Eagly
Social Cognition, Vol. 25, No. 5,2007, pp. 582-602
THE ADVANTAGES OF AN INCLUSIVE DEFINITION OF ATTITUDE
Alice H. Eagly Northwestern University Shelly Ghaiken Berkeley, CA
In The Psychology of Attitudes, we provided an abstract—or umbrella—definition of attitude as "a psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degree of favor or disfavor" (Eagly & Chaiken, 1993, p. 1). This definition encompasses the key features of attitudes—namely, tendency, entity (or attitude object), and evaluation. This conception of attitude distinguishes between the inner tendency that is attitude and the evaluative responses that express attitudes. Our definition invites psychologists to specify the natureof attitudes by proposing theories that provide metaphors for the constituents of the inner tendency that is attitude. We advocate theoretical metaphors that endow attitudes with structural qualities.
New efforts to contemplate the definition of attitude are welcome in light of innovations in attitude theory and research. Researchers have the burden of figuring out whether the phenomena that they have discovered are compatible with definitions of attitude that emerged in the field in earlier years. After all, Allport (1935) may have believed that he had provided the definition for all time, and this definition lingered for decades in social psychology textbooks. However, his definition became too diffuse as attitude research developed in the second half of the 20th century. If contemporary researchers suspect that the attitudinal phenomena that they have identified may not be compatible with established definitions, there are two possible outcomes: the definition should change, or researchers should think harder to understand how
We thank Wendy Wood for comments on a draft of this article. Please address correspondence to AUce H. Eagly, Department of Psychology, Northwestern University, 2029 Sheridan Rd., Evanston, IL 60208; E-mail:
THE ADVANTAGES OF AN INCLUSIVE DEFINITION OF ATTITUDE
Alice H. Eagly Northwestern University Shelly Ghaiken Berkeley, CA
In The Psychology of Attitudes, we provided an abstract—or umbrella—definition of attitude as "a psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degree of favor or disfavor" (Eagly & Chaiken, 1993, p. 1). This definition encompasses the key features of attitudes—namely, tendency, entity (or attitude object), and evaluation. This conception of attitude distinguishes between the inner tendency that is attitude and the evaluative responses that express attitudes. Our definition invites psychologists to specify the natureof attitudes by proposing theories that provide metaphors for the constituents of the inner tendency that is attitude. We advocate theoretical metaphors that endow attitudes with structural qualities.
New efforts to contemplate the definition of attitude are welcome in light of innovations in attitude theory and research. Researchers have the burden of figuring out whether the phenomena that they have discovered are compatible with definitions of attitude that emerged in the field in earlier years. After all, Allport (1935) may have believed that he had provided the definition for all time, and this definition lingered for decades in social psychology textbooks. However, his definition became too diffuse as attitude research developed in the second half of the 20th century. If contemporary researchers suspect that the attitudinal phenomena that they have identified may not be compatible with established definitions, there are two possible outcomes: the definition should change, or researchers should think harder to understand how
We thank Wendy Wood for comments on a draft of this article. Please address correspondence to AUce H. Eagly, Department of Psychology, Northwestern University, 2029 Sheridan Rd., Evanston, IL 60208; E-mail: