Technical Report #148

Reasoning and Weighting of Attribute in Attitude Judgments

Gary M. Levine, Jamin B. Halberstadt, and Robert L. Goldstone

Abstract

Two experiments examined processes by which analyzing reasons may influence attitude judgments. Participants made multiple liking judgments on sets of stimuli that varied along six a priori dimensions. In Study 1, the stimulus set consisted of 64 cartoon faces with six binary-valued attributes (e.g., a straight versus a crooked nose). In Study 2, the stimuli were 60 digitized photographs from a college yearbook that varied along six dimensions uncovered through multi-dimensional scaling. In each experiment, half of the participants were instructed to think about the reasons why they liked each face before making their liking rating. Participants' multiple liking ratings were then regressed on the dimension values to determine how they weighted each dimension in their liking judgments. Results support a process whereby reasoning leads to increased variability and inconsistency in the weighting of stimulus information. Results are discussed with respect to Wilson's model of the disruptive effects of reasoning on attitude judgments (e.g., Wilson, Dunn, Kraft, & Lisle, 1989).