A Hierarchical Approach to Advertising Strategy

CHAPTER 8 - Summary of Attitude and Source Change Theories

International functionalism embraces much more than a theory of attitude change. Functionalists would probably attach most importance to its prescriptive aspect which calls for the piecemeal organization of international life in areas where cooperation across national boundaries is essential to effective action. But the functionalist prescription is premised on a distinctive set of empirical notions about the growth of international institutions and an asserted linkage of functional cooperation with world peace. These ideas, in turn, rest heavily upon assumptions about attitude change. A detailed analysis of functionalism cannot be presented here, but a brief outline of a few essential elements may help to establish the relevance of this study to functionalist thought.

Numerous empirical findings have shown biased judgments of (future) teachers depending on students’ ethnic and social background. Furthermore, research has indicated that (future) teachers’ stereotypes and attitudes differ depending on students’ backgrounds and appear to influence (future) teachers’ judgments. Based on theories of stereotype change, attitude change, and judgment formation, a short intervention was developed to change stereotypes and attitudes and to reduce judgment biases. In an experimental study (within- and between-subject design) with N = 215 preservice teacher students, the effectiveness of the intervention on stereotype change, attitude change, and reduction of judgment distortions was tested. The results showed hypothesized effects of the intervention on stereotypes and attitudes towards students with an immigration background and students with low social status. Furthermore, the intervention showed effects on preservice teacher students’ judgments, especially for low-status students.

Ever since Thomas and Znaniecki (1918) first suggested that the study of attitudes should be the central problem of social psychology, researchers in the area have placed a great deal of emphasis on the theory and measurement of attitude and attitude change. This concentration on attitudes was especially facilitated by a rapid development of methods for measuring attitudes and attitude change. As a result of the availability of measurement techniques and this concentration of emphasis and effort, social psychologists have provided, and are continuing to provide, a large body of literature concerning both attitudes and opinions.

The authors investigate the neglected problem of generalizing from multiattribute attitude models based on data for actual brands of real products to reach conclusions on affective responses toward artificial objects or hypothetical concepts, such as those that might be used to develop new product designs. They propose an approach involving four stages of analysis to examine the intervening role of multiattribute attitude models for real products in accounting for the effects of artificial design features on affective responses. The method decomposes the overall relationship of affect to artificial design features into (1) the mediating effects of a multiattribute attitude model based on real products, (2) other indirect effects, and (3) a residual direct effect. This general approach is illustrated and supported by an application to data on responses to male vocal recordings (real products) and alternative recording mixes (artificial objects). The results suggest the need to proceed with caution in using multiattribute attitude models based on real products to guide the design of artificial objects in laboratory tests oriented toward new product development.

Research evidence is presented to support a new and simple theory of attitude formation and change. This theory posits that the attitude of any individual converges overtime on the arithmetic mean of the attitude-pertinent information received by the individual. Consequently, the stability of an attitude is dependent on the number of messages out of which that attitude was formed. This formulation also implies that the emotional state or feelings of an individual and the degree of heterogeneity of influences to which he or she was exposed are unrelated to attitude change. Using a multi-stage, multi-time proce-dure, and instruments designed to detect and measure interpersonal influence, data provided by 135 high school students over a six-month interval support these hypoth-eses. While the notion that cognitive processing of information may be too complex and unpredictable to be represented by a few simple quantitative laws or principles remains a suspicion even among some social scientists, the last decade of empirical re-

Protection motivation and self-efficacy: A revised theory of fear appeals and attitude change

Predictions concerning the effects of participation in protest activity stimulated by conflict and resentment are derived from two theories of attitude change, sociotherapy and dissonance reduction...

Illicit drugs and driving: prevalence, beliefs and accident involvement among a cohort of current out-of-treatment drug users

Innocents Abroad: Attitude Change toward Hosts

PurposeThis study analyzes the indirect (i.e. through brand content engagement-BCE) and direct effects of informative, credible, novel, and aesthetically pleasing attributes of influencer-generated branded content on endorsed brand-related attitude and a subsequent attitudinal spillover effect on the followers' firm-generated endorsed brand-related ad click behavior.Design/methodology/approachData for this study were collected from 300 users who follow the top 40 Pakistani social media macro-influencers using an online survey. The conceptual model and hypotheses were tested through process macro and structural equation modeling.FindingsThis study finds informative, credible, novel, and aesthetically pleasing factors vital attributes of influencer-generated branded content, which indirectly (i.e. via BCE) and directly affects followers’ endorsed brand-related attitude. This study also finds that these factors have a positive attitudinal spillover effect on followers’ firm-generated endorsed brand-related ad-click behavior on social media.Practical implicationsThis study presents guidelines to firms and their partner influencers about designing and implementing follower-valued content-driven influencer marketing campaigns.Originality/valueThis study contributes to extant influencer marketing literature by integrating multiple attributes of influencer-generated branded content, which carry different values for followers, and using the Self-perception theory, the Multi-attribute attitude model, and the Spillover theory to explain their indirect and direct effects on endorsed brand-related attitude and a subsequent attitudinal spillover effect on firm-generated endorsed brand-related ads.

This paper investigates three alternative methods for estimating individual probabilities of brand choice: a multi-attribute attitude model, a dollar-metric model, and a constant sum scale. These approaches are compared to actual choice behavior in a controlled experimental setting, with the constant sum scale being the dominant method.

Consumers can be characterized as experiencing varying levels of entropy or disorder. Models of consumer behavior, such as the multiattribute attitude model, generally do not explain much variation in behavior for individuals experiencing high entropy. An entropy explanation about belief-behavior prediction will be offered, and will be shown to be parsimoniously related to individual's life span and social class.

The core of the present study is to examine the attitude of consumers towards the brand of Color Television (CTV) in Bangladesh based on the Mertin Fishbein's Multiattribute Attitude Model. Some important attributes that affect the brand's choice behavior of CTV have identified where consumers give special emphasis. Total 8 brands out of 24 and ten attributes out of 29 have been taken for the convenience of the study. It reveals from the study that Samsung bears highest and National bears lowest brand image among the selected brands to the consumers. Means differences of different attributes for different brands are measured through ANOVA for test of significance. The Duncan's Multiple Range Test has been applied for assessing and comparing different mean values and find out the range from one to another. Outcomes of the paper may be used as an index by the CTV manufacturing companies for improvement of their product and formulating marketing strategies as well.

Suggestions for population policy strategies have ranged from “do nothing” to “use inescapable force.” In practice, however, persuasion and positive incentives are the two strategies that are most widely employed in contemporary population planning programs. Other means for lowering the birth rate tend to be rejected by policymakers as ethically unacceptable, ineffective, or infeasible. In both social psychological theory and population policy practice there is a growing skepticism about the efficacy of communication and persuasion as means for producing behavior change. This paper challenges that estimate. Recent advances in attitude theory and measurement may provide a useful set of guidelines for family planning communication programs.