From repetition to conviction: Attitude accessibility as a determinant of attitude certainty

R W Holland, B Verplanken, A van Knippenberg

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

99 Citations (SciVal)

Abstract

The present experiment investigated the influence of attitude accessibility on several meta-attitudinal strength measures. It was predicted that certainty and perceived likelihood of change, i.e., commitment-related attributes of attitude strength, are influenced by changes in attitude accessibility, while no effects were expected for importance and perceived centrality to values and the self, i.e., centrality-related attributes. Accessibility was manipulated by having participants express their attitudes either repeatedly or only once. As hypothesized, accessibility and measures of commitment were enhanced after repeated expression compared to single expression. Furthermore, mediation analyses supported the idea that subjective commitment may be inferred from the ease of attitude retrieval. Centrality-related attributes were found to be unaffected by the accessibility manipulation. The results are discussed in the light of a multi-dimensional structure of attitude strength and antecedent processes of meta-cognitive attributes of strength. [2005 Impact Factor: 1.671]
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)594-601
Number of pages8
JournalJournal of Experimental Social Psychology
Volume39
Issue number6
Publication statusPublished - 2003

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