Lecture 5 – Attitudes and behaviour change
1. Understanding attitudes
Attitudes: A learned predisposition to respond in a consistently favourable or unfavourable manner
in relation to some object (how we feel, think, and behave) – Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975
Learned global evaluation of an object that influences thoughts and actions
Predisposition tendency, state of readiness that guides behaviour in certain predictable, though not
always rational ways
Learned (people are not born with attitudes)
Intensity (Strong or poor)
Attitude object (always targeted at something)
Consistency and stability (but can still change)
Evaluative dimensions (e.g. liking or disliking)
Not a behaviour:
o GOAL – Not only understand, but influence customers through the use of attitudes
Key concept of consumer behaviour – want to understand and influence and persuade
customers
Key influence on behaviour
Not pure behaviour, BUT can help us to understand behavioural patterns and behavioural
intentions
Emotional component
Explicit attitudes: Self-reported, cognitive evaluations of how an individual thinks, feels and intends
to act towards an attitude object
Implicit attitudes: Automatic evaluations of how an individual thinks, feels and intends to act
towards an attitude object (schemas, priming)
Implicit association test – Test your implicit biases (fit people into categories)
Tricomponent model (ABC) model
o Affective (emotional connection the consumer has with the target object)
o Behavioural (Actions or behaviours associated with the attitude object)
o Cognitive (Beliefs and thoughts the individuals has in relation to the target object)
Strong link attitude and intended behaviour (not necessarily behaviour in itself)
Expectancy-Value theory of attitudes (Fishbein and Ajzen in 1975)
Attitude is a combination of what you believe or expect of a certain object and how you feel
(evaluate) about these expectations
Attitude is a multiplicative combination of
o Strengths of beliefs that an object has certain attributes
o Evaluation of these attributes
1. Understanding attitudes
Attitudes: A learned predisposition to respond in a consistently favourable or unfavourable manner
in relation to some object (how we feel, think, and behave) – Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975
Learned global evaluation of an object that influences thoughts and actions
Predisposition tendency, state of readiness that guides behaviour in certain predictable, though not
always rational ways
Learned (people are not born with attitudes)
Intensity (Strong or poor)
Attitude object (always targeted at something)
Consistency and stability (but can still change)
Evaluative dimensions (e.g. liking or disliking)
Not a behaviour:
o GOAL – Not only understand, but influence customers through the use of attitudes
Key concept of consumer behaviour – want to understand and influence and persuade
customers
Key influence on behaviour
Not pure behaviour, BUT can help us to understand behavioural patterns and behavioural
intentions
Emotional component
Explicit attitudes: Self-reported, cognitive evaluations of how an individual thinks, feels and intends
to act towards an attitude object
Implicit attitudes: Automatic evaluations of how an individual thinks, feels and intends to act
towards an attitude object (schemas, priming)
Implicit association test – Test your implicit biases (fit people into categories)
Tricomponent model (ABC) model
o Affective (emotional connection the consumer has with the target object)
o Behavioural (Actions or behaviours associated with the attitude object)
o Cognitive (Beliefs and thoughts the individuals has in relation to the target object)
Strong link attitude and intended behaviour (not necessarily behaviour in itself)
Expectancy-Value theory of attitudes (Fishbein and Ajzen in 1975)
Attitude is a combination of what you believe or expect of a certain object and how you feel
(evaluate) about these expectations
Attitude is a multiplicative combination of
o Strengths of beliefs that an object has certain attributes
o Evaluation of these attributes
