Richard E. Petty - Attitudes And Persuasion : Classic And Contemporary Approaches

Richard E. Petty
John T. Cacioppo

First published 1996 by Westview Press

Published 2018 by Routledge
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Copyright 1981, 1996 by Taylor & Francis

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ISBN 13: 978-0-8133-3005-1 (pbk)

(Edmund, Jo Ann, Arlene, Jane, Tom, and Lynn) and

(Cyrus, Mary Katherine, Susan, Nick, Bob, and Barbara)

The present book provides a needed survey of a truly remarkable number of different theoretical approaches to the related phenomena of attitude and belief change. Aside from the obvious advantage of summarizing the relevant literature within one source, the book also serves the function of calling our attention to neglected theories, such as variable perspective theory, which are far more deserving of attention than the present level of research activity, or inactivity, would indicate. This is a competent and important book; a book deserving of attention by both beginning and advanced students of attitude and belief change.

In view of Richard Petty and John Cacioppos impressive and important research within the framework of the cognitive-responses approach to persuasion it is perhaps not surprising that they would write a discerning book. In view of the recent paucity of interest in attitude change, however, what is perhaps more surprising is that there appears to be an increasing receptivity to research and theory in this general area. Interest in attitude change appears to be resurgent. Why is this? Without any claim to certainty, it is possible to point to a number of possible causes. First, as Petty and Cacioppo point out, past skepticism regarding the effect of attitude on behavior has been replaced by the realization that, under some circumstances, at least, attitudes do affect behavior. Second, it may well be that renewed interest in attitude change is fostered to some extent by a more general interest in cognitive processes both within social psychology and other subfields or disciplines. Third, skepticism regarding the external validity of laboratory studies of attitude change has been mitigated by the realization that the large number of field studies done with subjects who do not know that they are subjects has not greatly altered our conclusions. It is increasingly recognized that while the demand-characteristics problem, for example, may arise in some circumstances and certainly does need to be guarded against, the problem has been vastly overestimated. Generalized cynicism regarding laboratory findings simply is not justified. Fourth and finally, attitude change as a field may be benefitting from the decline of anti-establishment attitudes. During the sixties the field of attitude change clearly was part of the establishment in social psychology, and also, because of its association with commercial advertising, had an obvious relation with the business establishment.

For those of us who have persisted in maintaining a positive attitude toward the field of attitude change, the current renewal of interest is understandably welcome. In my judgment the present book will make an important contribution to that renewal.

There are many people to thank in preparing this text. First, we would like to thank John Harvey, a friend and colleague at Vanderbilt University who first suggested to us the idea of writing this book. Four other colleagues (Hal Sigall, University of Maryland; leek Ajzen, University of Massachusetts; David R. Shaffer, University of Georgia; and Mark P. Zanna, University of Waterloo) provided detailed comments on the first draft of the text that were thoughtfully prepared and most helpful. Chet Insko (University of North Carolina) graciously consented to our request to write the foreword. We also acknowledge a debt to the earlier works on attitude change from which we learned so much (especially Hovland, Janis, & Kelley, 1953; Insko, 1967; Kiesler, Collins, & Miller, 1969; and McGuire, 1969b). We are grateful to our advisors in graduate school, Tim Brock and Tony Greenwald of Ohio State University, whose enthusiasm about scientific inquiry was contagious and who gave us the freedom and guidance to pursue those research topics that we found most appealing. Our editors at the Wm. C. Brown Co. (Susan Soley and Marian Warner), our colleagues at the universities at which we served (Missouri, Iowa, and Notre Dame), our students (especially Martin Heesacker and Charlotte Lowell), and our secretaries (Lenore Hizer and Sue Staub) also made valuable contributions to the text. Much of our own research reported in this text was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (BNS 7818667, 7913753, 8023589), the National Institute of Mental Health (31798-01, BRSG-G603), and our universities (Research Council summer grants, Old Gold Fellowship, Faculty Scholar Award No. A240). Finally, and most importantly, we are grateful for Lynn and Barbara who fill our lives with joy and love.