Attitude change

""Media remains the powerful tool in inundating information to the general public. There is strong evidence that media has the influence on public opinion formation on particular issues through the way they represent and report. While it took several years for the media to begin reporting and framing on HIV/AIDS since 1986, the public has somewhat been provided certain level of awareness about the disease per se. This paper examines the effectiveness of media in public opinion formation on HIV/AIDS issue among the public in Klang Valley. Cross-sectional closed-ended self-administered survey questionnaires were distributed to 384 respondents in Klang Valley on accessing the public opinion of knowledge on HIV transmission modes, perception, attitude about people living with HIV/AIDS, as well as people’s understanding on government policies to eliminate HIV/AIDS. Descriptive analysis (mean and standard deviation) and inferential analysis (t-test) were conducted for data analysis. Of 384 respondents, female respondents are more than male respondents in terms of participating in the survey research. Health care practitioners and newspaper were the preferred sources of information seeking on HIV/AIDS among the public. Most of the respondents were aware of the modes of HIV transmission. However, misconceptions of mosquito’s bites, kissing, sharing foods and drinks, and sharing utensil are the modes of transmission still exist among the surveyed respondents. The mean scores for perception and attitude towards people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV) were 3.53 (SD =.61) and 3.30 (SD = .61) respectively. The t-test results showed that there is a significant difference between gender and education groups on public’s perception towards PLHIV. However, only gender was found to be statistically significant difference on the public’s attitude towards PLHIV. Most of the respondents did not hear about the government’s significant policies to address HIV/AIDS in the region. In overall, the respondents had certain knowledge on HIV transmission modes and moderate positive perception and attitude towards people living with HIV/AIDS. However, it seems that the effectiveness of media has not really up to the par in terms of rectifying people’s misperception on HIV/AIDS and towards PLHIV, as well as providing information on government initiative to tackle HIV/AIDS among the wider community. Future studies should be conducted in dwelling into the plight of who set the agenda in the media, and apart from gatekeepers, who is the real decision maker in deciding what is important to let public to think about.

Keywords: HIV/AIDS, knowledge, perceptions, attitudes, perceived risk.
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Media remains the powerful tool in inundating information to the general public. There is strong evidence that media has the influence on public opinion formation on particular issues through the way they represent and report. While it took several years for the media to begin reporting and framing on HIV/AIDS since 1986, the public has somewhat been provided certain level of awareness about the disease per se. This paper examines the effectiveness of media in public opinion formation on HIV/AIDS issue among the public in Klang Valley. Cross-sectional closed-ended self-administered survey questionnaires were distributed to 384 respondents in Klang Valley on accessing the public opinion of knowledge on HIV transmission modes, perception, attitude about people living with HIV/AIDS, as well as people’s understanding on government policies to eliminate HIV/AIDS. Descriptive analysis (mean and standard deviation) and inferential analysis (t-test) were conducted for data analysis. Of 384 respondents, female respondents are more than male respondents in terms of participating in the survey research. Health care practitioners and newspaper were the preferred sources of information seeking on HIV/AIDS among the public. Most of the respondents were aware of the modes of HIV transmission. However, misconceptions of mosquito’s bites, kissing, sharing foods and drinks, and sharing utensil are the modes of transmission still exist among the surveyed respondents. The mean scores for perception and attitude towards people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV) were 3.53 (SD =.61) and 3.30 (SD = .61) respectively. The t-test results showed that there is a significant difference between gender and education groups on public’s perception towards PLHIV. However, only gender was found to be statistically significant difference on the public’s attitude towards PLHIV. Most of the respondents did not hear about the government’s significant policies to address HIV/AIDS in the region. In overall, the respondents had certain knowledge on HIV transmission modes and moderate positive perception and attitude towards people living with HIV/AIDS. However, it seems that the effectiveness of media has not really up to the par in terms of rectifying people’s misperception on HIV/AIDS and towards PLHIV, as well as providing information on government initiative to tackle HIV/AIDS among the wider community. Future studies should be conducted in dwelling into the plight of who set the agenda in the media, and apart from gatekeepers, who is the real decision maker in deciding what is important to let public to think about.

Investigations of publicity's effects on companies and their customers have often been neglected. Few industries incur greater exposure than professional sports, yet work on publicity's effects is scarce. Following a vein of research on Elaboration Likelihood Theory and the effects of advertising, this inquiry examined the nature of responses to publicity, and the effect newspaper coverage has on readers. A repeated measures pre-post design (N = 194) tested the impact positive and negative print communication had on attitudes toward professional sport teams. Reader beliefs and feelings could be shaped in the direction advocated by columnists. However, commitment moderated message effects as less committed readers tended to recall more facts from negative articles, while committed fans tended to counter-argue with more favorable thoughts.

This article reviews how the concept of attitude is taken into account in order to reduce driving accidents through training programmes. The review of different theories, approaches and models shows how it has been moving towards an attitude changing model to reduce accidents. The article includes the development of the basis of what could be the training/educational programmes addressed to different targets. Depending on the cases preventive actions, educational actions or re-educational actions are considered. They will constitute the steps of the training programmes which aim to change risk attitudes to safety attitudes. En el artículo se analiza cómo el concepto de actitud se tiene en cuenta en el ámbito de la reducción de los accidentes de tráfico desde la formación. El repaso a las distintas teorías, enfoques y modelos nos muestra cómo se va avanzando hacia un modelo de cambio de actitudes para la reducción de la accidentalidad. Se incluye el desarrollo de las bases de lo que podrían ser los programas educativos y/o formativos para diferentes colectivos, algunos preventivos, otros educativos y una parte reeducativos y que constituirán las fases de los programas formativos que pretenden cambiar actitudes arriesgadas en actitudes de seguridad.

This article reviews how the concept of attitude is taken into account in order to reduce driving accidents through training programmes. The review of different theories, approaches and models shows how it has been moving towards an attitude changing model to reduce accidents. The article includes the development of the basis of what could be the training/educational programmes addressed to different targets. Depending on the cases preventive actions, educational actions or re-educational actions are considered. They will constitute the steps of the training programmes which aim to change risk attitudes to safety attitudes. En el artículo se analiza cómo el concepto de actitud se tiene en cuenta en el ámbito de la reducción de los accidentes de tráfico desde la formación. El repaso a las distintas teorías, enfoques y modelos nos muestra cómo se va avanzando hacia un modelo de cambio de actitudes para la reducción de la accidentalidad. Se incluye el desarrollo de las bases de lo que podrían ser los programas educativos y/o formativos para diferentes colectivos, algunos preventivos, otros educativos y una parte reeducativos y que constituirán las fases de los programas formativos que pretenden cambiar actitudes arriesgadas en actitudes de seguridad.

"The rise of a relatively young middle class in Vietnam, whose identity is often shaped by its expressive consumption patterns, has been accompanied by a fast growing economy. Within the context of a collectivistic society where purchases are often driven by social status, widespread adoption of Western consumption values has posed serious concerns over potential impacts on the environment. However, Vietnamese middle class environmental attitudes and behaviours remain to be an under-investigated area.
Central to the domain of environmental attitudes is the theoretical assumption that attitudes will lead to intentions and therefore behaviours. The theory of planned behaviour posits behaviours as logical outcomes of attitudes and intentions. Several classic Western theories, nominally Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, see the individual being an autonomous entity capable of making decisions independently. However, behaviours are also culturally bound where norms and value orientation are important influencing factors.
Data were collected by an online survey from Vietnamese students studying at an English speaking university in Vietnam. The study was conducted to firstly determine the prevailing attitudes among young Vietnamese middle class towards environmentalism, and then to test if environmental attitudes are adequate moderators of intentions for environmental behaviours with regard to different product categories.
The results show that while the prevailing environmental attitude is positive, environmental considerations are not taken into account in young Vietnamese adult’s purchase intentions of expressive products (clothes, laptop, mobile phone, books) while moderate environmental attention is paid with utilitarian products (food, paper, motorbike). This dichotomy is problematic for those concerned with environmental issues, since these upwardly mobile young people are increasingly able to buy and consume material goods. Marketers of environmentally friendly products are therefore faced with challenges to shift the attitudes of these young and influential consumers towards thinking of environmental friendliness as an attractive characteristic for potential expressive purchases. Making environmentally friendly alternatives of expressive goods more visible and widely available in Vietnam is also a key issue."

"In line with increasing concerns regarding environmental sustainability, research on how pro- environmental values, beliefs and attitudes relate to sustainable practices has substantially grown in the last decade. Much of the current research in this area is based on the premise that attitudes lead to behaviours, although only weak links have been found between the two concepts.
The New Environmental/Ecological Paradigm (NEP) has been widely used over the past 30 years in this area. However, there has been a debate over what this scale exactly measures. The lack of agreements on what the scale purports to measure might overshadow the extensive research examining the scale. Originally designed to assess whether a specific worldview of mankind’s impact on the environment exists, the NEP scale was later referred to as a measurement of ‘environmental attitudes’. In the literature, it is not clear whether the NEP scale is a measure in the social realm (a worldview, in line with value-systems of religion and culture) or the personal realm of attitude concerning individual values and personalities. According to the theory of planned behaviour, personal attitudes are closely linked to behaviour. NEP on the other hand, is recognised as a weak predictor of behaviour in the literature.
This paper examines the current use of NEP for attitude measurement by conducting a content analysis of articles in a leading environmental journal, ‘Environment and Behavior’ (EAB), using the Leximancer text-mining software. Leximancer was used to produce a concept map and report showing semantic structures of the use of the NEP scale, showing the relationships between worldviews, beliefs, attitudes and values, and how these concepts relate to NEP. The results show that the NEP scale has been themed together with values and ‘social’, which indicated that whatever NEP is measuring, belongs in the social rather than the personal domain. This stands as an argument towards ending the equivocal results across the literature when it comes to NEP’s semantic validity. It is time for a new, valid, validated and rigorous, reliable measure for attitudes or behaviour intent in the personal domain to be developed."

"The purpose of this study was to examine the role of social distance, prior expectations, and trip experience on post-trip attitudes in multiple destinations. This study is based on surveys conducted with two groups of students: 1) a group participating in a summer study abroad program to the South Pacific or to Europe, and 2) a control group. The results show
that attitude changes were positive towards Europeans, negative towards Australians, and mixed towards Fijians. This study supports the expectation value theory, but contradicts the cultural distance theory of attitude change. Further, the results show that experience with non-tourism related services played an important role toward attitude change."

"This study examines the role of motivations, prior travel experience, social ties and destination choice in pre-trip attitude formation. The sample for this study is composed of a group of university students
who recently participated in study abroad programs to the South Pacifi c or Europe. The results revealed that academic motivations and social ties influence students’ destination selection for the study aboard program. Social motivation emerged as the most important factor that influences attitude toward the destinations prior to the trip. Further analysis found that the destination intended to visit mediates the
effect of social motivation on pre-trip attitude formation."