Attitudes in memory: Investigating the hierarchical model of attitude structure in indirect attitude change

Abstract

Attitudes are summary evaluations of objects in memory, and much has been done to understand how they are formed and changed. There are two broad approaches to attitude change: direct and indirect. Direct change involves changing an attitude by targeting the attitude itself, while indirect change involves modifying one attitude by targeting another related one with a persuasive attempt. Additionally, there are two broad perspectives on the mechanism of indirect change: linkage models, in which attitude change spreads from the targeted attitude to similar attitudes to varying degrees based on the strength of the associations, and hierarchical models, in which attitude change is more likely to spread from more abstract categorical targets to less abstract category member attitudes than in reverse. In this project, I proposed two studies to serve as the first to demonstrate evidence of the varying contexts in which the different models of indirect attitude change are better or worse predictors of change in attitudes. Study 1 conceptually replicated previous work and found no evidence of hierarchical organization, as change in attitudes showed no directional difference based on hypotheses drawn from a hierarchical perspective. Study 2 examined the contribution of hierarchy accessibility to the effects within the hierarchical structure and found that accessibility does play a role in indirect attitude change. Indirect attitude change is stronger when relations among objects are more accessible. Results have implications for furthering our understanding of how to produce the most significant changes in attitudes in more varied contexts and further our understanding of the distinction between direct and indirect attitude change.