How Do Attitudes Form and Change?

From measured evaluations to persuasion, action, and lasting change.

Level: Introductory
Reading load: 10 core readings in 5 units
Prerequisites: No methods course is required. A willingness to compare explanations and read basic graphs will help. How Do Other People and Social Situations Shape Us? or How to Read Psychological Science provides useful preparation.
Last reviewed: September 2026

Introduction

We live with preferences before we fully understand them: liking and dislike, approval and opposition. Yet an opinion expressed, a quick response on a task, an intention, and an action are different observations. The study of attitudes asks how these expressions are related, how evaluations take shape, and what evidence would show that a change has reached beyond the moment in which it was measured.

This path begins with definitions and measurement, then asks how repetition and pairings shape evaluations. It connects attitudes with intentions and practical opportunities, compares message-based persuasion with change following our own behavior, and ends by asking what makes an effect last. Conceptual papers supply distinctions that the experiments and syntheses let you test.

By the end, you should be able to specify an attitude and a suitable measure, separate a procedure from its proposed mechanism, judge an attitude–behavior inference, and design a meaningful test of durability. The longer reviews reward several sittings. The guidance explains the reasoning without requiring you to reproduce the statistical calculations.

Unit 1 of 5

What is an attitude, and how would we measure it?

Begin with evaluation as the common problem, while allowing that it can depend on context. A broad review locates attitudes in personal and social life. A methodological debate then asks how much an observed response reveals about the construct or process behind it.

Reading
1 of 10
Attitudes and Attitude Change
Albarracín, D., & Shavitt, S. (2018). Attitudes and attitude change. Annual Review of Psychology, 69(1), 299–327. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-122216-011911
Major synthesis · Challenging · Full work: 29 pages
Follow how the review connects evaluations with personal, interpersonal, and historical contexts.
Why you’re reading it. Establish the vocabulary and breadth that later, narrower studies will need.
A question to consider. For attitudes toward a new neighborhood library, how would you distinguish a belief, an evaluation, an intention, and an action?
Reading
2 of 10
What Do Implicit Measures Measure?
Brownstein, M., Madva, A., & Gawronski, B. (2019). What do implicit measures measure? WIREs Cognitive Science, 10(5), Article e1501. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcs.1501
Methodological contribution · Critical reappraisal · Challenging · Full work: 13 pages
Treat each task response as evidence that needs an interpretation, and compare competing interpretations.
Why you’re reading it. Make measurement a question to investigate before explaining formation or change.
A question to consider. If a library survey and a speeded task disagree, what would you need to know before deciding that one reveals the person's true attitude?

Unit 2 of 5

How do evaluations form?

Evaluations can change without a reasoned appeal. Compare repeated exposure with the pairing of stimuli, then ask whether a successful procedure identifies a unique mental process. The two readings also reveal why a definition can help or hinder a theoretical disagreement.

Reading
3 of 10
Mere Exposure: A Gateway to the Subliminal
Zajonc, R. B. (2001). Mere exposure: A gateway to the subliminal. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 10(6), 224–228. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8721.00154
Major synthesis · Foundational argument · Moderate · Full work: 5 pages
Track the distinction between encountering something, recognizing it, and liking it.
Why you’re reading it. Introduce formation through experience while keeping the explanatory claims open to challenge.
A question to consider. How would you test whether liking a familiar tune reflects repeated exposure rather than choosing to hear music you already liked?
Reading
4 of 10
A Conceptual and Theoretical Analysis of Evaluative Conditioning
De Houwer, J. (2007). A conceptual and theoretical analysis of evaluative conditioning. The Spanish Journal of Psychology, 10(2), 230–241. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1138741600006491
Foundational argument · Methodological contribution · Moderate · Full work: 12 pages
Use the procedure–effect–theory distinction to reconsider the exposure argument as well as stimulus pairing.
Why you’re reading it. Avoid treating the name of an effect as a complete explanation.
A question to consider. What comparison would distinguish the effect of pairing a logo with pleasant pictures from the effect of repeatedly seeing the logo?

Unit 3 of 5

When do attitudes predict action?

An evaluation becomes one part of a behavioral explanation. First specify the behavior and its perceived and actual constraints. Then compare that predictive framework with experiments that try to change intentions and measure what happens afterwards.

Reading
5 of 10
The Theory of Planned Behavior: Frequently Asked Questions
Ajzen, I. (2020). The theory of planned behavior: Frequently asked questions. Human Behavior and Emerging Technologies, 2(4), 314–324. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbe2.195
Foundational argument · Contemporary update · Moderate · Full work: 11 pages
Follow the links among attitudes toward a behavior, norms, intentions, and control.
Why you’re reading it. Explain why favorable evaluations can coexist with inaction without assuming hypocrisy or a useless measure.
A question to consider. For attending the library next week, write one matched attitude question and identify one perceived norm and one practical barrier.
Reading
6 of 10
Does Changing Behavioral Intentions Engender Behavior Change?
Webb, T. L., & Sheeran, P. (2006). Does changing behavioral intentions engender behavior change? A meta-analysis of the experimental evidence. Psychological Bulletin, 132(2), 249–268. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.132.2.249
Major synthesis · Methodological contribution · Challenging · Full work: 20 pages
Compare the review's selection criteria and treatment effects with the causal pathways proposed by Ajzen.
Why you’re reading it. Assess what an intervention adds beyond an attitude–behavior correlation.
A question to consider. If a program improves both plans to attend and actual library visits, how would you test whether improved transport rather than stronger intentions produced the visits?

Unit 4 of 5

Why do evaluations change?

Messages can provide arguments and source cues; our own conduct can also create reasons to reconsider an evaluation. These experiments use different manipulations to test explanations. Compare what each establishes about the rating and what must be inferred about the process.

Reading
7 of 10
Personal Involvement as a Determinant of Argument-Based Persuasion
Petty, R. E., Cacioppo, J. T., & Goldman, R. (1981). Personal involvement as a determinant of argument-based persuasion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 41(5), 847–855. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.41.5.847
Landmark empirical study · Foundational argument · Moderate · Full work: 9 pages
Follow how involvement changes the contrasts between stronger and weaker arguments and between attributed sources.
Why you’re reading it. Study persuasion as conditional on the reader and situation, rather than a property of a message alone.
A question to consider. What outcome pattern would support the claim that personal relevance changes sensitivity to argument quality?
Reading
8 of 10
Cognitive Consequences of Forced Compliance
Festinger, L., & Carlsmith, J. M. (1959). Cognitive consequences of forced compliance. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 58(2), 203–210. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0041593
Landmark empirical study · Accessible · Full work: 8 pages
Compare behavior-induced change with the message-based explanation in the preceding experiment.
Why you’re reading it. Examine an account in which evaluation may follow action, while keeping alternative explanations visible.
A question to consider. Which added measure or comparison could help distinguish reducing discomfort from inferring an attitude from one's own behavior?

Unit 5 of 5

What makes change last?

A large immediate difference is not the same as a durable or behaviorally consequential attitude. The review distinguishes strength-related properties, especially importance. The field experiment then puts persistence, resistance, measurement, and causal interpretation into a single concrete case.

Reading
9 of 10
Attitude Strength
Howe, L. C., & Krosnick, J. A. (2017). Attitude strength. Annual Review of Psychology, 68(1), 327–351. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-122414-033600
Major synthesis · Foundational argument · Moderate · Full work: 25 pages
Distinguish an evaluation's extremity from its importance, stability, and consequences.
Why you’re reading it. Define what a stronger attitude would mean before judging an intervention.
A question to consider. How could two equally favorable library ratings imply different predictions about persistence, response to criticism, and attendance?
Reading
10 of 10
Durably Reducing Transphobia: A Field Experiment on Door-to-Door Canvassing
Broockman, D., & Kalla, J. (2016). Durably reducing transphobia: A field experiment on door-to-door canvassing. Science, 352(6282), 220–224. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aad9713
Landmark empirical study · Methodological contribution · Moderate · Full work: 5 pages
Bring the earlier distinctions to the recruitment, comparisons, repeated outcomes, and proposed mechanism.
Why you’re reading it. Evaluate durable change outside the laboratory without treating an intervention package as proof of one process.
A question to consider. Which findings support persistence, which address resistance, and which additional evidence would be needed for a claim about behavior?

Scope and omissions

This introductory path explains evaluations and selected routes by which they form, guide action, and change. It is not a complete catalogue of persuasion techniques or a guide to influencing a particular audience. Compliance, power, group identity, close relationships, and the institutional causes of discrimination receive fuller treatment elsewhere. Clinical behavior change is a separate question.

The readings span laboratory, synthesis, and field evidence, but much of the empirical base comes from Western settings and university participants. A U.S. field study does not remove that limitation. The opening review makes cultural and historical context visible; any extension still needs evidence about the relevant people, meanings, and constraints.

Synthesis

Attitudes are evaluations approached through particular measures. Repetition, pairings, arguments, sources, and our own conduct offer different possible routes to change. A changed response leaves its cause to be investigated. Predicting action asks us to go further, specifying the behavior and considering the intentions, expectations, and practical opportunities through which an evaluation may find expression.

A credible claim of lasting change must say what changed, for whom, relative to which comparison, and for how long. Importance, stability, resistance, and behavioral consequences are related questions, not interchangeable proof. Return to one study and draw a chain from intervention to proposed process to measured outcome. Mark every link that the design actually tests.

Continue with How Do Social Influence and Power Work? to distinguish learning from others, normative expectations, requests, authority, and dependence—and examine how people resist or redirect influence.

For the wider social setting, return to How Do Other People and Social Situations Shape Us?. For a closer examination of causal and measurement reasoning, continue with How to Read Psychological Science.