Digital Commons Network^™

To Use Or Not To Use: The Role Of Affect And Cognition In Changing Attitudes Toward Using Condoms Among African American Women, Kristina Hood

Theses and Dissertations

The current project involved three studies designed to examine which characteristics of persuasive communications change condom use attitudes. Study 1 investigated the effect of message type (affective versus cognitive) and source (male versus female) on attitude change among a sample of African American women attending college. In Study 1 (N = 146), the affective message and female source produced the most positive change in condom use attitudes. Study 2 examined whether message type and source were associated with favorable condom attitudes in a community sample and whether these findings differed from a college sample. Twenty-seven women participated in group discussions …

The Effects Of Familiarity And Persuasion On Risk Assessment, Casey L. Smith

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Cognitive biases influence decisions and the analyses of risk. They are often derived from two separate processes: bias based on familiarity (familiarity bias) and bias as the result of influences from outside sources (persuasion bias). Research suggests that familiarity-based bias may lead to acceptance of an activity's drawbacks and a leniency of its risks.

In addition, research has tried to measure and analyze different types of biases individually, but few have compared the interactions of more than one bias at once. Because different biases may derive from different mental phenomena it is important to tease out the distinctions, and observe …

Attitudinal Responses To Mixed Evidence: The Role Of Attitude Extremity And Political Ideology In Effecting Change Versus Resistance, Jessica Barber

Theses and Dissertations

Four studies investigated the effects of attitude extremity and political ideology on the degree and direction of changes in issue attitudes following the presentation of mixed evidence. Based upon previous work, it was predicted that those holding relatively more extreme attitudes would resist changing those views when presented with a mixture of supporting and opposing statements and would potentially adopt more extreme evaluative positions – a phenomenon known as attitude polarization (Lord, Ross, & Lepper, 1979). Evaluative entrenchment or intensification was also expected among more politically conservative participants, based upon prior work describing cognitive rigidity and resistance to change as …

Concept Mapping As A Buffer Against Evaluative Flexibility, Keith Welker

Wayne State University Theses

Attitude relevant knowledge is a central component to evaluative consistency and attitude representation. One way to assess the degree to which individuals deliberate and represent their knowledge is through concept mapping. Therefore, the present research investigated whether concept map deliberation moderated attitude consistency in a two-part experiment. Participants (N = 172) completed an online survey assessing personality, attitudes, and attitude strength toward physician assisted suicide (PAS). In a second onsite sessions participants were randomly assigned create an attitude-relevant or attitude-irrelevant concept map, and were randomly assigned to work with a fictitious partner who had a positive, negative, or unknown attitude …