ABSTRACT
How do you feel about sentencing criminals to the electric chair? Is the death penalty a positive weapon against crime? A necessary evil? A disgusting anachronism? How would you describe your attitude? What would make you change your mind? This book explores the cognitive processes involved in attitude change. Let's say that you and three friends have been asked how you feel about capital punishment by a national opinion-polling organization. Each of your friends indicates on an attitude scale (the one shown in Table 1.1 is typical of those used in attitude research) that he or she feels "somewhat unfavorable." What does this tell you about their attitudes? Should you assume that each person has the same attitude? What roles do their attitudes play in their lives? How could you persuade them to change their attitudes?
