The Role of Attitude Strength in Addressing the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

This chapter explores the role that attitude strength plays in influencing behaviors relevant to COVID-19. Strong attitudes are those that are durable and impactful in guiding behavior. After explaining the antecedents and consequences of strong attitudes, the first part of this chapter focuses on two techniques that have proven successful in changing deeply entrenched views. The first relies on matching the message to some characteristic of the attitude, such as presenting moral arguments to those whose attitudes are based on morality. The second involves using a two-sided, rather than the traditional one-sided, message to render people more open to opposing views. The second half of the chapter describes research on when strong attitudes are more likely to govern behavior than weak ones versus when the opposite is more likely. Evidence is provided for the idea that when a self-threat is salient, weak attitudes can be more effective in guiding behavior than are strong attitudes because of efforts to compensate for the threat by bolstering one’s weakly held views. For each topic, suggestions for future research are included.