A categorical perspective on attitudes : implications for perceived change, persuasive targeting, and the attitude-behavior relationship

Attitudes and categorical perception are two of the most studied topics in psychology and marketing. Indeed, both areas have been around for decades (at a minimum) and researchers have published hundreds if not thousands of articles on the topics. Surprisingly, though, these two literatures have largely advanced in isolation. This dissertation represents an initial step toward integrating the two. Across four essays, I draw from findings in categorical perception to answer important outstanding questions in the attitudes domain. In Essay 1 (Bechler, Tormala, & Rucker, 2019), I examine the role that categorical perception plays in how people perceive attitude change. Surprisingly, despite the vast research on attitude change and persuasion, as a field we have virtually zero insight into perceived attitude change—that is, how people assess the magnitude of a shift in someone's attitude or opinion. Across six primary experiments and a series of supplemental studies (total N = 2,880), I find consistent support for a qualitative change hypothesis, whereby qualitative attitude change (change of valence, or category; e.g., from negative to positive) is perceived as greater than otherwise equivalent non-qualitative attitude change (change within valence; e.g., from negative to less negative or from positive to more positive). This effect is mediated by ease of processing: Qualitative attitude change is easier for people to detect and understand than non-qualitative attitude change, and this ease amplifies the degree of perceived change. I examine downstream consequences of this effect and discuss theoretical, methodological, and practical implications. Essay 2 (Bechler, Tormala, & Rucker, 2020) builds upon the result from Essay 1. In Essay 2, I examine how perceived attitude change—which is influenced by category boundaries (Essay 1)—affects how individuals choose the targets of their persuasion. Although advocacy is a topic of increasing import in the attitudes literature, researchers know little to nothing about how people (i.e., persuaders) choose their targets (i.e., the recipients of their advocacy). Four main experiments and six supplemental studies (total N = 3,684) demonstrate that people prefer to direct persuasion efforts toward individuals who seem poised to shift their attitudes qualitatively (i.e., categorically; e.g., from negative to positive) rather than non-qualitatively (e.g., from positive to more positive). This preference stems from the fact that qualitative attitude change is perceived as greater in magnitude and expected to have a larger impact on behavior. These findings provide initial insight into the factors that drive persuasion target selection, and are inconsistent with what past persuasion research, conventional marketing wisdom, and my empirical evidence suggests persuaders should do. People tend to select persuasion targets they believe they can change qualitatively, but at least sometimes can have more persuasive impact by targeting individuals who are already leaning in their direction. In Essay 3 (Bechler & Tormala, 2021), I extend the basic ideas from Essay 2 and apply them to coronavirus-related topics and behaviors, such as wearing a mask/face covering in public. Across three experiments (total N = 1,595), I find that people who strongly support this behavior generally try to persuade others who are slightly against the behavior, in line with the results from Essay 2. However, also replicating the results from Essay 2, strong supporters can have more persuasive impact by targeting people who are already slightly in favor but could be shifted to a more extreme position. In Essay 4 (Bechler, Tormala, & Rucker, forthcoming), I explore the influence of categorical perception on the attitude-behavior relationship. The relationship between attitudes and behavior has been highly researched, and the vast majority of this research merely considers the possibility that the relationship is linear. However, observations from 3,128 Mechanical Turkers and 321,876 online reviews demonstrate that this relationship is systematically nonlinear. Across diverse topics, measures, and contexts, as attitudes move from extremely negative to extremely positive, the corresponding shift in behavior tends to be relatively flat at first (as attitude move from extremely to moderately negative), to steepen when attitudes cross neutral and shift from negative to positive, and to taper off again as attitudes move from moderately to extremely positive. This result can be explained based on research on categorical perception. Essay 4 suggests a fundamental pivot in how researchers construe, study, and assess the attitude-behavior relationship. Collectively, in these four essays, I ask important outstanding questions in psychology and marketing. How do people perceive attitude change? How do people choose the targets of persuasive messages/advertisements and how can these targeting decisions be improved? How do attitudes guide behavior? I employ a categorical perspective to provide important and initial answers to these questions. Even though attitudes are frequently measured continuously, people often perceive them categorically. As such, people tend to perceive attitude change as larger when it crosses category boundaries, tend to choose targets whose attitudes are poised to shift across category boundaries, and tend to exhibit greater differences in behavior when their attitudes are around category boundaries. Essays 1 and 2 (Chapters 1 and 2) of this dissertation were published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Essay 3 (Chapter 3) was published in the Journal of the Association of Consumer Research, and Essay 4 (Chapter 4) is forthcoming in Psychological Science. I am the first author in each of these essays. Each essay employs the use of first-person plural pronouns to emphasize the critical contributions made by my collaborators

Keywords: Business.
Advisor: Levav Jonathan
Tormala Zakary L. 
Huang Szu-chi 
Wheeler S. Christian