Spatial representations of attitudes: comparison to thought lists and compliance with directed orientation

Abstract

The present studies used the recently devised technique of attitude mapping to provide a unique measure of the contents of attitudes and a novel view of the processes of attitude change and attitude-behavior consistency. In Study 1, students prepared either attitude maps or thought lists about welfare or another social policy issue, then read persuasive messages about welfare. Unexpectedly, there were no differences in amount of attitude change related to either task, nor to the prior consideration of either the relevant or the irrelevant attitude. In Study 2, we guided the contents of attitude maps in an attempt to guide the later behavioral intentions of participants. By increasing the salience of selected aspects of social policy issues that have been associated with greater and lesser sensitivity to typicality of the attitude object, we induced students to differentiate or fail to differentiate between two hypothetical persons who represented a social policy issue but differed in their typicality as representatives.