Information and Instructional Effects on Beliefs and Attitudes About Persons and Behaviors
Three studies were performed to test the effects of (1) a priori relevance of information, (2) instructional-set, and (3) availability of information on beliefs and attitudes about persons and behaviors. Study I verified that when both trait information about a person and outcome information about performing a behavior with respect to this person were presented, subjects formed attitudes toward the person and attitudes toward performing the behavior on the basis of only information that had a priori relevance to these attitudes. Study II showed that, when information had implications for only A(,P) and A(,B) but not both, trait information was better recalled when subjects were instructed to evaluate the person that when they were instructed to evaluate the behavior. Under these same conditions, outcome information was better recalled under behavioral-set than under impression-set instructions. However, greater recall was not found to lead to more extreme attitude judgments. Finally, results of Study III indicated that when outcome information was not available for use, subjects formed behavioral attitudes on the basis of minimally-relevant trait information. However, these traits had an indirect rather than a direct effect on A(,B), mediated through the effects of (SIGMA)b(,i)e(,i) and A(,P) on (SIGMA)b(,j)e(,j) and A(,B).
University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
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