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Content: Cognitive Foundations of Attitudes
The cognitive foundation of attitudes, what might be called beliefs, comes from direct experience with the world or through thinking about the world. Thinking about the world includes any kind of active information processing, such as deliberating, wondering, imagining, and reflecting, as well as through activities such as reading, writing, listening, and talking. If you believe that insects are dirty and disgusting, then you will probably have the attitude that insects are not food. However, if you read that locusts and other insects are happily eaten in some cultures, then you may come to believe that locusts may not be so bad. Your attitude here comes from thinking about the new facts you read. Additionally, if the National Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that exposure to ultraviolet light is the most important environmental factor involved in the formation of skin cancers, and you believe that the CDC is a trustworthy expert, then you might logically reason that excessive sun exposure is not a healthy thing. Here your attitude comes from logically reasoning about the world. Suppose you didn’t know how you felt about a topic until you were forced to write an essay for a writing class. This also would be an example of attitude formation through cognition, in this case, organizing your thoughts in preparation to write a coherent essay. References: