In the field of psychology, the study attitude formation is key in learning people’s behavior. During decision making process, people behave differently due to their varying cognitions (opinions and beliefs). The cognitions ultimately form an attitude that influences decisions in various ways. A positive belief or opinions leads to a positive attitude and vice versa. In most cases, people experience cognitive dissonance and it is upon the reinforcement of one cognition that a person is able to make a decision by discarding the less reinforced cognition. Therefore, the research paper seeks to explore the impact of attitude formation on a people’s voting pattern and the role played by cognitive dissonance in determining how a voter ultimately votes in an election.
Keywords: Attitude formation, cognitive dissonance, cognitions, and decision making.
Define in detail “Attitude Formation” and “Cognitive Dissonance.” OBJECTIVELY analyze how attitude formation impacts how a voter or voters will vote in an election. What role might cognitive dissonance play in how a voter ultimately votes.
Attitude Formation and Cognitive Dissonance.
Introduction
In the field of psychology, attitude formation refers to the process through which individuals evaluates places, persons, things, and situations. Learning is directly linked to the formation of attitude. According to Kalat (2017) attitude formation is a growing concept of interest in the study of psychology since attitudes control a person’s behavior as well as the process of decision making among individuals. Notably, attitude refers to the value that a person attaches to someone or something. Moreover, an attitude can generally be described as a long lasting negative or positive feeling or opinion that individual might have towards a person, issue, or object. Considerably, attitude formation can be as a result of a person’s direct experience with something or someone, through interaction or through the media. Similarly, attitudes may develop as a result of social interactions or psychological needs. Notably, there are a number of attitude formation theories which forms the basis to the study of how an individual’s attitude is formed or how the attitude came into existence. One of the widely covered theory is the cognitive dissonance. The theory was proposed by psychologist Leon Festinger who suggested that people are likely to possess an inner feeling to make sure that there is consistency between their beliefs and behaviors. Thus, when there is inconsistency between the attitudes and behaviors (dissonance), a person must strive to eliminate that imbalance. Cognitive from the word cognition refers to things like beliefs and opinions which a person hold towards and object, which ultimately controls an individual’s behavior. Hence, in case there is incongruity between attitudes and behaviors, a person must change the attitude to accommodate the behavior. Therefore, this paper seeks to explore the impact of attitude formation on a people’s voting pattern and the role played by cognitive dissonance in determining how a voter ultimately votes in an election.
Voting is a process through which electorates make decisions or express their opinions following campaigns. Essentially, it is vital to understand that voting involves the process of decision making which reflects people’s opinions. As mentioned earlier, decision making is shaped by the attitude, beliefs and opinions that a voter has towards a certain candidate. Opinions and beliefs are inner feeling that eventually controls an individual’s behavior. A direct experience with someone or something either through hearing or seeing leads to an evaluation. The attitude one has towards something or someone influences the evaluation process. Remarkably, people tend to form attitudes about something or someone upon direct experience. Attitudes determine the value we assign to an object.
In an election process, attitude formation play a key role in the way a voter casts the vote. An attitude can be positive or negative. It is argued that attitude formation is as a result of exposure or direct experience that a person has towards an object (Van Kleef, van den Berg " Heerdink, 2015, pp. 1124). During the election process, various candidates in an election forms an object being referred to. Hence, the attitude that a voter develops as a result of constant contact with the aspirant determines whether a person (voter) will vote for a certain contender or not. Attitudes can be changed or influenced. During the campaign process, an aspirant who has high convincing power might end up persuading the voter to change the attitude held by the voter. However, it is imperative to note that an attitude can change from negative to positive and vice versa. It is the reason as to why most contenders are always keen in developing their strategies and messages meant to influence the voters’ attitudes positively. Nevertheless, reckless utterances and lack of being objective can make the voters to develop negative attitude towards a certain aspirant. Notably, attitude is as a result of key evaluation of something or someone. A contender in an election must understand the needs of voters and communicate with them in such a way that the voters will feel convinced. Once persuaded, voters will have a positive attitude towards that specific aspirant, an element that will win more votes as opposed to a contender who cannot win the trust of voters.
Notably, persuasion and constant contact with the voters can help an aspirant win and change the opinions of the voters. The voters’ cognitions like opinions and beliefs forms the bigger picture of what shapes an individual’s behavior. In the election process, behavior influences a voter’s decision to vote a certain candidate or not. During elections, most voters are in a state of dissonance because one (voter) has to choose between to alternatives. In most cases, an election might present two or more candidates that are highly and equally attractive. A contender in an election can be attractive in terms of the manifesto and policies presented to the electorates. In an event whereby two aspirants are equally attractive, the voter will be in state of dissonance and that must change to accommodate only one aspirant. Considerably, the need for campaigns plays a key role to change the opinions and perceptions of a voter. Reinforcing an attitude is key here. An aspirant must be able to reinforce a positive attitude among voters. An elector who has two positive cognitions experiences dissonance and thus reinforcement by aspirants is key to help in decision making since the less reinforced opinion is discarded. Consequently, a contender must endeavor to get the voter out of dissonance through persuasion. In cognitive dissonance theory, a person strives to hold the attitudes and behaviors in harmony in a process called cognitive consistency (Monaco, Girandola " Guimelli, 2016, pp. 5). Hence, a candidate in an election will only get to win the heart of a voter if the policies are attractive to the voter making the elector to eliminate the other candidate.
Conclusion
In the field of psychology, the study attitude formation is key in learning people’s behavior. During decision making process, people behave differently due to their varying cognitions (opinions and beliefs). The cognitions ultimately form an attitude that influences decisions in various ways. A positive belief or opinions leads to a positive attitude and vice versa. In most cases, people experience cognitive dissonance and it is upon the reinforcement of one cognition that a person is able to make a decision by discarding the less reinforced cognition. In an election, a voter will vote in line with the attitude towards a certain candidate. Aspirants must strive to persuade voters to have positive attitudes towards them. By doing so, the contender wins the trust of a voter. Therefore, attitude formation is key in influencing people’s behavior and decision making and in the process of an election, aspirants must strive to reinforce positive attitudes among voters in order to win their votes.
References
Kalat, J.W. (2017). Introduction to Psychology (11th ed.). Boston: Cenage Learning.
Monaco, G. L., Girandola, F., " Guimelli, C. (2016). Experiments inter-connecting the structure of social representations, cognitive dissonance, commitment and persuasion: past, present and future. Papers on Social Representations, 25(2), 5-1.
Van Kleef, G. A., van den Berg, H., " Heerdink, M. W. (2015). The persuasive power of emotions: Effects of emotional expressions on attitude formation and change. Journal of Applied Psychology, 100(4), 1124.
