Introduction
What makes people like lemon tea but hate fishing? To answer this question, an understanding of the origin and nature of attitudes is required. Many theories have been developed to try to understand what makes people have positive or negative attitudes toward different things. This paper will cover the nature and the origin of attitudes.
Discussion
The origin of attitudes is slightly surprising. Multiple studies indicate that attitudes have a relation to human genes. These findings are backed up by such evidence as studies on identical and fraternal twins, with identical twins being more likely to develop similar attitudes toward topics than fraternal twins. However, the relation might not be as direct as it seems. The presence of a gene responsible for a specific predisposition toward miniature model making was not found, and it is unlikely that genes have that direct of an effect on human attitudes. The more likely outcome is that genes can determine human temperament and personality. Subsequently, people’s attitudes form their personality and temperament (Aronson, Wilson, & Sommers, 2016). A diligent and introverted person might enjoy the process of making miniatures when an extroverted person with an energetic personality might enjoy surfing. These are just probable examples because genes are not the only part in the formation of attitudes.
Social experiences are the second part of attitudes. People often form attitudes based on their life experiences, sometimes even without having an experience with the object, person, or activity they are creating an attitude towards. These attitudes have been divided into three different components depending on the origin of the attitude. They are called the cognitive component, the affective component, and the behavioral component. The cognitive component is the most straightforward one because it is based on relevant facts. Cognitively based attitudes are defined by the thoughts and beliefs of the people for about the object. This type of attitude lets people consider the different objective attributes of the object to determine the attitude toward it. In this type of attitude, emotions play a minuscule role (Robinson, Shaver, & Wrightsman, 2014). Real-life examples of cognitively based attitudes are very common. For example, the purchase of house appliances and electronics, especially computer components shows this. Before buying a new hard drive a person primarily looks at its speed, storage size, and longevity. Due to the completely utilitarian nature of the product, no real attachment can be formed to the brand or the design of it.
The second type of attitude is called “affectively based attitudes.” This type of attitude is defined by human subjectivity. The origin of such attitudes lies in the person’s feelings, and emotions felt toward the person or the object. Often, these attitudes are formed despite the objective information known to the person. These types of attitudes are most prominent in areas such as politics, sex, and religion, which would explain the popularity of populist candidates who have not shown any objective information but instead appeal to the affectively based attitudes. There are multiple origins for these types of attitudes such as value systems, sensory reaction, aesthetic reaction, and conditioning. Conditioning is separated into two types: classical and operant. Classical conditioning uses an emotional stimulus paired with a neutral stimulus until the neutral stimulus elicits a reaction by itself. For example, I used to listen to the audiobook of Steven King’s “The Stand” during one summer, and now that book is strongly associated with the experiences I had that summer. On the other hand, operant conditioning creates attitudes based on whether the actions are rewarded or punished when performed. For example, when a person is rewarded at their place of business for doing extra work, they are likely to develop a positive attitude toward both the place and the action of doing extra work. Affectively based attitudes can have vastly different origins from each other, but they are united by their subjective nature (Aronson et al., 2016).
The third type of attitude is behaviorally based attitudes. They are classified by the behavior the person experiences toward an object, person, or activity. These types of attitudes form almost retroactively, usually when the person is confronted with a question of preference. A person might engage in an activity for a long time, without thinking about the emotions it elicits. Usually, a weak attitude is present toward the object, and when they need to form a cohesive attitude arrives, but no explanation for it is present, behavior becomes the main defining factor (Aronson et al., 2016). For example, I found that my friend has been drinking water instead of soft drink he usually drinks, I did not pay a lot of attention to it, but it has gone on for long enough that I became interested. When confronted, he took a little to think of an answer and said that he just started drinking it one day and then never stopped so he thinks he likes it. It was a slightly unusual answer, but it seems he has developed a positive behaviorally-based attitude toward water.
These three types of attitudes can operate on two different levels: explicit and implicit. Explicit attitudes include opinions, beliefs, and preferences that people consciously endorse and can identify. For example, I enjoy movies with charismatic characters involved in stressful situations. I know that I probably do so because I watched Indiana Jones movies as a child and found Harrison Ford to be very charming. On the contrary, implicit attitudes are hidden from human perception and can affect human behavior without the awareness of the person (Maison, 2016). I hold one such attitude that I have only recently noticed, and yet I have no explanation for its origin. I hold a deep dislike of the idea of jungles. This includes both real and fictional jungles. As soon as a jungle becomes the setting of a movie or a documentary, I start to lose interest without realizing why this is happening. I see no actual reason for this reaction and can only describe it as an implicit attitude. Some studies show that explicit attitudes are usually developed during the recent events, and implicit ones are often formed in childhood (Cooley, Payne, Loersch, & Lei, 2015). This dislike of jungles must have been formed even before my adolescence, as I cannot trace its origin.
Conclusion
The nature and origins of attitudes are a topic of much research in the psychological community. By understanding what makes people like or dislike things, researchers would be able to devise better ways of combating dangerous negative attitudes such as racism or extremism. However, the theories available now have created a very plausible structure of attitudes, with clear categories and levels.
References
Aronson, E., Wilson, T., & Sommers, S. (2016). Social psychology (9th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.
Cooley, E., Payne, B., Loersch, C., & Lei, R. (2015). Who owns implicit attitudes? Testing a metacognitive perspective. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 41(1), 103-115.
Maison, D. (2016). Implicit Association Test (IAT): Using computer-based methods to measure consumer implicit attitudes. Selected Issues in Experimental Economics, 1(1), 107-124.
Robinson, J., Shaver, P., & Wrightsman, L. (2014) Measures of personality and social psychological attitudes. Saint Louis, MO: Elsevier Science.