Most of us think and agree that we have control over our beliefs and opinions as well as reasons why we hold them. The concept of having personal attitudes is integral to our sense of self and individuality. It’s what sets us apart from other people and how we define ourselves and how we choose to live our lives. Contrary to what we may think, research has shown that how we feel about things and perceive others is not always fully within our control.
A recent study by Heiphetz, Spelke, and Banaji at Harvard University (2013) found that there was a difference in explicit attitudes (reported opinion) and implicit attitudes (opinions we are not aware of) in Christian adults and children concerning their attitudes toward others based on religious preference. Both adults as well as their children, whom their parents had identified as being Christian, reported having neutral preferences towards people in regards to religion. In other words, their explicit attitude was neutral, claiming to feel the same way about people regardless of their religious beliefs. However, upon completing a test on implicit and explicit attitudes (IAT), it was found that they actual held a more pro-Christian preferences.
This study shows that perhaps our opinions are not always our choice, but rather influenced by external factors. The fact that the experiment revealed that the children had akin explicit and implicit attitudes suggests that, like many of our opinions, they are heavily affected by our parents.
Although, our opinions are shaped as children, they are not set in stone. Attitudes can have a malleable quality, as shown in a study by Paul J. Wright (2013) at Indiana University describes how watching pornography can result in a more permissive attitude toward promiscuousness.
While the idea that someone’s opinions and possibly values can be subject to change may be unsettling, it also means that attitudes that are potentially personally or socially harmful can also change. An example of the positive side of attitude change can be found in a study by Gonsalkorale, Allen, Sherman, and Klauer (2010), in which subjects who were shown positive examples of black people and negative examples of white people demonstrated less pro-white bias. It is important to note that ambivalence can also affect attitudes towards people within and outside one’s group. For this reason, it is important to present positive examples while forming opinions, because those with an unaffiliated opinion or with little knowledge about a subject are more easily swayed based on less information, as explored by Sawicki, et al. (2013).
These are incredible findings because they reveal that racial prejudice can be reduced. However, it also underpins a larger cultural issue. If racism can be fought with counter-examples, then the media needs to be critically looked at. Perhaps the media shows an over-abundance of negative examples of people of color and positive examples of white people. It would be interesting to see if the public opinion changed as a result of a reduction in media prejudice.
What do you think about the origins of your attitudes, opinions, and values?
References
Gonsalkorale, K., Allen, T. J., Sherman, J. W., & Klauer, K. (2010). Mechanisms of group membership and exemplar exposure effects on implicit attitudes. Social Psychology, 41(3), 158-168. doi:10.1027/1864-9335/a000023
Heiphetz, L., Spelke, E. S., & Banaji, M. R. (2013). Patterns of implicit and explicit attitudes in children and adults: Tests in the domain of religion. Journal Of Experimental Psychology: General, 142(3), 864-879. doi:10.1037/a0029714
Sawicki, V., Wegener, D. T., Clark, J. K., Fabrigar, L. R., Smith, S. M., & Durso, G. O. (2013). Feeling conflicted and seeking information: When ambivalence enhances and diminishes selective exposure to attitude-consistent information. Personality And Social Psychology Bulletin, 39(6), 735-747. doi:10.1177/0146167213481388
Wright, P. J. (2013). A three-wave longitudinal analysis of preexisting beliefs, exposure to pornography, and attitude change.Communication Reports, 26(1), 13-25. doi:10.1080/08934215.2013.773053
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