Attitudes as Global and Local Action Guides0

\Ve often th ink of ou r att itudes ami beliefs as stahle personality chamcteristicswllen asked to describe ourselves, we might cite our love of a particular composer, oor support for a long-preferred political party, or perhaps a deep and ahiding hatred of Oreo cookies. Echoing this assumption, attitudes have histor ically been considered relatively stable individual differences that remain consistent across time and contexts, unless or until an overt persuasion attempt is encountered. However, more recen tly, a far more malleable pictu re of attitudes has clnerged from research suggesting that evaluations can shift quit e flexibly in response to the immed iate social environment (e.g., Baldwin & Holmes, 1987; Kawakami, Dovidio, & Dijksterhui s. 2003; Ledgerwood & Chaiken, 200i; Lowery, Hardin , & Sinclair, 200j ). In this chapter, we propose that these competing conceptualizations of att itudes as stable versus shift ing llIay reflect two difTerent roles th at attitudes play in regulating evaluative responding. On the one hand, att itudes can funct ion to gUide act ion with respect to tile current social context. In order to act efTect ively and efficiently in the here and 1I0W , individuals need quick summaries of per tinent information to gUide their interact ions with objects and people in the present situation. On the other hand, att itudes can function to guide action at a distance. \Vhen planning behavior in the distant future or making decisions about a faraway location, individuals need to he able to efficient ly abstract across the particularities of any one experience to extrac t evaluation-relevant information that is stable across time, contexts, and relationships , \Ve begin thi s chap ter by providing some background on how att itudes are typically characterized in the literatu re. Next, we descr ihe in more detail our