FORMING AND CHANGING ATTITUDES
Incentive for change
To understand how attitudes can be changed, it is first important to understand attitude functions – the psychological needs that attitudes fulfil (Maio & Olson, 2000). Early theories proposed a number of important attitude functions .For example, people may have a positive attitude towards objects that help them become popular among people they like, but not objects that make them estranged from those people. This is the social adjustment function, which provides the basis for the entire fashion industry: people tend to like clothing that is popular among people they like.In the earliest model of attitude change, Hovland, Janis and Kelley (1953) suggested that persuasive messages change people’s attitudes when they highlight some incentive for this change. For example, an advertisement might describe the utilitarian benefits of buying a particular model of car (e.g. good fuel economy) or the social-adjustment benefits (e.g. a sporty look). The incentives must seem important if the message recipients are to change their attitude.Hovland et al.’s theory also suggests that processing of any message must occur in stages if it is to be successful. The intended audience must:
1. pay attention to the message,
2. comprehend the message, and
3. accept the message’s conclusions.
McGuire (1969) extended this theory further. According to his model, a message will elicit the desired behaviour only if it succeeds at six stages (figure 17.8). People must:
1. encounter the message (presentation stage);
2. attend to it (attention stage);
3. understand it (comprehension stage);
4. change their attitude (yielding stage);
5. remember their new attitude at a later time (retention stage);and
6. the new attitude must influence their behaviour (behaviourstage).
Interestingly, even if the odds of passing each stage are quite good, the chances of completing all the stages can be low. For example, we might optimistically assume that a Nike running shoe ad has an 80 per cent chance of success at each stage. If this were the case, the laws of probability indicate that the odds of successfully completing all of the stages would be only 0.26 (0.8 × 0.8 × 0.8 × 0.8 × 0.8 × 0.8). In other words, the ad would have a 26 per cent chance of getting someone to buy the running shoes.In reality, the odds of completion of each stage (especially yielding and behaviour) may be far lower, creating even lower chances of success (possibly less than 1 per cent). For this reason, modern marketing initiatives take steps to compel completion of each stage, where this is possible. So advertisers will present the message many times, make it attention-grabbing and memorable, and make the message content as powerful as they can.
Incentive for change
To understand how attitudes can be changed, it is first important to understand attitude functions – the psychological needs that attitudes fulfil (Maio & Olson, 2000). Early theories proposed a number of important attitude functions .For example, people may have a positive attitude towards objects that help them become popular among people they like, but not objects that make them estranged from those people. This is the social adjustment function, which provides the basis for the entire fashion industry: people tend to like clothing that is popular among people they like.In the earliest model of attitude change, Hovland, Janis and Kelley (1953) suggested that persuasive messages change people’s attitudes when they highlight some incentive for this change. For example, an advertisement might describe the utilitarian benefits of buying a particular model of car (e.g. good fuel economy) or the social-adjustment benefits (e.g. a sporty look). The incentives must seem important if the message recipients are to change their attitude.Hovland et al.’s theory also suggests that processing of any message must occur in stages if it is to be successful. The intended audience must:
1. pay attention to the message,
2. comprehend the message, and
3. accept the message’s conclusions.
McGuire (1969) extended this theory further. According to his model, a message will elicit the desired behaviour only if it succeeds at six stages (figure 17.8). People must:
1. encounter the message (presentation stage);
2. attend to it (attention stage);
3. understand it (comprehension stage);
4. change their attitude (yielding stage);
5. remember their new attitude at a later time (retention stage);and
6. the new attitude must influence their behaviour (behaviourstage).
Interestingly, even if the odds of passing each stage are quite good, the chances of completing all the stages can be low. For example, we might optimistically assume that a Nike running shoe ad has an 80 per cent chance of success at each stage. If this were the case, the laws of probability indicate that the odds of successfully completing all of the stages would be only 0.26 (0.8 × 0.8 × 0.8 × 0.8 × 0.8 × 0.8). In other words, the ad would have a 26 per cent chance of getting someone to buy the running shoes.In reality, the odds of completion of each stage (especially yielding and behaviour) may be far lower, creating even lower chances of success (possibly less than 1 per cent). For this reason, modern marketing initiatives take steps to compel completion of each stage, where this is possible. So advertisers will present the message many times, make it attention-grabbing and memorable, and make the message content as powerful as they can.
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