What factors determine the success of attitude change programs? Describe theoretical bases and research evidence about key elements underlying attitude change programs. Include examples from a current or recent social change program.
Introduction
Attitude change is a process by which the opinions one has on particular matter is altered through an advertent or inadvertent activity. Of most interest to researchers is the effectiveness of advertent activity undertaken by vested groups in instigating attitude change of individuals. These groups may include advertisers, governments and special interest groups. The success of these parties to promote attitude change is reliant upon many different factors. This paper will provide varying theories and evidence about those factors which best predict attitude change and will further illustrate by contrasting it with the strategies used by the Australian federal government’s anti-smoking television advertisements.
Attitude
Attitude itself is regarded as the opinion one has on an idea or object. Typically an attitude is considered to fall on a sliding scale between favourable and unfavourable, with a neutral attitude appearing in the middle. This basic measure of attitude is flawed in that it does not accept the complex and conflicting processes involved in an attitude formation (Stacy, Bentler & Flay, 1994). The incongruency between attitude and it measures make it difficult to quantify. This fact has been an important criticism of attitude indicators within research.
Another, but perhaps the most important, problematic aspect of attitude is the common presumption that it has a strong link with behaviour. This is the crux of attitude and attitude change programs, that if one can identify and modify an individual’s attitude it will produce behavioural change. Remarkably, psychologists have found this to be categorically incorrect (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1977). Stacy, Bentler & Flay (1994) discuss the seemingly poor relationship between attitude and behaviour. They provide the idea that the cognitive processes that result in behaviour only include attitudes to a small degree. A differentiation is made between the embedded attitudes that shape behaviour in an invisible, unconscious way and the conscious attitudes that individuals communicate and are aware of. Furthermore the best predictor of future behaviour, the authors explain, is in fact past behaviour. This is a pessimistic outlook on the capabilities of public health groups, but one that strikes at the heart of the industry and its intrinsic purpose.
The National Tobacco Campaign
Smoking represents the most preventable cause of health problems and death in Australia. The financial burden per year to the government and tax payers of Australia of smoking has now reached the billions. In response to these issues in 1996 the Australian Federal Government instigated the National Tobacco Campaign with the public front of this campaign named Quitline. This organisation has spearheaded federal laws that have radically restricted the packaging, sale, advertisement and use of tobacco products.
More notoriously, Quitline has also brought about change in anti-smoking television advertisements through the use of graphic images of damaged human body parts affected by smoking. The Australian Department of Health and Ageing website (2007) surprisingly cites this fact as what differentiates between the previous anti-smoking measures and the new ‘shock tactic’ ads as a bid to become more effective. There are more than six different ads confronting different areas of problems associated with smoking, which includes: lung damage, oral abnormalities, artery change, tumours, limb amputations, stroke and one less medically minded that deals with personal excuses for smoking.
Theory and Research Themes in Quitline TV ads
There are elements of psychological attitude change theory and research which can be seen to be apparent or lacking in the Quitline ads. Although, It is not obvious that they subscribe to one particular attitude change guideline. Despite this one piece of literature deemed the program to be psychologically sound and effective (Borland & Balmford, 2003), although the fact this literature was produced through an Australian governmental health subsidiary somewhat weakens its objectiveness.
First off, the self proclaimed radicalness of the shocking images presented in the television ads and their effectiveness is of key interest. The visual representation of the effects of smoking and of course its extreme nature ensure that the advertisements stand out amongst other unrelated and previous campaigns. But it remains to be seen whether this guarantees effective communication and ensuing attitude change. According to Beck & Davis (1978) fear arousal used in attitude change efforts (e.g. the amputation of a foot) is only effective if the attitude concerns an issue of low importance to an individual. Although fear proved less effective on subjects who believe that smoking attitudes are of a higher importance, across both groups of high and low attitude importance, success was enriched by high levels of fear arousal and responses. This study highlights the importance of Quitline in maintaining negative smoking attitudes for non-smokers (low attitude importance), but also points out the failings of fear arousal to address the smoker’s attitude change requirements (high attitude importance).
Three million Australians smoke on a daily basis and whilst in the long term the prevalence of smoking has declined, the smoking rates of specific groups of the population has remained relatively constant. Young people and women are examples of these population groups and provide specific challenges to policy makers and health promoters in terms of tailoring strategies to persuade these specific groups (Wang & Chen, 2006). According to the government website (ADH&A, 2007), the ads are said to target young people and smoking parents in an attempt to bring about a generational attitude change. This is represented in the ads by emphasis on the long term effects of smoking and of the visual ugliness of the effects of smoking to appeal to the more aesthetically minded youth population group.
The relevance to the target audience of the television ads is an important measure of its communicative success. Chang (2006) performed a study with school students in Taiwan determining the degrees of strength of smoking attitudes and the correlated routes of attitude effectiveness. The author found that, to young people, short term health effects of smoking as well as the social ramifications of smoking were of lower importance and were weaker attitudes than the long term health effects of smoking. Secondly, the author found that by targeting the attitudes of the youth that were the weakest will lead to greater attitude change effectiveness. For example, according to this study, TV ads aimed at young people should emphasis the negative social stigma of smoking as well as issues such as decreased fitness and skin aging- unfortunately Quitline’s emphasis is primarily on long-term health problems. Van de Harreveld, van der Pligt & de Vries (1999) concurred with this statement but did not emphasise the age specific element of Chang’s findings. It was found that some effects of smoking were inherently unimportant to smokers: for example short term effects, which similarly were described in the former study as an attitude of weak strength.
As mentioned previously, one of the Quitline ads depicts various people expressing excuses for smoking in an ironic fashion within the context of anti-smoking information. This aims to promote social disfavour with smokers and attempts to establish a desirable in-group and undesirable out-group within society towards smoking. This ad has theoretical merit based upon a study on political engagement by Eggins, Reynolds, Oakes & Mavor (2007). Subjects were artificially placed within a politically active in-group and found an increased attitude towards political participation. It was found that some types of attitude change were dependent on the self identification of an individual within a group. When individuals were willingly placed into a specific group of a different collective attitude and membership in that group is desirable then the individual’s attitude was transformed.
Conclusion
Above are some specific examples of the theoretical basis of the Quitline campaign in regards to the psychological study of attitude change. Although the included research does highlight some major flaws in the communication of anti-smoking messages, it has been clear how easy the application of available research can be. Firstly, this paper framed the concept of attitude within the context of attitude change and its links with behaviour, and secondly, showed various elements of the National Tobacco Campaign which have the capacity to be successful in creating attitude change.
References
Ajzen, I. & Fishbein, M. (1977). Attitude-Behavior Relations: A Theoretical Analysis and Review of Empirical Research. Psychological Bulletin. 84, 5, 888-918.
Introduction
Attitude change is a process by which the opinions one has on particular matter is altered through an advertent or inadvertent activity. Of most interest to researchers is the effectiveness of advertent activity undertaken by vested groups in instigating attitude change of individuals. These groups may include advertisers, governments and special interest groups. The success of these parties to promote attitude change is reliant upon many different factors. This paper will provide varying theories and evidence about those factors which best predict attitude change and will further illustrate by contrasting it with the strategies used by the Australian federal government’s anti-smoking television advertisements.
Attitude
Attitude itself is regarded as the opinion one has on an idea or object. Typically an attitude is considered to fall on a sliding scale between favourable and unfavourable, with a neutral attitude appearing in the middle. This basic measure of attitude is flawed in that it does not accept the complex and conflicting processes involved in an attitude formation (Stacy, Bentler & Flay, 1994). The incongruency between attitude and it measures make it difficult to quantify. This fact has been an important criticism of attitude indicators within research.
Another, but perhaps the most important, problematic aspect of attitude is the common presumption that it has a strong link with behaviour. This is the crux of attitude and attitude change programs, that if one can identify and modify an individual’s attitude it will produce behavioural change. Remarkably, psychologists have found this to be categorically incorrect (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1977). Stacy, Bentler & Flay (1994) discuss the seemingly poor relationship between attitude and behaviour. They provide the idea that the cognitive processes that result in behaviour only include attitudes to a small degree. A differentiation is made between the embedded attitudes that shape behaviour in an invisible, unconscious way and the conscious attitudes that individuals communicate and are aware of. Furthermore the best predictor of future behaviour, the authors explain, is in fact past behaviour. This is a pessimistic outlook on the capabilities of public health groups, but one that strikes at the heart of the industry and its intrinsic purpose.
The National Tobacco Campaign
Smoking represents the most preventable cause of health problems and death in Australia. The financial burden per year to the government and tax payers of Australia of smoking has now reached the billions. In response to these issues in 1996 the Australian Federal Government instigated the National Tobacco Campaign with the public front of this campaign named Quitline. This organisation has spearheaded federal laws that have radically restricted the packaging, sale, advertisement and use of tobacco products.
More notoriously, Quitline has also brought about change in anti-smoking television advertisements through the use of graphic images of damaged human body parts affected by smoking. The Australian Department of Health and Ageing website (2007) surprisingly cites this fact as what differentiates between the previous anti-smoking measures and the new ‘shock tactic’ ads as a bid to become more effective. There are more than six different ads confronting different areas of problems associated with smoking, which includes: lung damage, oral abnormalities, artery change, tumours, limb amputations, stroke and one less medically minded that deals with personal excuses for smoking.
Theory and Research Themes in Quitline TV ads
There are elements of psychological attitude change theory and research which can be seen to be apparent or lacking in the Quitline ads. Although, It is not obvious that they subscribe to one particular attitude change guideline. Despite this one piece of literature deemed the program to be psychologically sound and effective (Borland & Balmford, 2003), although the fact this literature was produced through an Australian governmental health subsidiary somewhat weakens its objectiveness.
First off, the self proclaimed radicalness of the shocking images presented in the television ads and their effectiveness is of key interest. The visual representation of the effects of smoking and of course its extreme nature ensure that the advertisements stand out amongst other unrelated and previous campaigns. But it remains to be seen whether this guarantees effective communication and ensuing attitude change. According to Beck & Davis (1978) fear arousal used in attitude change efforts (e.g. the amputation of a foot) is only effective if the attitude concerns an issue of low importance to an individual. Although fear proved less effective on subjects who believe that smoking attitudes are of a higher importance, across both groups of high and low attitude importance, success was enriched by high levels of fear arousal and responses. This study highlights the importance of Quitline in maintaining negative smoking attitudes for non-smokers (low attitude importance), but also points out the failings of fear arousal to address the smoker’s attitude change requirements (high attitude importance).
Three million Australians smoke on a daily basis and whilst in the long term the prevalence of smoking has declined, the smoking rates of specific groups of the population has remained relatively constant. Young people and women are examples of these population groups and provide specific challenges to policy makers and health promoters in terms of tailoring strategies to persuade these specific groups (Wang & Chen, 2006). According to the government website (ADH&A, 2007), the ads are said to target young people and smoking parents in an attempt to bring about a generational attitude change. This is represented in the ads by emphasis on the long term effects of smoking and of the visual ugliness of the effects of smoking to appeal to the more aesthetically minded youth population group.
The relevance to the target audience of the television ads is an important measure of its communicative success. Chang (2006) performed a study with school students in Taiwan determining the degrees of strength of smoking attitudes and the correlated routes of attitude effectiveness. The author found that, to young people, short term health effects of smoking as well as the social ramifications of smoking were of lower importance and were weaker attitudes than the long term health effects of smoking. Secondly, the author found that by targeting the attitudes of the youth that were the weakest will lead to greater attitude change effectiveness. For example, according to this study, TV ads aimed at young people should emphasis the negative social stigma of smoking as well as issues such as decreased fitness and skin aging- unfortunately Quitline’s emphasis is primarily on long-term health problems. Van de Harreveld, van der Pligt & de Vries (1999) concurred with this statement but did not emphasise the age specific element of Chang’s findings. It was found that some effects of smoking were inherently unimportant to smokers: for example short term effects, which similarly were described in the former study as an attitude of weak strength.
As mentioned previously, one of the Quitline ads depicts various people expressing excuses for smoking in an ironic fashion within the context of anti-smoking information. This aims to promote social disfavour with smokers and attempts to establish a desirable in-group and undesirable out-group within society towards smoking. This ad has theoretical merit based upon a study on political engagement by Eggins, Reynolds, Oakes & Mavor (2007). Subjects were artificially placed within a politically active in-group and found an increased attitude towards political participation. It was found that some types of attitude change were dependent on the self identification of an individual within a group. When individuals were willingly placed into a specific group of a different collective attitude and membership in that group is desirable then the individual’s attitude was transformed.
Conclusion
Above are some specific examples of the theoretical basis of the Quitline campaign in regards to the psychological study of attitude change. Although the included research does highlight some major flaws in the communication of anti-smoking messages, it has been clear how easy the application of available research can be. Firstly, this paper framed the concept of attitude within the context of attitude change and its links with behaviour, and secondly, showed various elements of the National Tobacco Campaign which have the capacity to be successful in creating attitude change.
References
Ajzen, I. & Fishbein, M. (1977). Attitude-Behavior Relations: A Theoretical Analysis and Review of Empirical Research. Psychological Bulletin. 84, 5, 888-918.
Australian Department of Health and Ageing (2007). Tobacco – Education. Website accessed at: http://www.health.gov.au/internet/wcms/publishing.nsf/ Content/ health-pubhlth-strateg-drugs-tobacco-education.htm
Beck, K. & Davis, C. M. (1978). Effects of fear-arousing communications and topic importance on attitude change. The Journal of Social Psychology. 104, 81-95.
Borland, R. & Balmford, J. (2003). Understanding how mass media campaigns impact on smokers. Tobacco Control. 12, iii45.
Chang, C. (2006). Changing Smoking Attitudes by Strengthening Weak Antismoking Beliefs-Taiwan as an Example. Journal of Health Communication. 11(8), 769-788.
Eggins, R. A., Reynolds, K. J., Oakes, P. J. & Mavor, K. I. (2007). Citizen participation in a deliberative poll: Factors predicting attitude change and political engagement. Australian Journal of Psychology. 59(2), 94-100.
Stacy, A. W., Bentler, P. M. & Flay, B. R. (1994). Attitudes and health behavior in diverse populations: Drunk driving, alcohol use, binge eating, marijuana use, and cigarette use. Health Psychology. 13, 1.
Van Harreveld, F., van der Pligt, J. & de Vries, N. K. (1999). Attitudes towards smoking and the subjective importance of attributes: Implications for changing risk-benefit ratios. Swiss Journal of Psychology.
Wang, M. & Chen, Y. (2006). Age Differences in Attitude Change: Influences of Cognitive Resources and Motivation on Responses to Argument Quantity. Psychology and Aging. 21(3), 581-589.
Further Reading
1 comment:
Official Essay Feedback
Overall
You had some interesting points- I would have liked you to expand on the issue of attitude change not affecting behaviour. You covered the theories well, and the criticism of the smoking ads was backed by your research.
Theory
Explained theories generally well. I had to reread your section on weak attitudes to smoking and research- it could have been a little more clear.
Research
Good use of research to support your arguments. The Chinese study is really interesting.
Written Expression
A few typo's and grammatical errors in your essay. Your APA formatting needs some work as well. You need to italicise journal titles and issue numbers, and include page numbers. Also check on how you reference websites.
Online Engagement
You're right about online engagement- once you're doing it it's not that scary. More posts on other people's blogs encourages them to post to you as well - just like a face-to-face conversation, so good luck with it for your next blog.
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