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Management Practices and Organisational Behaviour

Notes 2. Attitude Relevance: Another factor that affects the attitude-behaviour link is relevance.
Attitudes that address an issue in which we have some self-interest are more relevant for
us, and our subsequent behaviour is consistent with our expressed attitude.
3. Timing of Measurement: The timing of the measurement also affects attitude-behaviour
correspondence. The shorter the time between the attitude measurement and the observed
behaviour, the stronger the relationship.
4. Personality Factors: Personality factors also influence the attitude-behaviour link. One
personality disposition that affects the consistency between attitudes and behaviour is
self-monitoring. Low self-monitors display greater correspondence between their attitudes
and behaviours. High self-monitors display little correspondence between their attitudes
and behaviours because they behave according to signals from others and from the
environment.

5. Social Constraints: Social constraints affect the relationship between attitudes and
behaviour. The social context provides information about acceptable attitudes and
behaviours.

9.6.7 Persuasion and Attitude Change

People who depend for their living on changing attitudes, such as politicians and advertisers
usually rely on more direct techniques than cognitive dissonance for inducing attitude change.
Through some message, they hope to convince their audience to adopt a favourable view of
their product, candidate, or idea. The elaboration likelihood model of persuasion, presented in
the Figure 9.2 below, proposes that persuasion occurs over one of two routes: the central route
and the peripheral route.

Figure 9.2: The Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion

Attitude change
(Central Route) High Processing depending on quality
Careful
Elaboration
of arguments
Message
Attitude change
depending on source
Low Absence of careful characteristics or
(Peripheral Route)
Elaboration processing
non-substantial aspects
of the message.

Source: R.E Petty and J Cacioppo, "The Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion", in L Berkowitz ed.,
Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, Vol. 19 (New York: Academic Press) 1986 page 123 - 205.
1. Central Route to Persuasion: Also called the systematic mode, occurs when the recipient
of a persuasive message thinks about and evaluates the quality of the arguments presented
in the communication, and either agrees or disagrees with the message on the basis of this
evaluation. The central route to persuasion involves direct cognitive processing of the
message's content. When an issue is personally relevant, the individual is motivated to
think carefully about it. In the central route, the content of the message is very important.
If the arguments presented are logical and convincing, attitude change will follow.
Persuasion via the central route is not simply a matter of having some good arguments.
It is a complex process, which can be broken down into five stages:
(a) Attention: The target audience must notice it and pay attention to it long enough to
be exposed to your persuasive communication. If your arguments are uninteresting
to your target, your arguments will have no effect.

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