Attitude and Foundational Values for Civil Services

Attitude

An attitude is a learned tendency to evaluate a person, object or idea positively or negatively. It has three parts – the ABC model:

• Moral attitudes – about right and wrong (e.g. views on corruption).
• Political attitudes – about government, parties and policies.
• Persuasion changes attitudes through a credible source, a clear message and an emotional appeal. Examples: Swachh Bharat and the "Give It Up" LPG subsidy campaign.

Aptitude vs attitude

A good civil servant needs both: the aptitude to analyse files and the attitude to serve with empathy.

Foundational values for civil services

• Integrity – honesty and consistency between values and action.
• Impartiality and non-partisanship – treat all equally; no political favour.
• Objectivity – decisions based on facts and merit.
• Dedication to public service – going beyond the call of duty.
• Empathy, tolerance and compassion towards weaker sections.
• Accountability and transparency.

Background: what is an attitude?

An attitude is a learned tendency to evaluate something (a person, idea or object) positively or negatively. Psychologists describe it with the ABC model:

• Affective – feelings ("I dislike corruption");
• Behavioural – actions or intentions ("I will report it");
• Cognitive – beliefs ("corruption hurts the poor").

Functions of attitudes (Katz)

How attitudes form and change

Formation: family, peers, education, media, personal experience, classical and operant conditioning, observational learning (role models).

Change through persuasion – the source, the message and the audience all matter:

• credible, attractive sources persuade better;
• two-sided messages work with educated audiences;
• fear appeals work only when combined with clear solutions;
• cognitive dissonance (Festinger) – people change attitudes to resolve inconsistency between beliefs and behaviour.

Elaboration likelihood model: a central route (logic and evidence) creates lasting change; a peripheral route (celebrity, emotion) creates short-term change.

Social influence and persuasion – applications

• Swachh Bharat – a behaviour-change campaign: toilets plus messaging plus community pressure (CLTS).
• Nudge theory (Thaler) – small design changes guide choices without force: default options (organ donation), reminders, social norms ("most people in your village pay their taxes on time"). The Economic Survey 2018–19 discussed nudges (Beti Bachao, Give It Up LPG).
• Political attitudes – democratic values, tolerance, participation, and their decline with polarisation.

Foundational values for civil services (UPSC syllabus)

Impartiality vs non-partisanship: impartiality concerns individuals (no favouritism in a case). Non-partisanship concerns politics (no party loyalty). A civil servant can be committed to the Constitution without being committed to a party.

Case study: Armstrong Pame – "the miracle man"

Armstrong Pame, an IAS officer from Manipur, found that remote villages in the Tamenglong district had no road. With little government funding, he mobilised crowdfunding through social media and community labour. The result was a road of about 100 km, the "People's Road" (2012). This shows dedication, innovation, empathy and the ability to change citizens' attitudes from dependence to participation. (Use such examples with care – the point is the values, not the hero.)

Common misconceptions

• "Attitude means arrogance." – In psychology, it is any evaluative tendency, positive or negative.
• "Neutrality means not caring." – Neutrality is about party politics. Civil servants must still be committed to constitutional values and public welfare.
• "Empathy and sympathy are the same." – Sympathy is feeling for someone; empathy is feeling with them, understanding their perspective – which leads to better solutions.

How UPSC asks it

GS4 asks to define and differentiate attitude components, discuss the role of social influence and persuasion in public campaigns, explain why a value matters for civil servants, and apply values in case studies.

Answer framework

Q-type: "How can persuasion be used to change public attitudes towards a social issue such as sanitation?"

• Intro: define attitude and persuasion.
• Body: source (local leaders, celebrities), message (dignity, health, simple facts), channels (radio, WhatsApp, Gram Sabha), the audience (women's SHGs, schoolchildren as "change agents"), nudges.
• Example: Swachh Bharat, Pulse Polio (Amitabh Bachchan's campaign), or the anti-tobacco ads.
• Conclusion: sustained behaviour change needs infrastructure plus persuasion plus community norms.

Attitude: structure and change

An attitude has three components, often remembered as ABC: Affective (feelings: "I dislike crowded hospitals"), Behavioural (tendency to act: "I avoid visiting them") and Cognitive (beliefs: "Government hospitals are inefficient"). Attitudes can be changed by new information (cognitive), by positive experiences (affective) and by doing something repeatedly (behavioural) – which is why field visits and exposure programmes are part of civil-service training.

Persuasion works best when the messenger is credible, the message is clear and relevant to the audience, and the audience is open to change. Campaigns such as those for sanitation and girls' education used trusted local figures, simple messages and social recognition to shift attitudes.

Cognitive dissonance is the discomfort people feel when their actions conflict with their beliefs. An officer who believes in honesty but tolerates small bribes in the office will feel it – and either change the behaviour or rationalise it. Ethics training aims to make people notice such rationalisations.

Foundational values in action

A short case

A block officer finds that elderly widows in a remote village have not received pensions for six months because their bank accounts were not linked to identity records. A rule-bound attitude would say "the documents are incomplete". A public-service attitude asks how to fix the gap: organise a camp at the village, bring bank staff and enrolment operators, release arrears once records are verified, and report the systemic problem so it does not recur. The rules are followed; the attitude changes the outcome.

Answer-writing tip

When a question asks about "attitude", define it, mention the ABC model, and give one administrative example. When it asks about "foundational values", pick three or four values and illustrate each with a one-line example rather than listing ten.