LESSON 2
What are Attitudes ?
Learning Outcomes
- You will have a clear definition of what attitudes are
- You will look into how attitudes are shaped
What are Attitudes? Attitudes are the way people feel about something. Attitudes are the way people relate to certain ideas, things, situation, people, etc. Attitudes are the feelings people have, whether they feel something is right or wrong, good or bad, cool or disgusting, etc.
It is important to make some important distinctions:
[dt-text-icon title=”Attitudes are… ” dicon=”fa-bullseye”]What people think is good or bad, what they like or dislike, what they think is “cool” or “disgusting”, etc. It’s about people’s feelings[/dt-text-icon][dt-text-icon title=”Beliefs are…” dicon=”fa-bullseye”]What people think is true or false. For example a common belief is that there are only two sexes: male and female.[/dt-text-icon][dt-text-icon title=”Assumptions are…” dicon=”fa-bullseye”]What people believe in without even being conscious of it. A common assumption is that male is superior to female.[/dt-text-icon][dt-text-icon title=”Behaviors are….” dicon=”fa-bullseye”]What people choose to do or not. This can be aligned with beliefs, assumptions or attitudes, but they can also be conflicting[/dt-text-icon]
We are now going to have a closer look at what shapes attitudes, and how we can start thinking of influencing them.