Attitudes

This chapter presents attitudes as a favorable or unfavorable evaluation of objects, subjects, events, or actions. It is explained that people may have explicit attitudes, that is, overt evaluations. These attitudes, however, may largely differ from implicit attitudes, that is, evaluations that are not presented overtly but can even be subconscious. They are more difficult to measure, for example, by an Implicit Association Test. Cross-cultural surveys mostly capture explicit attitudes, which may be problematic as respondents seek to meet important socio-cultural norms (e.g., be polite, do not disappoint the interviewer), which is known as social desirability. The degree of social desirability is more pronounced in collectivistic (vs. individualistic) societies, which makes survey difficult to compare.