Accessibility of affective versus cognitive components of attitudes

Abstract

Four studies investigated differences in accessibility of affective and cognitive components of attitudes. Accessibility was measured by response times on bipolar semantic differential evaluative adjectives (e.g. ‘positive–negative’) in response to how one felt and thought, respectively, about an attitude object. The evaluative items were accompanied by affective and cognitive context items, which were not analysed, but were meant to promote the retrieval of affective and cognitive evaluations respectively. Responses to affective evaluations were given faster than responses to cognitive evaluations, suggesting that affect‐based evaluations are more accessible in memory than cognition‐based evaluations. The results were obtained in two attitude domains, i.e. brand names and countries. The results support the validity of a two‐component affect–cognition model of attitude. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Residents’ support for wolf and bear conservation: the moderating influence of knowledge

“…Perceived impact belief had a stronger effect on feelings than on normative belief, supporting the distinction between cognitive and affective attitude components (Eagly and Chaiken 1993;Verplanken et al 1998;Cooke and Sheeran 2004). Supporting previous studies (Pate et al 1996;Bruskotter et al 2009), perceived impacts were positively related to favouring predator control.…”

“…Consistent with other studies (Kellert 1985;Bath and Buchanan 1989;Ericsson and Heberlein 2003;Balčiauskas et al 2010), more knowledge resulted in more positive feelings toward the species, especially bears. Strong affect, whether positive or negative, tends to better predict behavioural intentions (Prislin 1996;Verplanken et al 1998). Although stronger attitudes are more resistant to change (Petty and Cacioppo 1986;Prislin 1996;Berninger et al 2009), the positive relationship between knowledge and affect (feelings) toward these carnivores is noteworthy from a conservation/protection perspective.…”

“…Attitudes are positive or negative evaluations of an object (e.g., wolves or bears), and are composed of cognitive (beliefs) and affective (feelings) components (Verplanken et al 1998;Cooke and Sheeran 2004). The cognitive component refers to beliefs and thoughts held about an object (e.g., wolf/bear) and represents the information an individual possesses about that object, which may or may not be accurate.…”

The Psychology of Impulse Buying: An Integrative Self-Regulation Approach

“…Things that are nearby may seem bigger, more important, or more attractive than things further away. Matters become more complicated when different response systems are in play, such as emotions versus reasoning (e.g., Breckler 1984;Verplanken and Herabadi 2001;Verplanken et al 1998). Although consumers may be perfectly able to weigh short-term and long-term costs and benefits, the impulse buying phenomenon suggests that short-term emotions can have a relatively large impact on preferences at the expense of long-term rational concerns (Ainslie 1975;cf., Trope and Fishbach 2000).…”

Digital Piracy: Factors that Influence Attitude Toward Behavior

“…Kempf (1999) found that affective beliefs were separate and independent of cognitive beliefs in his study about product trials. Verplanken et al (1998) also provided support for the affective-cognitive model of attitude. Bodur's et al (2000) study provided further evidence that affect does influence attitude directly and independently of cognitive beliefs.…”