Abstract
Previous work has reliably demonstrated that when people experience more subjective ambivalence about an attitude object, their attitudes have less impact on strength-related outcomes such as attitude-related thinking, judging, or behaving. However, previous research has not considered whether the amount of perceived knowledge a person has about the topic might moderate these effects. Across eight studies on different topics using a variety of outcome measures, the current research demonstrates that perceived knowledge can moderate the relation between ambivalence and the impact of attitudes on related thinking, judging, and behaving. Although the typical Attitude × Ambivalence effect emerged when participants had relatively high perceived knowledge, this interaction did not emerge when participants were lower in perceived knowledge. This work provides a more nuanced view of the effects of subjective ambivalence on attitude impact and highlights the importance of understanding the combined impact of attitude strength antecedents.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 709-722 |
| Number of pages | 14 |
| Journal | Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin |
| Volume | 46 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - May 1 2020 |
Funding
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2298-7569 Wallace Laura E. 1 Patton Kathleen M. 1 Luttrell Andrew 2 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5459-0339 Sawicki Vanessa 4 Fabrigar Leandre R. 3 Teeny Jacob 1 MacDonald Tara K. 3 Petty Richard E. 1 Wegener Duane T. 1 1 The Ohio State University, Columbus, USA 2 Ball State University, Muncie, IN, USA 3 Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada 4 The Ohio State University, Marion, USA Laura E. Wallace, Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University, 1835 Neil Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210, USA. Email: [email protected] 9 2019 0146167219873492 1 2 2019 23 7 2019 © 2019 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc 2019 Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc. Previous work has reliably demonstrated that when people experience more subjective ambivalence about an attitude object, their attitudes have less impact on strength-related outcomes such as attitude-related thinking, judging, or behaving. However, previous research has not considered whether the amount of perceived knowledge a person has about the topic might moderate these effects. Across eight studies on different topics using a variety of outcome measures, the current research demonstrates that perceived knowledge can moderate the relation between ambivalence and the impact of attitudes on related thinking, judging, and behaving. Although the typical Attitude × Ambivalence effect emerged when participants had relatively high perceived knowledge, this interaction did not emerge when participants were lower in perceived knowledge. This work provides a more nuanced view of the effects of subjective ambivalence on attitude impact and highlights the importance of understanding the combined impact of attitude strength antecedents. ambivalence knowledge attitude strength National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship DGE-1343012 National Science Foundation https://doi.org/10.13039/100000001 #0729348 edited-state corrected-proof Authors’ Note Study 1 was presented at the 2016 Society for Personality and Social Psychology Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA and was a part of the second author’s master’s thesis. The data from Studies 4 and 5 were originally reported in Luttrell, Petty, and Briñol (2016) , where they were used to test different hypotheses than those reported in the current article. The data from Studies 2, 4, and 5 were presented at the 2014 meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago, IL. The data from Studies 4 and 5 were also presented at the 2014 Attitudes Preconference at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Annual Meeting, Austin, TX. Comments by members of the 2013-2016 Groups for Attitudes and Persuasion at Ohio State University are appreciated. Declaration of Conflicting Interests The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. Funding The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (DGE-1343012) and by a National Science Foundation Grant (No. 0729348). ORCID iDs Laura E. Wallace https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2298-7569 Vanessa Sawicki https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5459-0339 Supplemental Material Supplemental material is available online with this article.
Keywords
- ambivalence
- attitude strength
- knowledge
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Social Psychology