Factors Influencing Attitude Certainty: Level Of Rationalization, Amount, Consistency Of Information

Attitude certainty refers to the subjective sense of conviction one has about one's attitude, or the extent to which one is confident or sure of one's attitude. It is a metacognitive aspect of attitudes and a important dimension of attitude strength. The more we research it the more we clearly known one's attitude which is the best index of behaviour for now.By reviewing the prior researches, it supposed to be influenced by direct experience with the attitude object, accessibility of the attitude, subjective ease of recalling attitude-relevant information, social consensus, and subjective impressions of successfully resisting compelling persuasive messages. Also, some researches show the level of information rationalization, amount and consistency of attitude-relevant knowledge play a important role in the formation of attitude certainty. We make a pilot study and two studies to investigate this.We can measure attitude certainty in two aspects. One, we posit that being certain of an attitude might sometimes reflect that one feels as though one knows what one's true attitude on a topic really is. This type of certainty we term attitude clarity. The other, we suggest that being certain about an attitude may reflect that one is confident that the attitude is correct, valid, or justified. This form of certainty we term attitude correctness.In pilot study, we show participants two materials in strong or weak arguments. May the materials are not fit for Chinese, the results are inconsistent with prior researches. We should make them localized. Meanwhile, without obvious oppression people also show attitude needs, which can be more studied.In study 1, participants finish the attitude certainty questionnaire with two different level of rationalization materials. The result shows that superficial rationalization one induces significant high certainty than the profound one, the directions of attitude are opposite, although. Thus, level of information rationalization is a factor which can affect attitude certainty.In study 2, we use materials in three factors, level of rationalization, amount and consistency of information with each one in two levels to measure the attitude certainty. The amount factor is done in time fodder way. At last, attitude certainty induced by superficial rationalization, high consistency and amount are significant high than the opposite factors level.Briefly, level of information rationalization is a factor that can influence attitude certainty indeed while the way is different from our assumption. It may need further researching. Also, we confirm amount and consistency of information as the factors that can influence attitude certainty.