ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses several questions at the heart of research on resistance to influence. It deals with the question of attitude strength. Like attitude importance, public commitment to an attitude is likely to strengthen the attitude and make the attitude more resistant to influence. Often, this resistance to influence is beneficial. The cognitive features of strong attitudes also increase their resistance to change. Attitudes about abortion, for example, are often connected to attitudes about religion, morality, freedom, personal liberty, women’s rights, and so on. Historically, researchers examining the relationship between attitude strength and resistance to influence have focused on whether greater attitude strength causes resistance. Rich Petty and his colleagues have begun to examine the relationship in the other direction – whether resistance causes greater attitude strength. The chapter also presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book.
