ABSTRACT
A ttitudes encapsulate positive and negative feelings, beliefs, and behavioral information about all ranges of “attitude objects,” from people to frozen pizza. In other words, they conveniently summarize how we feel about pretty much everything (Zanna & Rempel, 1988). Good or bad, friend or foe, before we know much about a new acquaintance, car, politician, pair of shoes, or grocery item, we tend to arrive at a decision as to whether we like or dislike them. It is the very “summary” nature of attitudes that make them so effi cient, fl exible, and adaptive (Eagly & Chaiken, 1993; Fazio, 2000). Because they are “precomputed” evaluations, attitudes allow us to navigate a bewilderingly complex world without having to stop and fi gure out from scratch, every time, whether we should get to know that new person a little better, vote for a certain politician, or buy a certain food. People could not survive without attitudes, and psychologists could not paint a full picture of human behavior without them. Given the importance of attitudes in predicting and explaining human behavior, a critical question arises: Where do they come from?
