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Attitude formation through exploration: valence asymmetries
Russell H Fazio1, J Richard Eiser2, Natalie J Shook1
1Department of Psychology.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
|September 24, 2004
Summary
Exploratory behavior shapes attitudes toward new things. People learn and form attitudes, showing a bias towards negative information and stronger generalization from negative experiences.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Attitude Formation
- Behavioral Learning
Background:
- Attitudes are crucial for navigating the environment.
- Understanding how attitudes form toward novel stimuli is key.
- Exploratory behavior plays a role in information acquisition.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate attitude formation towards novel objects.
- To examine the influence of exploratory behavior on attitude development.
- To identify and explain valence asymmetries in learning and generalization.
Main Methods:
- Participants engaged in a computer game to learn stimulus outcomes.
- The study involved four experiments examining learning and generalization.
- Analysis focused on the relationship between exploratory behavior and attitude valence.
Main Results:
- Demonstrated learning, attitude formation, and generalization to novel objects.
- Identified a learning asymmetry: better learning for negative than positive stimuli.
- Observed a generalization asymmetry: stronger generalization from negative than positive attitudes.
Conclusions:
- Learning asymmetry explained by information gain contingent on approach behavior.
- Generalization asymmetry linked to a negativity bias in evaluating resemblance.
- Exploratory behavior is fundamental to attitude formation and valence asymmetries.