, and postdicted performance. Knowledge updating was operationalized as an improvement in the accuracy of predictive judgments across trials. An age deficit was evident in improvements in absolute accuracy, whereas age equivalence was evident in relative accuracy. Evidence suggested that deficient inferential processes contributed to the age deficit in knowledge updating. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ageism in undergraduate psychology texts.

A sample of 139 texts written over the past 40 yrs was analyzed for evidence of ageism (i. e., lack of attention to the psychology of later life and stereotyping of older adults). More recent texts cover the topic more comprehensively than in the past, but this coverage is limited in depth. Although textbook authors appear to be trying to communicate a positive message about aging and older persons, their efforts are compromised by ambivalence in the form of contradictory statements about the nature of the aging process. There is an unfortunate condensation of sources in recent texts which draw heavily from a small cluster of authorities. Implications of these findings for the larger textbook enterprise are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Overt head movements and persuasion: A self-validation analysis.

The authors report 3 experiments that examine a new mechanism by which overt head movements can affect attitude change. In each experiment, participants were induced to either nod or to shake their heads while listening to a persuasive message. When the message arguments were strong, nodding produced more persuasion than shaking. When the arguments were weak, the reverse occurred. These effects were most pronounced when elaboration was high. These findings are consistent with the "self-validation" hypothesis that postulates that head movements either enhance (nodding) or undermine (shaking) confidence in one's thoughts about the message. In a 4th experiment, the authors extended this result to another overt behavior (writing with the dominant or nondominant hand) and a different attitude domain (self-esteem). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)