Cognitive Effects of Attitude Conflict Resolution

Abstract

Interpersonal conflict usually involves conflict over attitudes as well as over scarce resources. It is hypothesized that the course of attitude conflicts will influence the subsequent view of the issue under dispute. Specifically, competitively oriented subjects will highly differentiate the opposing attitude positions while cooperatively oriented subjects will emphasize the similarity of the positions. These perceptual changes are expected to be cognitively mediated by differential weighting of the ways in which the position differ. In an experiment to test this hypothesis, pairs of subjects were assigned attitude positions on how National Health Insurance should be organized. Positions within any pair differed a great deal in some ways and less in others. Pairs then discussed the issue under either cooperative or competitive contingencies. The results of the experiment strongly confirmed the hypothesis: competition led to decreased perceived similarity between the positions and an emphasis upon those ways in which the positions differed the most. Cooperation had opposite effects.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Anderson, N. (1976) Integration Theory Applied to Cognitive Responses and Attitudes. La Jolla, CA: Center for Human Information Processing, University of California, San Diego.

Carroll, J. D. and J. J. Chang (1970) “Analysis of individual differences in multidimensional scaling via an N-way generalization of ‘Eckart-Young’ decomposition.” Psychometrika 35: 283–319.

Deignan, G. M. (1970) “Perceptual, interpersonal and situational factors in cooperation and competition.” Dissertation Abstracts 31: 1371–A.

Deutsch, M. (1973) The Resolution of Conflict: Constructive and Destructive Processes. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Deutsch, M. (1949) “A theory of cooperation and competition.” Human Relations 2: 129–152.

Fishbein, M. and I. Ajzen (1975) Beliefs, Attitudes, Intention, and Behavior. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

Kaplan, S. J. (1973) “Computational steps for converting various forms of data to multidimensional scaling input.” Murray Hill, NJ: Bell Laboratories, (unpublished)

Kaufman, H. (1967) “Similarity and cooperation received as determinants of cooperation rendered.” Psychonomic Sci. 9: 73–74.

Rapoport, A. and A. M. Chammah (1965) Prisoner's Dilemma: A Study of Conflict and Cooperation. Ann Arbor: Univ. of Michigan Press.

10.

Scott, W. A. (1969) “The structure of natural cognitions.” J. of Personality and Social Psychology 12: 261–278.

11.

Sherif, M. and C. I. Hovland (1961) Social Judgment. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press.

12.

Thurstone, L. L. (1931) “The measurement of attitudes.” J. of Abnormal and Social Psychology 26: 249–269.

13.

Tornatzky, L. G. (1970) “The effects of threat, attraction, and balance on interpersonal bargaining.” Dissertation Abstracts 30: 5527–28–A.

14.

Winer, B. J. (1971) Statistical Principles in Experimental Design. New York: McGraw-Hill.

15.

Zajonc, R. B. (1960) “The process of cognitive tuning in communication.” J. of Abnormal and Social Psychology 61: 159–167.