Joseph R. Priester

Bio: Joseph R. Priester is an academic researcher from University of Southern California. The author has contributed to research in topics: Persuasion & Attitude. The author has an hindex of 27, co-authored 49 publications receiving 7621 citations. Previous affiliations of Joseph R. Priester include University of Michigan & Fordham University.

Brand Attachment and Brand Attitude Strength: Conceptual and Empirical Differentiation of Two Critical Brand Equity Drivers

Abstract: Research has not verified the theoretical or practical value of the brand attachment construct in relation to alternative constructs, particularly brand attitude strength. The authors make conceptual, measurement, and managerial contributions to this research issue. Conceptually, they define brand attachment, articulate its defining properties, and differentiate it from brand attitude strength. From a measurement perspective, they develop and validate a parsimonious measure of brand attachment, test the assumptions that underlie it, and demonstrate that it indicates the concept of attachment. They also demonstrate the convergent and discriminant validity of this measure in relation to brand attitude strength. Managerially, they demonstrate that brand attachment offers value over brand attitude strength in predicting (a) consumers’ intentions to perform difficult behaviors (those they regard as utilizing consumer resources), (b) actual purchase behaviors, (c) brand purchase share (the share of a brand among directly competing brands), and (d) need share (the extent to which consumers rely on a brand to address relevant needs including those brands in substitutable product categories).

Brand attachment and brand attitude strength: Conceptual and empirical differentiation of two critical brand equity drivers.

Abstract: Research has not verified the theoretical or practical value of the brand attachment construct in relation to alternative constructs, particularly brand attitude strength. The authors make conceptual, measurement, and managerial contributions to this research issue. Conceptually, they define brand attachment, articulate its defining properties, and differentiate it from brand attitude strength. From a measurement perspective, they develop and validate a parsimonious measure of brand attachment, test the assumptions that underlie it, and demonstrate that it indicates the concept of attachment. They also demonstrate the convergent and discriminant validity of this measure in relation to brand attitude strength. Managerially, they demonstrate that brand attachment offers value over brand attitude strength in predicting (1) consumers' intentions to perform difficult behaviors (those they regard as using consumer resources), (2) actual purchase behaviors, (3) brand purchase share (the share of a brand...

Rudimentary Determinants of Attitudes. II: Arm Flexion and Extension Have Differential Effects on Attitudes

Abstract: In the pain-flexor reflex, arm extension is temporally coupled with the onset of the unconditioned aversive stimulus, whereas flexion is associated with its offset; when retrieving desirable stimuli, arm flexion is more closely coupled temporally to the acquisition or consumption of the desired stimuli than arm extension. It was posited that these contingencies foster an association between arm flexion, in contrast to extension, and approach motivational orientations. Six experiments were conducted to examine this hypothesis. Ideographs presented during arm flexion were subsequently ranked more positively than ideographs presented during arm extension, but only when the Ss' task was to evaluate the ideographs when they were presented initially. Arm flexion and extension were also each found to have discernible attitudinal effects. These results suggest a possible role for nondeclarative memory in attitude formation. In general, we should not be terribly surprised that it is so difficult to change attitudes and preferences by cognitive methods. These methods do not reach the motor system and other somatic representational systems of the organism. They only deal with one representational system—the one that exists in the form of associative structures, images, and other subjective states. Since attitudes contain such a substantial affective component, they are likely to have multiple representations—and somatic representations are probably among the more significant ones. (Zajonc & Markus, 1982, p. 130) The term attitude comes from the Latin words apto (aptitude or fitness) and acto (postures of the body), both of which have their origin in the Sanskrit root ag, meaning to do or to act (Bull, 1951). The connection between attitude and action carried into the 18th century, when attitude referred to a physi

The gradual threshold model of ambivalence: relating the positive and negative bases of attitudes to subjective ambivalence

Abstract: This research examined the relationship between the measured (Study 1) and manipulated (Studies 2 and 3) positive and negative bases of attitudes and the psychological experience of attitudinal ambivalence. On the basis of these studies, the gradual threshold model of ambivalence (GTM) was advanced. The GTM holds that: (a) ambivalence increases in a negatively accelerating manner as the number of conflicting reactions (whichever of the positive or negative reactions are fewer in number) increases, (b) ambivalence is a negative function of the extent of dominant reactions, and (c) as the number of conflicting reactions increases, the impact of dominant reactions on ambivalence gradually decreases such that at some level of conflicting reactions (i.e, the threshold), the number of dominant reactions no longer has an impact on subjective ambivalence.

Mass Media Attitude Change: Implications of the Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion

Abstract: Undoubtedly, few social scientists today think that the mass media have the power to sway huge audiences to the extent once believed likely. Nevertheless, the technological advances of the last century-from the first primitive radio broadcasts to today’s high speed mobile Internet devices-have made it possible for individual communicators to have access to unprecedented numbers of potential message recipients, and recipients to a constant barrage of messages. Millions of dollars are spent worldwide each year in attempts to change peoples’ attitudes about political candidates, consumer products, health and safety practices, and charitable causes. In most of these instances, the ultimate goal is to influence people’s behavior so that they will vote for certain politicians or referenda, purchase specific goods, engage in safer driving, eating, and sexual activities, and donate money to various religious, environmental, and educational organizations and institutions. To what extent are media persuasion attempts effective?

Evaluating the use of exploratory factor analysis in psychological research.

Abstract: Despite the widespread use of exploratory factor analysis in psychological research, researchers often make questionable decisions when conducting these analyses. This article reviews the major design and analytical decisions that must be made when conducting a factor analysis and notes that each of these decisions has important consequences for the obtained results. Recommendations that have been made in the methodological literature are discussed. Analyses of 3 existing empirical data sets are used to illustrate how questionable decisions in conducting factor analyses can yield problematic results. The article presents a survey of 2 prominent journals that suggests that researchers routinely conduct analyses using such questionable methods. The implications of these practices for psychological research are discussed, and the reasons for current practices are reviewed.

Communication and Persuasion: Central and Peripheral Routes to Attitude Change

Abstract: Das Elaboration Likelihood Modell (ELM) wurde in den 1980er Jahren von den Sozialpsychologen Richard E. Petty und John T. Cacioppo mit dem Ziel entwickelt, die prozesshafte Verarbeitung persuasiver Botschaften zu erklaren und Einstellungsveranderungen in Abhangigkeit von der Rezeptionssituation, den Eigenschaften einer persuasiven Botschaft und individuellen Voraussetzungen des Rezipienten vorherzusagen. Die zentrale Veroffentlichung dieser Persuasionstheorie ist das 1986 erschienene Buch Communication and persuasion: Central and peripheral routes to attitude change. In diesem Schlusselwerk der Medienwirkungsforschung werden das ELM und seine Basiskonzepte theoretisch definiert und durch eine Vielzahl empirischer Studien untermauert. Daruber hinaus diskutieren die Autoren methodische Schwierigkeiten bei der Uberprufung ihrer Annahmen sowie Konsequenzen der verschiedenen Elaborationsrouten. Communication and persuasion bietet damit einen detaillierten Uberblick zu einem der wichtigsten Zwei-Prozess-Modelle der persuasiven Kommunikationsforschung.

A perspective on judgment and choice: Mapping bounded rationality.

Abstract: Early studies of intuitive judgment and decision making conducted with the late Amos Tversky are reviewed in the context of two related concepts: an analysis of accessibility, the ease with which thoughts come to mind; a distinction between effortless intuition and deliberate reasoning. Intuitive thoughts, like percepts, are highly accessible. Determinants and consequences of accessibility help explain the central results of prospect theory, framing effects, the heuristic process of attribute substitution, and the characteristic biases that result from the substitution of nonextensional for extensional attributes. Variations in the accessibility of rules explain the occasional corrections of intuitive judgments. The study of biases is compatible with a view of intuitive thinking and decision making as generally skilled and successful.

Nature and Operation of Attitudes

Abstract: This survey of attitude theory and research published between 1996 and 1999 covers the conceptualization of attitude, attitude formation and activation, attitude structure and function, and the attitude-behavior relation. Research regarding the expectancy-value model of attitude is considered, as are the roles of accessible beliefs and affective versus cognitive processes in the formation of attitudes. The survey reviews research on attitude strength and its antecedents and consequences, and covers progress made on the assessment of attitudinal ambivalence and its effects. Also considered is research on automatic attitude activation, attitude functions, and the relation of attitudes to broader values. A large number of studies dealt with the relation between attitudes and behavior. Research revealing additional moderators of this relation is reviewed, as are theory and research on the link between intentions and actions. Most work in this context was devoted to issues raised by the theories of reasoned action and planned behavior. The present review highlights the nature of perceived behavioral control, the relative importance of attitudes and subjective norms, the utility of adding more predictors, and the roles of prior behavior and habit.