Skip to main content

Attitudinal Judgment: The To and Fro of Assimilation—Contrast

  • Chapter
Social Judgment and Intergroup Relations

Abstract

I welcome this opportunity to acknowledge my intellectual debt to someone I regretfully have never met, but by whom my work has been influenced for over 20 years. When I started my graduate work at the London School of Economics in 1966, my research plans were far from precise. From Henri Tajfel, who had taught me at Oxford, I had acquired a strong interest in issues of categorization, stereotyping and social conflict. These issues I wished to relate in some general way to the concept of attitudes, but it was not until I read Muzafer Sherif’s book with Carl Hovland, Social Judgment (1961), that these loose thoughts took on a more specific focus. As a result, my doctoral research and that of my fellow student Wolfgang Stroebe was very much a critique and extension of the thesis that Sherif and Hovland had presented, and we presented our alternative ideas in our book Categorization and Social Judgement (Eiser & Stroebe, 1972).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • Arcuri, L. (1984). Memory for the statement-source relations: A development of Eiser, van der Pligt and Gossop’s study. British Journal of Social Psychology, 23, 181–83.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Billig, M. (1985). Prejudice, categorization and particularization: From a perceptual to a rhetorical approach. European Journal of Social Psychology, 15, 79–103.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boucher, J., & Osgood, C. E. (1969). The Pollyanna hypothesis. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 8, 1–8.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brown, D. R. (1953). Stimulus-similarity and the anchoring of subjective scales. American Journal of Psychology, 66, 199–214.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Eiser, J. R. (1971a). Comment on Ward’s “Attitude and involvement in the absolute judgment of attitude statements.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 17, 81–83.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eiser, J. R. (1971b). Enhancement of contrast in the absolute judgment of attitude statements. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 17, 1–10.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eiser, J. R. (1986). Social psychology: Attitudes, cognition and social behaviour. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Eiser, J. R., & Mower White, C. J. (1974). Evaluative consistency and social judgment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 30, 349–359.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eiser, J. R., & Stroebe, W. (1972). Categorization and social judgement. London: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eiser, J. R., & van der Pligt, J. (1982). Accentuation and perspective in attitudinal judgment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 42, 224–238.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eiser, J. R., & van der Pligt, J. (1984). Accentuation theory, polarization, and the judgment of attitude statements. In J. R. Eiser (Ed.), Attitudinaljudgment. New York: Springer-Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eiser, J. R., van der Pligt, J., & Gossop, M. R. (1979). Categorization, attitude and memory for the source of attitude statements. European Journal of Social Psychology, 9, 243–251.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eysenck, H. J., & Crown, S. (1949). An experimental study in opinion-attitude methodology. International Journal of Opinion and Attitude Research, 3, 47–86.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fazio, R. H. (1985). How do attitudes guide behavior? In R. M. Sorrentino & E. T. Higgins(Eds.), The handbook of motivation and cognition: Foundations of social behavior. New York: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ferguson, L. S. (1935). The influence of individual attitudes on construction of an attitude scale. Journal of Social Psychology, 6, 115–117.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fiske, S. T., & Taylor, S. E. (1984). Social cognition. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Granberg, D., & Campbell, K. E. (1977). Effect of communication discrepancy and ambiguity on placement and opinion shift. European Journal of Social Psychology, 7, 137–150.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Helson, H. (1964). Adaptation-level theory. New York: Harper & Row.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hinckley, E. D. (1932). The influence of individual opinion on construction of an attitude scale. Journal of Social Psychology, 3, 283–296.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hovland, C. I., & Sherif, M. (1952). Judgmental phenomena and scales of attitude measurement: Item displacement in Thurstone scales. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 47, 822–832.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Manis, M., Paskewitz, J., & Cotler, S. (1986). Stereotypes and social judgment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50, 461–473.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Martin, L. L. (1986). Set re-set: Use and disuse of concepts in impression formation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 493–504.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Peabody, D. (1967). Trait inferences: Evaluative and descriptive aspects. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology Monographs, 7 (2, Pt. 2, Whole No. 642).

    Google Scholar 

  • Petty, R. E., & Cacioppo, J. T. (1986). The elaboration likelihood model of persuasion. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 19). New York: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Romer, D. (1983). Effects of own attitude on polarization of judgment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 44, 273–284.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Selltiz, C, Edrich, H., & Cook, S. W. (1965). Ratings of favorableness about a social group as an indication of attitude toward the group. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2, 408–415.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sherif, C. W., Kelly, M., Rodgers, H. L., Jr., Sarup, G., & Tittler, B. I. (1973). Personal involvement, social judgment and action. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 27, 311–328.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sherif, C. W., Sherif, M., & Nebergall, R. E. (1965). Attitude and attitude change: The social judgment-involvement approach. Philadelphia: Saunders.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sherif, M., & Hovland, C. I. (1961). Social judgment: Assimilation and contrast effects in communication and attitude change. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sherif, M., Taub, D., & Hovland, C. I. (1958). Assimilation and contrast effects of anchoring stimuli on judgment. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 55, 150–155.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tajfel, H. (1957). Value and the perceptual judgment of magnitude. Psychological Review, 64, 192–204.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tajfel, H. (1959). Quantitativejudgment in social perception. British Journal of Psychology, 50, 16–29.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tajfel, H. (1969). Cognitive aspects of prejudice. Journal of Social Issues, 25, 79–97.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tajfel, H. (Ed.) (1978). Differentiation between social groups: Studies in the social psychology of inter group relations. London: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tajfel, H., & Wilkes, A. L. (1963). Classification and quantitativejudgment. British Journal of Psychology, 54, 101–114.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, S. E., Fiske, S. T., Etcoff, N. L., & Ruderman, A. J. (1978). Categorical and contextual bases of person memory and stereotyping. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 36, 778–793.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thurstone, E. L., & Chave, E. J. (1929). The measurement of attitude. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Upshaw, H. S. (1962). Own attitude as an anchor in equal-appearing intervals. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 64, 85–96.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Upshaw, H. S. (1965). The effect of variable perspectives on judgments of opinion statements for Thurstone scales: Equal-appearing intervals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2, 60–69.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Upshaw, H. S. (1969). The personal reference scale: An approach to social judgment. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 4). New York: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Upshaw, H. S., & Ostrom, T. M. (1984). Psychological perspective in attitude research. In J. R. Eiser (Ed.), Attitudinal judgment. New York: Springer-Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • van der Pligt, J., & Eiser, J. R. (1984). Dimensional salience, judgment, and attitudes. In J. R. Eiser (Ed.), Attitudinal judgment. New York: Springer-Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vaughan, K. R. (1961). A disguised instrument for the assessment of intergroup attitudes. Unpublished master’s thesis, Texas College of Arts and Industries, Kingsville, Kingsville, TX.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ward, C. D. (1966). Attitude and involvement in the absolute judgment of attitude statements. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 4, 465–476.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Zavalloni, M., & Cook, S. W. (1965). Influence of judges’ attitudes on ratings of favorableness of statements about a social group. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1, 43–54.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zeigarnik, B. (1927). Dad Behalten erledigter und unerledigter Handlungen. Psychologische Forschung, 9, 1–85.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 1992 Springer-Verlag New York, Inc.

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Eiser, J.R. (1992). Attitudinal Judgment: The To and Fro of Assimilation—Contrast. In: Granberg, D., Sarup, G. (eds) Social Judgment and Intergroup Relations. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-2860-8_6

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-2860-8_6

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-7698-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4612-2860-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics