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Assumed Consensus of Attitudes: The Effect of Vested Interest
Abstract
People tend to overestimate the extent of existing support for their attitudes. This study sought to determine whether this assumption of consensus would be influenced by the hedonic relevance of the attitude in question. Accordingly, 144 undergraduates equally divided with respect to class status (freshmen and sophomores versus juniors and seniors) were told that their university administrators were studying a tuition surcharge plan that would affect either underclassmen, upperclassmen, or all students. Respondents were asked to evaluate the plan and to estimate the proportion of other students who shared their attitude. Subjects who thought they would be affected by the plan estimated that considerably more students (of all classes) would share their attitude than did respondents who would not be affected. This vested interest-assumed consensus relationship was independent of attitudinal extremity. Implications of these results for the further study of attitude-behavior consistency and judgmental bias were discussed.
... This section includes critiques of the Model from the partial perspectives of three stakeholders in teaching excellence, the Teacher, the Institution, and the Student, each of whom has vested interests in teaching excellence (Crano, 1983). ...
... As defined in Chapter 2: Literature Review, the three primary stakeholders in teaching excellence are teachers, universities, and students, each of whom have particular perspectives based on their vested interests (Crano, 1983). ...
... These findings validate the Model, albeit in a modified form, depending on the perspective of the stakeholder. Each stakeholder, therefore, has a partial perspective with vested interests (Crano, 1983). Teachers' vested interests lie in delivering high quality teaching and assisting students in reaching their academic potential. ...
This study explores the nature and extent of any possible relationship between reward and recognition and teaching excellence. The first step was to operationalise the concept of teaching excellence. This was achieved by conducting a meta-analysis of attributes of excellence in previous studies in the literature. Thematic analysis resulted in a Model of Teaching Excellence, which was comprised of three Qualities of Excellence, each of which included three Characteristics of Excellence. Using a multiple case study approach, the model was compared with lived experience of excellent teachers, defined as those who had been awarded either a National Teaching Fellowship or a University Teaching Fellowship. The result was that excellent teachers agreed with the Qualities and Characteristics of Excellence but disagreed with the proportions awarded to them. The Model was also compared with student evaluations of teaching excellence derived from the NSS and student-led award nominations. However, while students do value high quality teaching, their primary focus is on consistently delivered, high quality personal and academic support, by highly motivated and enthusiastic lecturers. The relationship between reward and recognition and teaching excellence was explored by enquiring about the impact of receiving such an award on the awardee, their colleagues, their managers, and their students. The primary impact on recipients was affirmation, but even that was short-lived. For the majority of recipients, however, the award had no effect. While some colleagues and managers were supportive, others were visibly hostile. The majority of colleagues, however, displayed no reaction. Crucially, Fellows stated categorically that they had not changed their practice as a consequence of receiving their award, and that their students were unaware that they had received an award for teaching excellence. The primary use of Teaching Fellowships is by universities to bolster institutional statistics to gain an edge in a competitive student-recruiting market.
... Individual characteristics may be associated with consumers' receptivity to ethical product information, and therefore foster ethical choices. Vested interest theory (VIT) (Crano, 1983;Crano & Prislin, 1995) suggests that an individual's interest in a product and its features is rooted in its compatibility with his/her value orientation, which is an essential individual characteristic. Vested interest can be seen as being manifested in involvement and trust (Crano, 1983;De Dominicis et al., 2014;Johnson & Eagly, 1989). ...
... Vested interest theory (VIT) (Crano, 1983;Crano & Prislin, 1995) suggests that an individual's interest in a product and its features is rooted in its compatibility with his/her value orientation, which is an essential individual characteristic. Vested interest can be seen as being manifested in involvement and trust (Crano, 1983;De Dominicis et al., 2014;Johnson & Eagly, 1989). Further, VIT indicates that both involvement and trust mediate the influence of values on behavior. ...
... Vested interest theory (VIT) (Crano, 1983;Crano & Prislin, 1995) helps us to understand what shapes consumers' receptiveness to ethical product information. This communication theory emphasizes that vested interest (or self-interest) summarizes an individual's perception of an object (e.g., a product), as both interesting and hedonically relevant. ...
Ethical consumption is more likely when consumers are receptive to ethical product information and consider such information when making purchasing decisions. Building on communication theory, we develop and test a framework illustrating how different consumer values induce contrasting effects on consumers’ willingness to choose ethical products through affecting consumer receptiveness to ethical product information.
We present an online survey with 590 US consumers, which was analyzed with covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM). Results show that altruistic and biospheric consumer values increase consumers’ willingness to choose ethical products via trust in ethical advertising and ethical purchase decision involvement. In contrast, egoistic consumer values reduce ethical purchase decision involvement, and ultimately consumers’ willingness to choose ethical products. Thus, we illustrate the mechanisms through which contrasting values take effect. Results are discussed in light of theoretical and managerial implications and reemphasize the need for better adaptation of ethical marketing to individual consumer characteristics.
... Marks and Miller (1987) hypothesized that people are motivated to overestimate the number of others who share their beliefs, so as to bolster their attitudes. Vested interest holds that this tendency will be exacerbated in situations involving personally consequential beliefs, and research has supported this expectation (Crano, 1983). Vested interest appears to have significant implications for related cognitive functions and, equally important, for behavior. ...
... findings. It could be argued that attitude overlap caused voting intention, but it could be just as easily argued that intention created assumed consensus (Crano, 1983). The importance of these findings is that the association between these variables was strong over all respondents, probably as a consequence of the relevance of the issue, and was significantly enhanced as a function of vested interest in the issue. ...
Considerable research suggests the relevance of vested interest for attitude-behavior consistency. Conversely, symbolic politics theory holds that self-interest is irrelevant for attitude valence and related attitude phenomena. Rather, attitudes acquired early in life generalize to other issues and motivate actions, even actions contrary to self-interest. The present research replicates and extends the findings of an earlier symbolic politics study (D. O. Sears, C. P. Hensler, & L. K. Speer, 1979) on the mandated busing of school children (N > 1, 300). Analysis of the archival data revealed that vested interest is a significant moderator of (racial) attitude–criterion consistency and of attitude–behavior consistency as well. The results are taken as supportive of both the vested interest and the symbolic politics orientations and form the basis of a position that suggests both schools of thought can coexist.
... People who have recent and pertinent experience with the attitudeobject are more likely to report higher levels of salience. Attitudes that are not salient are less likely to exhibit attitude-behavior consistency (Crano, 1983;Crano & Prislin, 1995). ...
... In its earliest conception, VIT was thought to be relevant only for individuals for whom personal consequences or outcomes would manifest; vestedness relied on a direct link between the individual and the attitude-object (Crano, 1983). Johnson, Siegel, and Crano (2012) argued that this conclusion might have been premature. ...
A growing body of research demonstrates that Vested Interest Theory (VIT) is a valuable framework for understanding audience messaging needs and can serve as a foundation for designing effective campaign messages. This chapter begins with an overview of VIT and its components, discusses recent developments in the theory's structure and application, and concludes with practical recommendations for applying VIT in communication campaigns and messaging interventions. The theory indicates that six variables (stake, salience, certainty, immediacy, self‐efficacy, and response‐efficacy) function to predict individuals' relative vestedness in a particular attitude or attitude‐object. Research provides a plausible explanation of when attitudes are predictive of behavior, independent of attitude strength. Researchers have also attempted to manipulate perceived vestedness using a campaign‐style message designed to motivate citizen‐level hazard preparedness. VIT promises to be a valuable approach to measuring relevant attitudes and using them to motivate consonant behavior.
... After establishing initial or baseline levels of RRR activity for each participant, we presented them with three scenarios (in random order) designed to elicit one of the motivating factors for changing waste management behavior. The threat scenario used a threat message modeled after vested interest theory [13][14][15] regarding individual and community harm from a lack of recycling-specifically, the construction of a landfill in the immediate vicinity. The social pressure scenario attempted to elicit normative behavior motivation by describing a new reduce/reuse initiative in the community in which friends and family participated. ...
The “Three Rs of Sustainability—Reduce, Reuse, Recycle,” are central tenets of many community waste-management programs promoting responsible use of natural resources and ecosystem services. Over the past few decades, recycling has become widespread, but monetary and energy expenditures required to transport and transform waste materials have led to downsizing of recycling programs globally and in the U.S. This trend increases the need for effective reducing and reusing practices as alternatives to recycling. Using a survey experiment to examine motivations that underlie reducing and reusing behaviors, individuals reported their current reducing, reusing, and recycling practices. Respondents then were provided with three hypothetical scenarios that described (1) an external waste-management threat to public well-being, (2) social/peer pressure from family and friends towards sustainable decision-making, and (3) increased convenience of reusing and reducing practices. These messages reflect previously identified RRR motivations. After the scenarios, the questions regarding recycling, reducing, and reusing behavior were presented again to test for changes in the responses. All three scenarios were effective in increasing intended reducing and reusing behavior. The threat scenario was slightly more effective than the others, particularly among individuals who reported behavior with considerable recycling practices but not as much reducing and reusing.
... Theory(Crano, 1983) 1Osburg et al. (2019) Complexity Theory(Byrne & Callaghan, 2013) 1 Leischnig and Woodside (2019) P-E Fit Theory 1 Leischnig and Woodside (2019) Dual Model of Attitude (Wilson et al., 2000) 1 Govind et al. (2019) 's theory of planned behaviour (1985, 1991) is based on the premise that attitude translates into intentions and subsequent behaviour This framework is useful in understanding consumer ethical decisionmaking (Chatzidakis et al., 2016), especially the factors that have a bearing on consumer intentions. According to Fukukawa et al. (2019), attitude, perceived behavioural control, perceived unfairness significantly, and positively impacted intentions to engage in ethically questionable behaviour. ...
Consumer ethics continues to draw the attention of academicians and practitioners
as a significant economic and social issue globally. Consumer ethics refers to moral
principles that govern a consumer's behaviour. This literature review seeks to enrich
the discourse on consumer ethics through a comprehensive and detailed review of
106 articles, covering 21 journals from 2010 to 2020. Through an examination of
theories, contexts, characteristics, and methodologies used in consumer ethics re�search, our review (1) presents a comprehensive and up‐to‐date overview of the
research in this field and (2) sets a future research agenda to spur scholarly research.
We found studies have primarily relied on a single theoretical lens such as the theory
of marketing ethics, planned behaviour, and neutralization theory. Further consumer
ethics research focuses on advanced countries, with a narrow focus on developing
countries. We have diagnosed the need to examine boundary conditions impacting
consumer ethics. Finally, we provide actionable inputs to combat unethical consumer
actions as well as promote ethical consumption.
... However, it can be argued that while altruistic acts are prosocial behaviours, not all prosocial behaviours are purely altruistic. For instance, individuals may be motivated to help others due to 'vested interests' (7,8), whereby the support has reciprocal benefits for self and others, or by 'direct reciprocity' (9), where the intention is that recipients will feel obligated to provide the same help for others. Altruism however, can also take a more negative form called 'pathological' altruism (10), which can involve harm (for the peer and service-user) through peers becoming overburdened, or having an unhealthy focus on the needs of others at cost to themselves. ...
While shared personal experiences are a valued prerequisite of the peer supporter–service‐user relationship, they have the potential to create harm. There are challenges in peer supporters being emotionally ready to hear the experiences of others, and how much personal information peers should disclose. As part of an international study that aimed to explore how peer supporters who worked in a neonatal context (providing support to parents whose infant(s) has received neonatal care) were trained and supported, new insights emerged into how peers’ personal stories were used and modified to instil boundaries in peer support services. In this paper, we report on a secondary analysis of the data to describe how peer supporters’ stories were valued, used, assessed and moderated in neonatal peer support services; to safeguard and promote positive outcomes for peers and parents. Following University ethics approval, a mixed‐methods study comprising online surveys and follow‐up interviews was undertaken. Surveys were distributed through existing contacts and via social media. Thirty‐one managers/coordinators/trainers and 77 peer supporters completed the survey from 48 peer support services in 16 different countries, and 26 interviews were held with 27 survey respondents. Three themes describe variations in the types of stories that were preferred and when peers were perceived to be ‘ready’ to share them; the different means by which sharing personal accounts was encouraged and used to assess peer readiness; and the methods used to instil (and assess) boundaries in the stories the peers shared. In neonatal‐related peer support provision, the expected use of peer supporters’ stories resonates with the ‘use of self’ canon in social work practice. Peer supporters were expected to modify personal stories to ensure that service‐user (parents) needs were primary, the information was beneficial, and harm was minimised. Further work to build resilience and emotional intelligence in peer supporters is needed.
... Teaching excellence means different things to different stakeholders, each of whom has a partial perspective based on their own vested interests (Crano 1983). Lecturers, for example, see themselves as the consummate professional, students are particularly invested in their personal relationship with the university as embodied by the staff, and the university is focused on the management and organisation of teaching and learning (Warnes 2019b). ...
This paper contains the results of a study into the assumed relationship between
teaching fellowships and excellent teaching. Twenty-six recipients of National Teaching
Fellowships and University Teaching Fellowships, both awarded for demonstrating
teaching excellence, were interviewed to determine the nature and extent of the impact
of receiving an award on them, their managers, their colleagues, and their students.
Fellows reported that the most significant impact was ‘affirmation’: an acknowledgement
that their work was excellent, giving them ‘permission’ to continue. Noting how
awards are retrospective, Fellows did not change their practice after receiving their
Fellowship as they were already excellent. Most Fellows noted that within a year the
Fellowship was reduced to post-nominal letters. Although the impact on Fellows’
managers was occasionally positive, some managers were uninterested. Many managers
used fellowships for improving the profile of the university through institutional
statistics, as a form of Corporate Excellence. While some Fellows’ colleagues were
warm, supportive, and collegiate, others engaged in bullying behaviour. Students were
mainly unaware of excellent teaching awards. Fellows were reluctant to engage in selfpromotion of their Fellowship, preferring to demonstrate their excellence through their
practice. These findings challenge the widely held conception that teaching fellowships
enhance teaching excellence.
We begin this paper by examining what vested are, both in specialized and generalized contexts and seek to examine why the entire concept has not been adequately studied both in sociology, and in other relevant and allied fields of the social sciences. The history of the usage of the term “vested interests” is also carefully traced along with other related concepts such as ideologies, lobbies, cabals, and conflicts of interest. The possible types of ideologies and vested interests are also probed, and these are interfaced with the points of view of both stakeholders and non-stakeholders of any given paradigm. We also then attempt to define what hard vested interests and soft vested interests are by means of suitable examples. We also propose tools and techniques to analyze vested interests using both direct and indirect techniques, and proposed methodologies to execute formal impact analyses as well. We also liberally pepper this paper with a large number of case studies, and hope that this will furnish and provide a valuable heuristic tool for social science research. These concepts are also then traced to and synchronized with our other previously published as well for the benefit of readers, so that a healthy correlation among all these papers is logically brought about. The crux and quintessence of this paper is that we emphasize the need to use valid
Much of the work on the development and maintenance of group inequality has focused on a select number of advantaged groups, resulting in a “blind spot” regarding the role of liberals in contributing to social inequality. The present work tests for a privileged liberal principle‐implementation gap, the notion that under conditions that make personal stake salient privileged liberals exhibit a gap between their self‐reported principles and behavioral tendencies. The studies focus on three areas critical to inequality: employment (i.e., affirmative action; Studies 1a and 4), education (i.e., equal access to education for the working class; Study 1b), and housing (i.e., access to affordable housing; Study 1c), as well as support for the homeless (Studies 2 and 3). The results demonstrate that privileged liberals report higher principles to reduce inequality compared to conservatives, but in settings with salient personal stake exhibit no differences in behavior compared to conservatives. The findings also provide direct experimental evidence for the role of personal stake in shaping the privileged liberal P‐I gap. Implications for the study of inequality and impact on Black/Brown working‐class communities, as well as a class‐based approach to social change, are discusse.
The chapter discusses the role of the manner of attitude formation. It focuses on the development of an attitude through direct behavioral experience with the attitude object and examines whether such attitudes better predict subsequent behavior than attitudes formed without behavioral experience. The chapter provides an overview of the attitude-behavior consistency problem and describes the effect of the manner of attitude formation through the “housing” study, the “puzzle” experiment, and the “subject pool” study. The prior-to-later behavior relation is also discussed in the chapter, wherein it has described the self-perception of past religious behaviors, attitudes and self-reports of subsequent behavior, an individual difference perspective, and a partial correlation analysis. The chapter discusses attitudinal qualities—namely, confidence and clarity, the persistence of the attitude, and resistance to attack. The reasons for the differential strength are also explored in the chapter—namely, the amount of information available, information processing, and attitude accessibility. The chapter briefly describes the attitude-behavior relationship, personality traits, and behavior.
The validity of a single-component model of attitude was assessed and compared with a 2-component (affective/cognitive) conceptualization of attitude. Confirmatory factor analysis was employed in a reanalysis of data previously reported by N. Fishbein and I. Ajzen (see record
1974-24385-001). A total of 125 undergraduates from 2 samples completed 5 scales measuring attitudes toward religion. Convergent validity, in the sense of uniform consistency of responses, did not hold for the single-component model but was achieved for the 2-component model. Further, the 2-component model of attitude predicted scaled, but not unscaled, multiple-act behavior criteria, and the predictive validity of the relationship between the 2-component model and single-act behavior criteria was not supported. (51 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Experimental studies concerned with the several interpretations of the meaning of projection are presented in detail. The concept of projection needs a precise definition; the writers suggest: "The manifestation of behavior by an individual which indicates some emotional value or need of the individual." 104-item bibliog. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Examines research on the relation between attitude and behavior in light of the correspondence between attitudinal and behavioral entities. Such entities are defined by their target, action, context, and time elements. A review of available empirical research supports the contention that strong attitude–behavior relations are obtained only under high correspondence between at least the target and action elements of the attitudinal and behavioral entities. This conclusion is compared with the rather pessimistic assessment of the utility of the attitude concept found in much contemporary social psychological literature. (4½ p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Two studies examined the hypothesis that the degree to which an individual perceives an attitude as hedonically relevant affects the relationship between attitudes and behavior. In Exp I, 99 undergraduates' willingness to work actively against the passage of a referendum that would raise the legal drinking age was associated with their age and, consequently, the degree to which this change would affect them. In Exp II with 100 college students, Ss who felt strongly that they would be affected either positively or negatively by the imposition of a university-wide senior comprehensive examination were consistent with their expressed attitudes toward the examination. The behavior of Ss who felt that the test would not affect them, however, was not strongly related to their attitude toward it. Ego involvement did not moderate attitude–behavior consistency. (32 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This experiment tested the interactive effects of the ease of denial of possession of a negative trait, and the social category of the stimulus person, upon attribution of the negative trait to others. Each subject was told that either: 1) he was very indecisive; 2) he was very indecisive, but the test might have been invalid; 3) he was very decisive. Subjects then rated a set of TAT stories, the author of which was either a student or a criminal. The two main hypotheses were supported; greater attribution of indecisiveness to the student occurred in conditions 1 and 3 than in condition 2. However, attribution of the negative trait to the criminal was less affected by the ease of denial of possession of the trait.
Evidence from 4 studies with 584 undergraduates demonstrates that social observers tend to perceive a "false consensus" with respect to the relative commonness of their own responses. A related bias was shown to exist in the observers' social inferences. Thus, raters estimated particular responses to be relatively common and relatively unrevealing concerning the actors' distinguishing personal dispositions when the responses in question were similar to the raters' own responses; responses differing from those of the rater, by contrast, were perceived to be relatively uncommon and revealing of the actor. These results were obtained both in questionnaire studies presenting Ss with hypothetical situations and choices and in authentic conflict situations. The implications of these findings for the understanding of social perception phenomena and for the analysis of the divergent perceptions of actors and observers are discussed. Cognitive and perceptual mechanisms are proposed which might account for distortions in perceived consensus and for corresponding biases in social inference and attributional processes. (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)