Valence Asymmetry in Attitude Formation

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (6) ◽  
pp. 650-655 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalie J. Shook ◽  
Russ Clay

A considerable amount of research indicates that political conservatives and liberals perceive their social worlds very differently, with conservatives perceiving the world more negatively than liberals. Two studies examined how these varying perceptions may develop by exploring the relation between political ideology and attitude formation. In both studies, participants completed an evaluative conditioning paradigm in which novel stimuli were paired with either positive or negative images. Political conservatives were more susceptible to conditioning with negative stimuli than conditioning with positive stimuli as compared to political liberals. Specifically, conservatives were less susceptible to conditioning with positive stimuli than liberals. Conditioning with negative stimuli did not differ by political ideology. These findings suggest fundamental differences in the formation of positive versus negative attitudes between conservatives and liberals.

2020 ◽  
pp. 095679762096852
Author(s):  
Tal Moran ◽  
Sean Hughes ◽  
Ian Hussey ◽  
Miguel A. Vadillo ◽  
Michael A. Olson ◽  
...  

Evaluative conditioning is one of the most widely studied procedures for establishing and changing attitudes. The surveillance task is a highly cited evaluative-conditioning paradigm and one that is claimed to generate attitudes without awareness. The potential for evaluative-conditioning effects to occur without awareness continues to fuel conceptual, theoretical, and applied developments. Yet few published studies have used this task, and most are characterized by small samples and small effect sizes. We conducted a high-powered ( N = 1,478 adult participants), preregistered close replication of the original surveillance-task study (Olson & Fazio, 2001). We obtained evidence for a small evaluative-conditioning effect when “aware” participants were excluded using the original criterion—therefore replicating the original effect. However, no such effect emerged when three other awareness criteria were used. We suggest that there is a need for caution when using evidence from the surveillance-task effect to make theoretical and practical claims about “unaware” evaluative-conditioning effects.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans Alves ◽  
Fabia Högden ◽  
Anne Gast ◽  
Frederik Aust ◽  
Christian Unkelbach

People often form attitudes about objects, individuals, or groups by examining and com-paring their attributes. Such attribute-based attitude formation is guided by a differentiation principle: Whether people come to like or dislike an attitude object depends on the object’s attributes that differentiate it from other objects. Attributes that are redundant with previ-ously-encountered attitude objects are typically “cancelled” out. We tested whether the same differentiation principle applies to co-occurrence-based attitude formation, also known as Evaluative Conditioning. This form of attitude formation describes the phenome-non that attitudes are influenced by positive or negative stimuli that have co-occurred with the attitude object, but which are not inherent attributes of the attitude object itself. Across seven experiments (N = 1611), we consistently found that co-occurrence-based attitude formation is guided by the same differentiation principle as attribute-based attitude for-mation. Specifically, participants’ attitudes towards unknown brands were most strongly influenced by positive or negative stimuli that distinctly co-occurred with a specific brand, and that differentiated that brand from previously-encountered ones. Stimuli that redun-dantly co-occurred with multiple brands had weaker influences on brand attitudes. The re-sults further suggest that differentiation operates at the learning stage during which distinct stimulus co-occurrences enjoy a processing advantage. We discuss the present findings’ theoretical and practical implications for attitude formation and identify differentiation as a possible cause of biased attitudes.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (10-3) ◽  
pp. 82-92
Author(s):  
Gekkaya Funda

The formation of external policy of any country aims at serving the state’s interests. For this matter, many countries seek their way through this by taking into account the potential prospects available to them. The fundamental subtleties and factors that influence a state’s choices of external policy include geographical location, history, security, culture, trade, political ideology, military might, et cetera. Countries often make external contacts based on some regulations and response to unfolding events. Thus, external policy to an extent pertains to the guiding principles outlined to be pursued through state values, decisions and actions taken by the states themselves and their attempt to develop, manage and control the external relations of national societies. In this regard, the Caucasian region has been an important factor in Turkey’s foreign policy. Since these states emerged in the early 1990s, energy has taken a center stage within the region, while Turkey remains a transit route to the world...


2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-51
Author(s):  
Md. Nazmul Islam ◽  
Yılmaz Bingöl ◽  
Israel Nyaburi Nyadera ◽  
Gershon Dagba

This article aims to examine the legacy and policy of AK Party in Turkey, Ennahda’s political movement in Tunisia, and Jamaat-e-Islami (BJI) in Bangladesh, which is ostensibly identified with Islamic political ideology and acquainted with the world as a ‘moderate-conservative political Islam party.’ The study interrogates the nature, processes, and the characteristic features of the three countries’ administrative system, comparatively from three regions of the world, particularly from the Middle East and Europe region, Africa and Arab region, and the South Asian region. This study also highlights these political parties’ history, political ideology differences, and their practices reflective of democratic principles from a theoretical perspective on politics, policy, and philosophy. It also acknowledges whether the political development of Turkey from 2002 onward is feasible for Bangladeshi and Tunisian Islamic political parties to accept as a role model in their political arena.


2021 ◽  
pp. 136843022097829
Author(s):  
Rosemary L. Al-Kire ◽  
Michael H. Pasek ◽  
Jo-Ann Tsang ◽  
Joseph Leman ◽  
Wade C. Rowatt

Attitudes toward immigrants and immigration policies are divisive issues in American politics. These attitudes are influenced by factors such as political orientation and religiousness, with religious and conservative individuals demonstrating higher prejudice toward immigrants and refugees, and endorsing stricter immigration policies. Christian nationalism, an ideology marked by the belief that America is a Christian nation, may help explain how religious nationalist identity influences negative attitudes toward immigrants. The current research addresses this through four studies among participants in the US. Across studies, our results showed that Christian nationalism was a significant and consistent predictor of anti-immigrant stereotypes, prejudice, dehumanization, and support for anti-immigrant policies. These effects were robust to inclusion of other sources of anti-immigrant attitudes, including religious fundamentalism, nationalism, and political ideology. Further, perceived threats from immigrants mediated the relationship between Christian nationalism and dehumanization of immigrants, and attitudes toward immigration policies. These findings have implications for our understanding of the relations between religious nationalism and attitudes toward immigrants and immigration policy in the US, as well as in other contexts.


2015 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 842-851 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul E. Stillman ◽  
Jay J. Van Bavel ◽  
William A. Cunningham

Organisms must constantly balance appetitive needs with vigilance for potential threats. Recent research suggests that the amygdala may play an important role in both of these goals. Although the amygdala plays a role in processing motivationally relevant stimuli that are positive or negative, negative information often appears to carry greater weight. From a functional perspective, this may reflect the fact that threatening stimuli generally require action, whereas appetitive stimuli can often be safely ignored. In this study, we examine whether amygdala activation to positive stimuli may be more sensitive to task goals than negative stimuli, which are often related to self-preservation concerns. During fMRI, participants were presented with two images that varied on valence and extremity and were instructed to focus on one of the images. Results indicated that negative stimuli elicited greater amygdala activity regardless of task relevance. In contrast, positive stimuli only led to a relative increase in amygdala activity when they were task relevant. This suggests that the amygdala may be more responsive to negative stimuli regardless of their relevance to immediate goals, whereas positive stimuli may only elicit amygdala activity when they are relevant to the perceivers' goals. This pattern of valence asymmetry in the human amygdala may help balance approach-related goal pursuit with chronic self-preservation goals.


Philosophy ◽  
1944 ◽  
Vol 19 (74) ◽  
pp. 195-215
Author(s):  
J. W. Harvey

Contemplating the catastrophic course of the Nazi Revolution we may well find it all too easy to see nothing in the spectacle but the nether darkness made visible; and if we are advised that it is not merely permissible but highly advisable to learn from the enemy, we may be tempted to think that whatever the Nazi war-machine has to teach the strategist and the technician, the political history of Germany in the last decade, and in particular the political ideology that has imposed itself upon the German mind with such apparent thoroughness, can yield only the negative lesson of a warning, by displaying upon the world-wide stage the doomful consequences of wrong principles ruthlessly pushed to their extreme. But it is certainly an error to deny that nothing of more positive value has emerged out of the revolutionary cauldron: and indeed it would be more than strange, where such whole-hearted energies of mind are being enlisted in the evil cause of Nazism, if none of its votaries had ever stumbled for a time into wisdom.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 90-100
Author(s):  
Akmal Akhmatovich Jumayev ◽  

Background. The article focuses on specific similarities of the peoples of the world in their views on the crow. Also in myths, in German and Uzbek fairy tales, the portrayal of the crow in positive and negative images was analysed comparatively. All folk tales lead to good. The same lesson is also reflected in the article on the educational significance of the two folk tales. Methods. Particular attention is paid to the fact that the peoples of the world have certain similarities in their views on the crow. The image of the Crow also moved to fairy tales based on Legends. Results. In the fairy tale, it is not explained why the hero became a crow. It is known that in fairy tales the evolution of children to different birds (often owl or crow) is described either because of some side work of their father, or because of his own senselessness. Discussions. In German fairy tales Interesting is that in “Die sieben Raben“ “The seven ravens”, “Die Rabe“ ‘The raven” fairy tales, a crow is not just an ordinary bird, but a symbol of children. In Uzbek fairy tales, the image of birds is focused on fostering such positive personal qualities as industriousness, honesty and friendliness.


2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-112
Author(s):  
Farida Kurniawati ◽  
Sulistami Prihandini

Teachers’ attitude is an important factor that influences the quality of the implementation of inclusive education. The quality of inclusive education is part of the quality of education in general in a country. The quality of education of countries around the world is measured by the United Nations using the Human Development Index and placing countries in the very high, high, medium, and low categories. Systematic review was carried out to  get an idea of ​​the attitudes of teachers towards inclusive education and the factors that influence it in countries based on the HDI category. By using three electronic search engines for academic data, namely EBSCOhost, ProQuest, and Taylor & Francis Online, 18 articles reporting teacher attitudes towards inclusive education in various countries were discussed. The results found that there were no differences in teacher attitudes towards inclusive education between countries with very high and high HDI categories with countries in the moderate HDI category. Knowledge of children with disabilities and teaching experiences of these children is known to influence the attitudes of teachers towards inclusive education in countries with all HDI categories. The support from community, the availability of professional assistance, and the length of the implementation of inclusive education are factors that influence the attitudes of teachers in very high and high HDI categories countries, while the negative perception of disability makes teachers held negative attitudes towards inclusive education. Recommendations for improving the review of this topic are discussed in this study


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