{"id":66,"date":"2026-02-23T10:25:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T10:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/persuasion\/?post_type=content&p=66"},"modified":"2026-02-23T11:20:35","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T11:20:35","slug":"chapter-3-attitudes-and-consistency","status":"publish","type":"content","link":"https:\/\/routledgelearning.com\/persuasion\/chapter-resources\/chapter-3-attitudes-and-consistency\/","title":{"rendered":"Chapter 3: Attitudes and Consistency"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Chapter 3: Attitudes and Consistency<\/h2><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Chapter Summary<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The study of attitudes has been a central feature of persuasion research for decades. This chapter examines features of attitudes as they relate to persuasion. An understanding of attitudes is important because they help shape, predict, and control behavior. Attitudes reflect tendencies or predispositions to respond to things in fairly predictable ways. Attitudes can be measured in a variety of ways, some more reliable than others. Self-report measures ask subjects to rate their attitudes toward something on a scale. Likert scales and semantic differential scales are well-known, widely used self-report measures. The chapter identifies some of the limitations of self-reports for measuring attitudes. Implicit measures can also be used to avoid the limitations of rating scales, but these entail drawbacks of their own. A number of pragmatic, if unscientific, methods of inferring attitudes can be used as well. These include appearance cues; memberships and associations; and behaviors, habits, or practices. Physiological measures of attitude have also been employed, with mixed results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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