Unpacking attitude certainty: attitude clarity and attitude correctness

Attitude certainty has been the subject of considerable attention in the attitudes and persuasion literature. The present research identifies 2 aspects of attitude certainty and provides evidence for the distinctness of the constructs. Specifically, it is proposed that attitude certainty can be conc...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of personality and social psychology Vol. 92; no. 1; p. 30
Main Authors Petrocelli, John V, Tormala, Zakary L, Rucker, Derek D
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 01.01.2007
Subjects
Analysis of Variance
Attitude
Consensus
Factor Analysis, Statistical
Humans
Indiana
Models, Psychological
Ohio
Persuasive Communication
Reaction Time
Regression Analysis
Indiana
Ohio
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Summary:Attitude certainty has been the subject of considerable attention in the attitudes and persuasion literature. The present research identifies 2 aspects of attitude certainty and provides evidence for the distinctness of the constructs. Specifically, it is proposed that attitude certainty can be conceptualized, and empirically separated, in terms of attitude clarity (the subjective sense that one knows what one's attitude is) and attitude correctness (the subjective sense that one's attitude is correct or valid). Experiment 1 uses factor analysis and correlational data to provide evidence for viewing attitude clarity and attitude correctness as separate constructs. Experiments 2 and 3 demonstrate that attitude clarity and attitude correctness can have distinct antecedents (repeated expression and consensus feedback, respectively). Experiment 4 reveals that these constructs each play an independent role in persuasion and resistance situations. As clarity and correctness increase, attitudes become more resistant to counterattitudinal persuasive messages. These findings are discussed in relation to the existing attitude strength literature.
ISSN:0022-3514
DOI:10.1037/0022-3514.92.1.30