ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book introduces the study of attitudes and persuasion. It makes an important distinction between education and propaganda; it is noted that most persuasion attempts qualified as propaganda. The book suggests attitudes based on direct experience predict behaviors better than attitudes not formed in this manner, because direct experience makes more information about the attitude object available to the person. It presents some precise mathematical models of how the information that a person receives in a persuasive message is evaluated and integrated to form an overall attitude about a person, object, or issue. The book emphasizes the information that people generate themselves, either in response to a persuasive message or in the absence of a persuasive message. It examines how the inferences that a person makes about a communicator's behavior or the person's own behavior can have implications for a person's attitudes.
