Attitude: Content, Structure, Function and Influence on Behaviour

The syllabus line

GS4 lists "Attitude: content, structure, function; its influence and relation with thought and behaviour; moral and political attitudes; social influence and persuasion". Attitude explains why two officers with the same rules behave so differently – one sees a poor applicant as a burden, the other as a citizen with rights. This lesson covers the first half of the line: what attitudes are, how they are built and what they do.

Meaning of attitude

An attitude is a relatively lasting evaluation – positive, negative or mixed – of a person, object, group, idea or event. Psychologist Gordon Allport (1935) called it "a mental and neural state of readiness, organised through experience, exerting a directive or dynamic influence upon the individual's response". In simple words: an attitude is a learned tendency to respond in a favourable or unfavourable way.

Key features:

• Learned, not inborn – through experience, family, peers and media.
• Relatively stable, but can change.
• Has an object – we have attitudes *toward* something (women officers, reservation, technology).
• Evaluative – like/dislike, approve/disapprove.
• Varies in strength – strong attitudes are more resistant to change and better predictors of behaviour.

Content of attitude

The content of an attitude is the set of beliefs, feelings and past behaviours associated with the object. For example, an officer's attitude toward e-governance may contain beliefs ("it reduces corruption"), feelings ("I feel confident with apps") and past behaviour ("I have used online files before"). Content can be:

• Factual (based on knowledge) or stereotyped (based on generalisations).
• Value-laden – linked to deeper values such as equality or tradition.

Structure: the ABC model

The most widely used model breaks attitude into three components:

The three components are usually consistent, but not always. A person may believe that bribery is wrong (cognitive), feel guilty about it (affective), yet still pay a bribe for a licence (behavioural) because of situational pressure.

Other structural features

• Valence – positive or negative direction.
• Extremeness – how strong the feeling is.
• Simplicity or complexity – a simple attitude rests on one belief; a complex one on many.
• Centrality – how closely linked to a person's core values and identity. Central attitudes are hard to change.
• Explicit vs implicit – explicit attitudes are conscious and reported; implicit attitudes are automatic and unconscious, measured by tests like the Implicit Association Test (IAT). An officer may sincerely believe in gender equality but still unconsciously interrupt women more often in meetings.

Functions of attitude

Daniel Katz (1960) proposed four functions:

1. Utilitarian (adjustive) function – attitudes help us gain rewards and avoid punishment. An officer may favour a scheme because it brings recognition.
2. Ego-defensive function – protect self-esteem from unpleasant truths. A person may look down on others to feel superior.
3. Value-expressive function – express our core values and identity. An officer who wears khadi expresses a Gandhian value.
4. Knowledge function – help organise and simplify a complex world. Attitudes act as mental shortcuts.

Later writers added a social-adjustive function – attitudes help us fit in with groups we like.

How attitudes are formed

• Classical conditioning – repeated pairing of an object with pleasant or unpleasant feelings (advertising).
• Operant conditioning – rewards and punishments for expressing attitudes.
• Observational learning – copying parents, teachers, leaders (Albert Bandura).
• Direct experience – a good experience at a government hospital builds a positive attitude toward public health.
• Mere exposure effect – familiarity breeds liking.
• Group membership – caste, religion, region and party shape attitudes.
• Media and social media – framing, repetition and echo chambers.

Attitude, thought and behaviour

Does attitude predict behaviour? Not always.

• LaPiere's study (1934) – a Chinese couple travelling in the USA was refused service in only one of about 250 hotels and restaurants, yet over 90 per cent of the establishments later wrote that they would not serve Chinese guests. Stated attitude and behaviour differed.
• Theory of planned behaviour (Icek Ajzen, 1991) – behaviour follows intention, which depends on (a) attitude toward the behaviour, (b) subjective norms (what others expect) and (c) perceived behavioural control (whether I can do it). So a citizen who favours cleanliness may still litter if no dustbins exist (low control) or if everyone else litters (norms).
• Attitudes predict behaviour better when they are strong, specific, based on direct experience, easily recalled and when situational pressures are weak.

Behaviour also shapes attitude

• Cognitive dissonance (Leon Festinger, 1957) – when beliefs and behaviour conflict, we feel discomfort and often change the belief to fit the behaviour. An officer who takes a first small bribe may start to believe "everyone does it" – a dangerous slide.
• Self-perception theory (Daryl Bem) – we infer our attitudes from our own behaviour.
• Foot-in-the-door – a small commitment leads to bigger ones. Honest habits built early make later integrity easier; small lapses make later corruption easier.

Attitude and the civil servant

The 2nd ARC (10th report, *Refurbishing of Personnel Administration*, 2008) stressed a change of attitude from rule-bound "process orientation" to "outcome orientation" and citizen-centricity.

Changing negative attitudes in administration

1. Training with field immersion – staying in villages, tribal areas, urban slums.
2. Contact hypothesis (Allport, 1954) – equal-status contact between groups reduces prejudice.
3. Role models and leadership – senior officers who model respect.
4. Feedback from citizens – social audits, grievance data, mystery shoppers.
5. Incentives – recognising citizen-friendly behaviour in appraisals.
6. Mission Karmayogi's shift from "rule-based" to "role-based" capacity building.

Worked example

A tehsildar holds that people from a particular nomadic community are "habitual offenders", a stereotype rooted in the colonial Criminal Tribes Act, 1871 (repealed in 1952). This attitude leads to delays in their caste certificates. Applying the ABC model:

• Cognitive: provide facts – history of the Act, data on the community, Idate Commission findings on denotified tribes.
• Affective: arrange a meeting with community leaders and children who have done well in school.
• Behavioural: set a time limit for certificates and monitor compliance.

Over time, dissonance between the old belief and new experience leads to attitude change.

Attitude vs related ideas

• Attitude vs value – values are broad, abstract and few (honesty, equality); attitudes are specific and many (attitude toward a particular scheme). Values feed attitudes.
• Attitude vs belief – a belief is a statement we accept as true; an attitude adds evaluation and feeling.
• Attitude vs opinion – an opinion is the spoken expression of an attitude, and may hide the real attitude.
• Attitude vs aptitude – aptitude is the potential to learn a skill; attitude is the disposition toward things. An officer may have high aptitude for data analysis but a poor attitude toward the public.

Mains practice question

"Attitude is the mirror of the mind." Explain the structure and functions of attitude. How do attitudes influence the behaviour of civil servants? (250 words)

Answer framework

• Define attitude (Allport); learned, evaluative.
• Structure: ABC model with example; explicit vs implicit.
• Functions: Katz's four.
• Attitude–behaviour link: LaPiere, Ajzen, dissonance.
• Civil service: desirable attitudes; tools to change negative ones.