Opinions and attitudes can last when they are based on emotion

Date:
March 9, 2021
Source:
Association for Psychological Science
Summary:
New research reveals that attitudes based on feelings and emotions
can also stand the test of time.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Depending on the topic, people's attitudes can change from moment to
moment or last a lifetime. The factors that make one opinion long-lasting
and another ephemeral, however, are not always clear.


==========================================================================
Past studies have demonstrated that opinions based on hard facts and
data can remain constant over time, but new research published in the
journal Psychological Science reveals that attitudes based on feelings and emotions can also stand the test of time. This research has implications
for both predicting whose attitudes are fixed versus fleeting and how
to nudge people to form more long-lasting opinions.

"We have known that encouraging people to think carefully and rationally
can produce attitudes that change less in the future," said Matthew
Rocklage, a researcher with the University of Massachusetts, Boston,
and co-lead author on the paper. "Our research, however, shows that
opinions based on people's emotional reactions can be particularly
long-lasting as well." As part of their study, the researchers asked
more than 1,000 people to what extent they believed attitudes based on
feelings or emotional reactions were more stable over time than those
based on thinking and rational analysis. Only 15% expressed any belief
that attitudes based on emotion would be more stable over time.

To test the role that emotion plays in forming long-lasting attitudes,
the researchers conducted seven independent studies involving more than
20,000 participants in a variety of real-world situations.

The first survey, which was conducted the day after Christmas, measured feelings about recently received gifts. The timing of this survey allowed
the researchers to measure real-world reactions to a relatively newly
formed attitude.

The participants were given a list of adjectives to describe their
attitudes toward their gifts. Adjectives like "worthwhile" were associated
with a practical reaction to the gift, whereas words like "delightful"
were more strongly associated with an emotional reaction.

One month later, the participants completed a follow-up survey to test
the endurance of their opinions. The results showed that the stronger
the initial positive emotional reaction, the more likely that opinion
remained fixed one month later.

The researchers conducted similar tests using virtually the same procedure
but involving other scenarios, such as how much the participants supported consumer brands over time and how favorable their online restaurant
reviews were between visits.

In the final test, participants read one of two messages about a
fictitious aquatic animal. One message contained encyclopedic facts
about the animal (low- emotion condition). The other message was about
a swimmer's underwater interaction with the animal (high-emotion
condition). The participants in the high-emotion condition showed
significantly less change in their attitude across time.

"Emotionality is an unappreciated predictor of long-lasting
attitudes," said Andrew Luttrell, a researcher at Ball State
University and the other lead author on the paper. "These
findings are important for understanding why some opinions are so
difficult to change as well as how to create opinions that stick." ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by
Association_for_Psychological_Science. Note: Content may be edited for
style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Matthew D. Rocklage, Andrew Luttrell. Attitudes Based on Feelings:
Fixed
or Fleeting? Psychological Science, 2021; 095679762096553 DOI:
10.1177/ 0956797620965532 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/03/210309091314.htm

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