Emotional Factors in Attitudes and Persuasion

Petty, Richard E; Fabrigar,, Leandre R; Wegener, Duane T

doi:10.1093/oso/9780195126013.003.0039

Chapter

39 Emotional Factors in Attitudes and Persuasion

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https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780195126013.003.0039

Pages

752–772

Published:

December 2002

Abstract

In this chapter we examine the role of emotional factors in attitudes and persuasion. Attitudes refer to people’s global evaluations of any object, such as oneself, other people, possessions, issues, abstract concepts, and so forth. Thus a person’s dislike of ice cream and favorable predisposition toward a political candidate are examples of attitudes. Persuasion is said to occur when a person’s attitude changes. Change can refer to moving from no attitude to some attitude or from one attitude to another. Persuasion can be very explicit and blatant, such as when a person sets out to modify another’s evaluation and provides a strong communication against the other’s point of view, or it can be rather implicit and subtle, such as when a person’s attitude changes simply because the attitude object (e.g., one’s car) shifts from being associated with pleasant to unpleasant outcomes. Classic treatises on persuasion have held that understanding emotion is critical to understanding attitude change. For example, Aristotle’s Rhetoric described how to make an audience feel specific emotions, such as anger or fear, and then how to use these emotions to influence the audience (see also Cicero, 55 B.C./1970). The importance of emotional factors was also recognized in some of the earliest contemporary work on attitudinal processes. We begin by discussing work on the structure of attitudes because it is in this work that emotional factors first received substantial attention as a theoretical construct. Then we turn to the role of affect in producing attitude change. Attitude structure refers to the underlying foundation, components, and organization of a person’s evaluation. Probably the first major attitude structure theory to feature affect prominently was the tripartite theory of attitudes. According to advocates of this perspective (e.g., Insko & Schopler, 1967; Katz & Stotland, 1959; Rosenberg & Hovland, 1960; Smith, 1947), attitudes can be conceptualized as made up of three components: affective, cognitive, and behavioral. The affective component consists of positive and negative feelings associated with the attitude object. The cognitive component comprises beliefs about and perceptions of the attitude object. Finally, the behavioral component is made up of response tendencies and overt actions related to the attitude object.

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Contents

39 Emotional Factors in Attitudes and Persuasion

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