Page 132 - The Social Animal

114 The Social Animal

gut. They are also transient—that is, they can be changed by good,
clear evidence to the contrary. Thus, if longtime consumer advocate
Ralph Nader (a highly credible source on automobile safety) pre-
sented me with data indicating that seat belts, as they are currently
constructed, do not reduce fatalities significantly, it is likely that I
would change my opinion on that issue.
On the other hand, suppose a person holds the opinion that Jews
engage in dishonest business practices, or that Asians are sneaky, or
that old people are a drain on society, or that the United States of
America is the greatest (or most awful) country in the history of the
world, or that New York City is a jungle. How do these opinions dif-
fer from the ones stated in the preceding paragraph? They tend to be
both emotional and evaluative—that is, they imply likes or dislikes.
Believing Asians are sneaky implies that the person doesn’t like
Asians. The opinion that New York City is a jungle is different from
the opinion that New York City is hot in the summer. The opinion
that New York City is a jungle is not simply cognitive; it carries with
it a negative evaluation and some degree of fear or anxiety. An opin-
ion that includes an evaluative and an emotional component is called
an attitude. Compared with opinions, attitudes are extremely diffi-
cult to change.
Suppose Sam is an ardent and careful consumer who is deeply
concerned about matters of health. Over the years, he has come to
trust Ralph Nader’s research on many issues, including unsafe cars,
cholesterol in hot dogs, hazardous electrical appliances, air pollution,
and so on. But, further, suppose that Sam happens to be a white su-
premacist who believes that the white race is intellectually superior
to all other races. What if Nader conducted an exhaustive study in-
dicating that, when given culture-free intelligence tests, racial mi-
norities score as high as whites? Would this information be likely to
change Sam’s attitude? Probably not. How come? Doesn’t Sam re-
gard Nader as a careful researcher? It is my guess that, because the
issue is rooted in emotion, Nader’s findings about intelligence test-
ing would not influence Sam as easily or as thoroughly as Nader’s
findings about cars, cholesterol, or pollution. Attitudes are harder to
change than simple opinions.
Human thinking is not always logical. Although we humans are
capable of accurate and subtle thinking, we are equally capable of dis-
tortions and great sloppiness in our thought processes. To under-