Solomon et al (2010) defined attitude as general evaluation of people (including oneself), other objects, concepts, or situations. In more complex way, attitude can be defined as a mental state involving beliefs, feelings, experiences, personality and values that enable individuals to behave in certain ways (Borkowski 2005). Brida et al. (2011) argued that attitudes are similar to beliefs, but they possess an evaluative component in addition to general beliefs. The formation of attitude is presented in detail by Cohen & Reed (2006) in a comprehensive model named ‘Multiple pathway
anchoring and adjustment of attitude generation and recruitment’. The construction of attitudes starts with the exposure to the concept/object in context and follow by the consideration of outside references, situation factors and personal factors. (Solomon et al 2010; Borkowski 2005; Brida et al. 2011 and Cohen & Reed 2006)
According to Solomon et al (2002), the functional theory of attitudes was initially developed by psychologist Daniel Katz to explain the reason why attitudes exist and how they facilitate social behaviour. Thus in order to understand attitude we have to know its functions:
Utilitarian function: based on principles of reward and punishment. The attitude is developed based on self-interests of the object, whether the object provide us pleasure or pain. The self-interest play crucial part whenever one’s wealth, power or prestige are involved. Boninger et al (1995) argued that regarding to a government policy issue, people who are directly being affected by the issue would likely have high perceived self-interest. In this study, EU operators are the ones who are being affected directly by EUTR and they would likely form certain attitudes toward the regulation. The attitudes that serve a ‘utilitarian’ function provide guidance in maximising personal benefits and minimising the penalties or cost. (Eaton & Visser 2008; Solomon et al 2010 and Boninger et al 1995)
Value-expressive function: the value of self-concept. It is the way we reflect on ourselves through different object or behaviour. When a company in favour of purchasing timber or timber product from sustainable source, it generates image of a responsible company that concern about environment.
Ego-defensive function: The attitude that are formed to protect the person from either external threats or internal feelings. This function of attitudes enables one to avoid acknowledging undesirable aspects of the self-concept. (Eaton & Visser 2008 and Prislin 1996)
Knowledge function: The attitude can also be formed due to the need of information, meaning or structure. This need occurs when a person is facing ambiguous situation or confront with new issues with no previous experience. The knowledge can be working
knowledge (conceptual) which is the belief and behaviours that people are able to retrieve
about the object or self-reported knowledge (perceptual) which reflects their own perception on how knowledgeable they are about the object. Study shows that attitudes accompanied more with working knowledge are more resistant to change. (Solomon et al. 2010; Prislin 1996 and Argyriou & Melewar 2011)
An attitude can serve more than one function but there would be a dominant function which has great influence in creating the attitude. Understanding function of attitude enable marketers and policy makers influence on peoples’ attitude toward a product or a policy. In contrary to the traditional belief that attitudes are stable predisposition, Argyriou & Melewar (2011) highlighted that situations can interfere with attitudes and cause changes. (Solomon et al 2010 and Argyriou & Melewar 2011)
Attitude consists of three components which are affect, behaviour and cognition. Affect presents the way person feels about an object. Cognitive refers to the beliefs and knowledge the person has regarding that object. Behaviour indicates the person’s intention to have certain action toward the object. According to Rutenberg (2003), the first two components, affective and cognitive, are the determinants of attitudes. A person’s evaluation can be based on the person’s beliefs and feeling toward the object. The dominant of each component varies according to individual situation. Nevertheless, the intention may not turn into actual action. Giner-Sorolla (2004) showed that affective attitudes tended to be faster than cognitive under extreme situation but slower at normal condition. Solomon et al. (2010) presented the three hierarchies of effects in his book as the sequence of steps occurs that lead to an attitude. Figure 4.5 reproduces the three different hierarchies model created by Solomon et al. (2010).
Figure 4.5. Three Hierarchies of Effects (source: Solomon et al 2010)
In the experiential hierarchy when affect comes before behaviour and belief, individual act on the basis of their emotional reactions. Low involvement hierarchy happens when an individual does not have strong initial preference and acts on limited knowledge. In this situation, individual assigns belief to the object then try it out and develops the feeling after trial. The last hierarchy which is standard learning hierarchy follows this pattern: first beliefs are formed toward the object, then come the feeling and afterward is the intention behaviour. This type of hierarchy is related to the problem-solving process. (Solomon et al 2010 and Solomon 2004)
The hierarchy can have significant effect on how stable and consistent the attitudes will be and also how difficult it would be to change these attitudes. In addition, the type of involvement determines how extends the search for information will be and how rational the decision rules are going to be. Higher involvement individual tends to have more consistent attitudes since their decision making process is more thorough with a lot of information search, moderate evaluation of different attributes. Whereas, low involvement individual can easily change their attitude since their decision are not necessarily rational. In addition to the knowledge and information processing, attitude strength is also an important component that affect directly to the ability of attitude changed. Brinol & Petty (2006) stated that persuasion is an effective way to change attitude. Basic mechanism of
persuasion include variables that can affect the amount of information processing (communication channel, information accessibility); can generate bias thoughts on the object; can be served as persuasive arguments or evidence and can create confidence for the person toward those thoughts. Those persuasive variables can be message, recipient, and part of the source or certain context. The model on fundamental processes in attitude change created by Brinol & Petty (2006) explains all the antecedents that may cause attitude changes and also the consequences of that. Under the scope of this study, standard learning hierarchy is more applicable since company is highly conscious of their action and attitude toward different policies and regulations. (Solomon et al. 2010; Solomon 2004 and Brinol & Petty 2006)