The moderating role of attitude structure in the likelihood of automatic activation

Abstract

Research has offered strong evidence concerning the affective priming of attitudes across a range of procedural variations (e.g., Bargh, Chaiken, Govender, & Pratto, 1992; Fazio, Sanbonmatsu, Powell, & Kardes, 1986). However, an additional factor that could be included in the attitude accessibility model (Fazio et al., 1986; 1990) is the role played by attitude structure. Three experiments were conducted to investigate the moderating role of attitude structure (i.e., affective versus cognitive bases) on automatic attitude activation. All experiments were conducted in two phases - an attitude manipulation/selection stage, followed by a priming procedure. In the Pilot Experiment (N = 23) and Experiment One (N = 50), attitude structure and valence (i.e., positive versus negative) were manipulated experimentally using procedures developed by Fabrigar and Petty (1999). In Experiment Two (N = 47), attitude structure and valence were assessed through pre-screening of participants. The results showed that the automatic attitude activation was obtained in Experiment Two, F([subscript1, 43]) = 24.42, p < .001, but not in Experiment One, F([subscript1, 43]) = 0.42, p = ns, or in the Pilot Experiment, F([subscript1, 21]) = 0.96, p = ns. Interestingly, no significant interaction was found between prime structure and target structure when isolated in the analysis, in any of the three experiments. That is, there was no evidence for the structural priming of attitude. The present findings offer possibly conflicting evidence regarding the role played by attitude structure in moderating automatic attitude activation. These results are discussed in the context of attitude formation, experimental procedure variations, and the moderating role of associative strength. Finally, preliminary comments are made about the validity of the Need for Affect (Maio & Esses, 2001) and the Need for Cognition (Caccioppo & Petty, 1982) scales for predicting attitude structure formation.