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This thesis is an empirical and theoretical investigation of choice blindness, in particular in the domain of political attitudes. Choice blindness is a cognitive phenomenon in which people do not notice dramatic mismatches between what they choose and what they get while still offering seemingly introspective arguments to explain their (putative) choice. In four papers, it is demonstrated that the effect also applies to salient political attitudes and evaluations of political candidates. All studies took place in close connection to real elections, and new tools building of the underlying choice blindness methodology has been developed to collect the data. Further, the potential downstream effects are explored, such as influence on voting intentions, and lasting attitude changes. The potential mechanisms behind the effect are also investigated and confabulatory reasoning stands out as an important part in facilitating the observed attitude changes.

In this experiment, an experimental interview with the leader of the Socialists in the Dutch Parliament was delivered via three different media: television, radio, or a newspaper presentation. We showed that the experimental interviews led, in themselves, to attitude change, but no difference was found among the three communication modalities. Moreover, no significant interaction effect was established between the political preference of the subjects (Socialist versus non-Socialist) and communication modality. Our main results do not support the assumption that for a well-known politician presently holding office, television is a less effective medium than radio or newspaper.

Polarization is increasing in American politics and frequently involves disagreement over basic facts. Although this phenomenon is rare, the domain of social and political issues provides an environment where emotions may influence opinions and decisions in seemingly irrational ways. This research explores how individuals judge and respond to evidence about controversial socio-political issues, considering whether behavior is more appropriately modeled by accounts of motivated reasoning or Bayesian updating rules.We find evidence of an attitude congruency bias, where people judge information to be of higher quality when it aligns with their existing attitudes on an issue. However, we find that this bias does not necessarily lead to polarizing. Instead, people's change in attitudes is better described by Bayesian updating, where people are sensitive to the amount and quality of information they are presented with. This behavior does not seem to be driven by affect or knowledge in a domain.Judgment of information, in the form of argument rating, was analyzed by creating separate measures of objective argument quality and individual rating bias. Both factors were found to model attitude change, indicating that participants are sensitive to both the objective quality of evidence and to the effects of their own biases. Accounts of Bayesian information processing and motivated reasoning both predict behavior when information is modeled in terms of these two factors.Finally, this research explores the role of information choice and shows that a bias toward choosing attitude-congruent information may lead to motivated attitude change, where exposure to a biased set of evidence models attitude change in line with one's existing views. People exhibit more sensitivity to information quality when they do not choose which information to view, indicating that choice may play a special role in allowing individual bias to outweigh information quality. These findings inspire questions about the role of curated information and people's capacity for rational behavior in a tense political climate.

Although there are several attitude resistance techniques, attitude inoculation most effectively serves the purpose of withstanding attacks from conflicting arguments.[1] Inoculation treatment methods are comparable to that of medical vaccination, where a patient is exposed to a small, weakened dose of a pathogen. In this case, the pathogen is simply a counter-argument offered against an advertisement claim aimed at attitude change.[2] These techniques are typically tested within a political domain, rarely in a commercial context. In this research the effects of inoculation treatments are investigated. We find that strong counter-arguments initially have a strong impact on an existing attitude, but their effect quickly dissipates. However, weaker counter-arguments, although initially not as effective as strong, are shown to be more influential over a longer period of time. Attention is also given to potential moderators of this main effect.

Though deliberative theory has a bias toward rigorous argument and democratic social relations, it presumes that an ideal discursive process otherwise has a neutral stance with respect to particular ideologies and cultural values. This essay provides a preliminary test of that assumption by examining attitude change across a wide range of Deliberation Polls held across the globe. We analyzed 65 questionnaire statements on which Poll participants significantly changed their views on a wide variety of issues. By coding each of these survey items on various value dimensions, we were able to look for any obvious patterns of attitude change. Despite its small size and the exclusion of items showing no attitude change, this sample showed that Poll respondents tend to move toward more cosmopolitan, egalitarian, and collectivist value orientations. Further analysis showed the strongest value-laden shifts were on empirical statements, with public opinion on such questions shifting moderately toward cosmopolitan and collectivist beliefs. The conclusion considers the implications of these findings for deliberative theory, research, and practice.

Companion animals now serve as more than tools for human use, they have become family. Many individuals now spend increasingly more money on animals than in years past and are more likely to acknowledge the animal as a family member. With this change in roles many humans have become more empathetic to animal cruelty. Studies have been conducted to examine various aspects of animal cruelty and how it relates to humans. However, few have examined attitude change regarding animal abuse. If attitudes can be positively changed in adults, these individuals are in a position to pass the information onto their children. Adults are also currently in the position to make changes in legislature regarding humane treatment of animals. An experiment was conducted which examined adults' attitudes toward animal abuse and whether they can be changed. Text information was examined as a variable for attitude change. Additionally visual aids in the form of photographs were used in conjunction with and separate from the text information as variables. Two types of photographs were used: images of companion animals by themselves or the same animals accompanied by adult humans. The text information used was adapted from an ASPCA presentation obtained, with permission, from the Orange County ASPCA. The power point presentation included information on the connection between animal violence and violence toward humans, how to help stop animal cruelty and how to report it. Six conditions were created using the three variables. iii It was found that pictures have an immediate effect on attitude change and information affects individuals in certain measures but not others. On all measures, images had more of an effect than information alone. Only when the text was accompanied by a picture, did it produce a significant change. Attitudes regarding the treatment of animals saw an immediate increase in both conditions in which images of humans and animals were present. Additionally, images of animals alone immediately increased attitudes regarding treatment of animals. This difference does not appear to increase further over time. Images of animals alone appear to aid in immediately altering individuals' sense of continuity with animals. The attitude that animals and humans share some commonalities and exist in relation to each other could assist in adoption campaigns by allowing the potential owners to place themselves with the animals they are adopting. However, over time information combined with images of humans and animals significantly increase this sense of commonality. The applications for the results depend on what type of attitude one desires to change and how soon the change has to occur. The present research reveals that images appear to affect attitude change regarding companion animals and the way they are treated more than text information. ; 2011-12-01 ; B.S. ; Sciences, Dept. of Psychology ; Bachelors ; This record was generated from author submitted information.

Humans share their biology with other animals and in each of their actions should consider the consequences for all life. A series of measures can be taken by governments and individuals that would minimise inter-specific transfer of pathogens from wildlife and reduce the development of antimicrobial resistance.

Though deliberative theory has a bias toward rigorous argument and democratic social relations, it presumes that an ideal discursive process otherwise has a neutral stance with respect to particular ideologies and cultural values. This essay provides a preliminary test of that assumption by examining attitude change across a wide range of Deliberation Polls held across the globe. We analyzed 65 questionnaire statements on which Poll participants significantly changed their views on a wide variety of issues. By coding each of these survey items on various value dimensions, we were able to look for any obvious patterns of attitude change. Despite its small size and the exclusion of items showing no attitude change, this sample showed that Poll respondents tend to move toward more cosmopolitan, egalitarian, and collectivist value orientations. Further analysis showed the strongest value-laden shifts were on empirical statements, with public opinion on such questions shifting moderately toward cosmopolitan and collectivist beliefs. The conclusion considers the implications of these findings for deliberative theory, research, and practice.

In November, 2002, a randomly sampled body of citizens was brought together to participate in a deliberative poll on the issue of a bill of rights. Participation in deliberative polls is thought to cause attitude change and an increased sense of political engagement, but the underlying processes are little understood. We surveyed poll participants before and after the poll, proposing that either exposure to information, fair treatment or identification as a poll participant would predict attitude change and engagement. None of these affected attitude change but all three predicted political engagement. Results suggested that participation in the poll increases levels of political engagement through its capacities to (a) give people an opportunity to exchange views in a respectful atmosphere and (b) create or increase a sense of connection to a relevant social group.

In November, 2002, a randomly sampled body of citizens was brought together to participate in a deliberative poll on the issue of a bill of rights. Participation in deliberative polls is thought to cause attitude change and an increased sense of political engagement, but the underlying processes are little understood. We surveyed poll participants before and after the poll, proposing that either exposure to information, fair treatment or identification as a poll participant would predict attitude change and engagement. None of these affected attitude change but all three predicted political engagement. Results suggested that participation in the poll increases levels of political engagement through its capacities to (a) give people an opportunity to exchange views in a respectful atmosphere and (b) create or increase a sense of connection to a relevant social group.

Members of societies involved in an intractable conflict usually consider costs that stem from the continuation of the conflict as unavoidable and even justify for their collective existence. This perception is well-anchored in widely shared conflict-supporting narratives that motivate them to avoid information that challenges their views about the conflict. However, since providing information about such major costs as a method for moderating conflict-related views has not been receiving much attention, in this research, we explore this venue. We examine what kind of costs, and under what conditions, exposure to major costs of a conflict affects openness to information and conciliatory attitudes among Israeli Jews in the context of the intractable Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Study 1 (N = 255) revealed that interventions based on messages providing information on mental health cost, economic cost, and cost of the conflict to Israeli democracy had (almost) no significant effect on perceptions of the participants of these prices, openness to new information about the conflict, or support for conciliatory policies. However, the existing perceptions that participants had about the cost of the conflict to Israeli democracy were positively associated with openness to alternative information about the conflict and support for conciliatory policies. Therefore, in Study 2 (N = 255), we tested whether providing information about future potential costs to the two fundamental characteristics of Israel, a democracy or a Jewish state, created by the continuation of the conflict, will induce attitude change regarding the conflict. The results indicate that information on the future cost to the democratic identity of Israel significantly affected the attitude of the participants regarding the conflict, while the effect was moderated by the level of religiosity. For secular participants, this manipulation created more openness to alternative information about the conflict and increased support for conciliatory policies, but ...

The purpose of this paper is to present and analyse current level of management, innovation and technological practices of FBiH´s forest management companies (FMC) and suggest new innovative technologies and management concepts. Qualitative methods are used to present and analyse data. Research was performed in two stages: first step was literature, government reports and FMCs sustainability reports review. The second step was an analysis of data from reviewing surveys, reports and data driven from direct communication with the company's management. Five leading FMCs in wood industry of BiH are selected. The paper is the first attempt to examine the development of management, innovation and technological practices in order to fully develop their potential in the future.

The leader of the Socialists in the Dutch Parliament and his Liberal opponent participated in this realistic experiment. Identical TV interviews with the two politicians were recorded and shown to subjects of both parties. The intensity of delivery was also varied: emotional versus rational. Our findgins indicated that the experimental interveiw changed the attitude of the subjects. In addition, support was found for a second hypothesis: Attitude change was greater for the attractive source from the same party than for the less attractive source from the opposite party. Furthermore, our expectations were confirmed that attitude change would be greater with high than with low discrepancy. Although the intensity of delivery did have an effect on the credibility of the source–the emotional delivery scored lower–no effect on attitude change was found.

This work deals with women's approach to career planning development change. As a 30 years ago woman had planned a career and how a young woman today is planning her careers. The aim of the study is to set woman attitudes change in career development opportunities. Therefore the following goals have been set: 1. Describe women's career and career planning concepts. 2. Describe the concept of career women in influencing the social context of 30 years ago and now. 3. Identify women's approach to career development opportunities 30 years ago and now. The paper starts with the theoretical background to identify woman's career conception. Describe how in non-fiction different authors write about woman's career, what career models of release. Also describe career planning concept, models, which is the best to talk about woman's career. In this part of the work is delineating social context which influence women's attitude in career planning 30 years ago and now. The present study presents the results of the interview with women's to which 30 years ago was 20 -30 years and with women's to which now is 20 -30 years. After empirical investigation was identify that elder women and young women understand career similarly, because exclude similar elements which helps to identify career concepts. The same way in the interview attended women understand and career planning. But how they understand career depends on social politic and economic politic, which dominate 30 years ago and which is now. It means that women's career is different from each other, but women understand it similar.

This work deals with women's approach to career planning development change. As a 30 years ago woman had planned a career and how a young woman today is planning her careers. The aim of the study is to set woman attitudes change in career development opportunities. Therefore the following goals have been set: 1. Describe women's career and career planning concepts. 2. Describe the concept of career women in influencing the social context of 30 years ago and now. 3. Identify women's approach to career development opportunities 30 years ago and now. The paper starts with the theoretical background to identify woman's career conception. Describe how in non-fiction different authors write about woman's career, what career models of release. Also describe career planning concept, models, which is the best to talk about woman's career. In this part of the work is delineating social context which influence women's attitude in career planning 30 years ago and now. The present study presents the results of the interview with women's to which 30 years ago was 20 -30 years and with women's to which now is 20 -30 years. After empirical investigation was identify that elder women and young women understand career similarly, because exclude similar elements which helps to identify career concepts. The same way in the interview attended women understand and career planning. But how they understand career depends on social politic and economic politic, which dominate 30 years ago and which is now. It means that women's career is different from each other, but women understand it similar.