Human beings have a unique ability to create elaborate predispositions and evaluations based on their social experiences. The concept of attitudes is central to understanding how experience gives rise to these predispositions, and psychologists have spent the best part of the past 100 years trying to understand the intricacies of this process. Yet, despite decades of research, we still do not fully understand how attitudes are created, maintained and changed.

The main objective of this book is to review and integrate some of the most recent, cutting-edge developments in research on attitudes and attitude change, presenting the work of eminent scholars in this field. Chapters in this book deal with such intriguing questions as: What role do associative processes play in the formation of attitudes? How do attitudes function as global and local action guides? What is the function of implicit evaluations, and vicarious experiences in producing attitude change? Are implicit associations a useful way to measure attitudes? What role does affect play in attitude formation and change? What role do social interaction processes play in persuasion, and how does persuasion work in real-life settings?

The book is essential reading for students and researchers in social psychology, as well as practitioners in every field where understanding and changing attitudes is important, such as clinical, counseling, organizational, marketing, forensic, and developmental psychology.

Reviews

"[A] richly informative, valuable book … The editors and contributors to this volume … have done a marvelous job of getting to the root of the key issues in contemporary research and theory in this area. … The 17 essays are uniformly interesting and accessible, and many are quite provacative. Imperative for those involved with the study of attitude, this volume will also interest readers with interests well beyond the bounds of attitude research. Essential [for] lower-division undergraduaugh [to] faculty and professionals." – R. R. Cornelius in CHOICE

"Attitude is arguably the most enduring and central construct in social psychology, surfacing across almost the entire terrain of the discipline. In this wonderfully accessible book, Forgas, Cooper and Crano have assembled a truly stellar cast of leading scholars of the psychology of attitudes and attitude change to illustrate the breadth, diversity and scientific exhilaration of contemporary attitude research." - Professor Mike Hogg, Claremont Graduate University

"Like other offerings in the Sydney Symposium series, this volume presents cutting-edge science on carefully selected topics written by leading researchers and theorists. A must read for scholars and students interested in where contemporary attitudes research is at, and where it is heading." - Professor Arie Kruglanski, University of Maryland

"The editors have compiled an impressive set of contributions conveying important developments at the le...