How Attitudes Are Formed Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

How Attitudes Are Formed - Essay Example Attitudes once formed play a vital role in governing the behaviors of the people (Albarracin, Johnson & Zanna, 2005). Many factors can have an influence on forming the attitude of the people, which includes learning from social environment, evaluation of social aspects, personal beliefs, cultural and religious norms, heredity factors, and personal or family life experiences. Since the attitude is directly in proportion to behaviors and behaviors have a direct impact on the actions of an individual, therefore, a positive attitude can only come under formation when one’s perception is optimistic. Cognitive, behavioral, and affective components also help in forming one’s attitude. There can be many theories that define how a person can form his attitude, amongst which two theories – Mere Exposure and Classical Conditioning comes under discussion below (Albarracin, Johnson & Zanna, 2005). Mere Exposure is one theory that defines that a recurring confrontation with an object or a person presides over the fondness of an individual as it influences the perception. For example, if a person is repeatedly watching a television serial or listens to a song repeatedly, each time his understanding of the images he watch or the sound he listen becomes better and his perception transforms into either his liking or boredom (Fiske, 2010).