Attitudes, Beliefs and Values

Overview

Attitudes, beliefs and values are the framework from which many opinions and decisions are formed. Understanding where these ideas are formed, the cultures that lead to those understandings, and how they might be changed is at the center of communication and argumentation studies. While individuals see these three as different concepts, when we examine them from an outside perspective, it is at times possible to see the ways that attitudes, values, and beliefs blend together to create a standpoint or understanding of a particular situation.

Communications scholars argue that what counts as an attitude, value or belief changes by culture. What is known to be a fact in one place might be seen as a belief in another place. Attitudes are the positions that individuals hold on a specific topic, these are informed by the individual's beliefs. For example, if the individual believes that an act is unethical they will have a negative attitude toward those that have committed that act. Values are also linked to beliefs and attitudes; they inform the ways that different ideas are compared, with some being more or less important than others. This evaluation of importance is informed by the individual or culture's belief in a particular action and their attitude toward those that uphold or reject that belief.

Some cultures hold attitudes, values, and beliefs in common. For example, religious groups may have a text that outlines the attitudes, values, and beliefs upon which the group will act. Other communities hold common values, although their beliefs and attitudes may be different. The establishment of attitudes, values, and beliefs takes a long time, often an entire lifetime. For this reason, children are often educated into the attitudes, values, and beliefs of their community and culture. These childhood lessons are of particular importance for children when they are attempting to make sense of information given to them by both parents, in both married and divorced families (Schrodt & Shimkowski, 2017). When those attitudes, values, and beliefs change due to a war, religious conversion, or migration, community members can have difficulty integrating into their new community. Merelo (2017) has studied the ways that these changes affect Mexican migrants to New Zealand and asked why these migrants do not vote in New Zealand. Merelo found that Mexican migrants continue to hold the same attitudes, values, and beliefs toward voting in New Zealand that they had when in Mexico, and because voter turnout is very low in Mexico, voter turnout by Mexican migrants to New Zealand is also low.

Concepts advanced through attitudes, values, and beliefs are often compared to those that are believed to be facts and knowledge. Determining the difference between these can be difficult, especially for members of communities where beliefs have been held for many generations. On the other hand, visitors to a new culture often have an easy time determining what is a belief and what is knowledge. The difference centers on facts and logic. To determine the difference between belief and knowledge, the evaluator needs to find out what the belief or knowledge is based on, whether there is a basis in truth, and if that basis in truth comes from an objective fact (in which case it is knowledge) or from an evaluation or justification (in which case it is a belief). Because human societies are always discovering new information and understandings of the world, knowledge is often changing to keep up with the discovery of more information. For example, as telescopes became more powerful, human's knowledge of the universe expanded, and the base of knowledge, such as stating how many planets there are, changed.

Everard, Reed, and Kenter (2016) have studied the ways that environmental values are formed and how learning about environmental risks can cause communities and societies to change their expectations of what environmental policies are acceptable and unacceptable. They argue that it is only when these attitudes, values, and beliefs regarding the environment are changed that policies can also change.

Further Insights

Clashes of attitudes, values, and beliefs affect many intercultural and international engagements. When two different speakers or groups have different underling assumptions, they may have trouble finding common ground upon which they can reach an understanding or compromise. These clashes may be historic, religious, or based on the use of a new technology. These clashes may occur even when all parties want to avoid conflict; because they lack a common starting point, it can be hard for these parties to begin to find common ground and overcome their difficulties. For example, two communities might clash over a plan to remove a grove of trees. One group may hold the belief that trees are alive and that their lives are worth just as much as a human. The other group might hold the belief that while trees are alive, their lives cannot be compared to that of humans. Because their beliefs are different (tree lives are the same as humans and tree lives are different) they will have different values (trees should not be harmed, it is acceptable to harm trees to make human lives easier). These differing beliefs and values will affect the attitudes that both communities have toward the proposed action. The first group, which believes that the trees deserve protection, are likely to be very invested in protecting the trees. Whereas the second group, which does not believe that the trees are worthy of protection will likely be less engaged in the conflict and less likely to participate in events that attempt to sway public opinion or otherwise change the ways that plans are made regarding trees in the area.

These differences in attitudes, values, and beliefs also affect attempts by international organizations to provide development services including education programs, healthcare, and other social services. Cheng, Wu, Wang, and Wu (2017) have argued that it is necessary to first understand the community's attitudes, values, and beliefs about their livelihoods before attempting to make any changes. Using a method known as community participation, Cheng et al. have studied the ways that sustainable tourism projects can be designed and implemented. These projects, which encourage responsible tourism to environmentally protected areas, often require that the attitudes, values, and beliefs of many groups are changed. They need to address tourists who pay more for sustainable tourism, guides who must take special precautions, and tourist service providers who must sometimes adapt methods that cost more. These decisions all cost money and are only implemented when the attitudes, values, and beliefs of each decision maker is informed about why these additional costs are necessary. Communication professionals work in situations such as this to design advertisement and educational campaigns that provide information to specific audiences about why these extra costs are necessary. These professionals will conduct surveys and interviews to determine which attitudes, values, or beliefs would be easiest to approach. For example, they might study if it is an attitude of saving money, or a belief in environmental causes that can most effectively be addressed. Then they will work to design campaigns that persuade by addressing the importance of those attitudes, values, and beliefs and encouraging audiences to make positive changes, in this case, choosing tourism opportunities that preserve the environment.

It is also important for those working in public affairs to understand how their community members utilize attitudes, values and beliefs in every day decision-making. First, those working in public affairs, such as elected officials, teachers, police officers, and doctors, need to understand what a community values. Inglehart (2015) has studied the ways that values have been changed in Western countries such as the United States and Western Europe. He argues that citizens in these countries have had a value change from material well-being to a more general quality of life. Because people in these countries have had a generally safe childhood, free from war, disease, and famine, they have different values than generations before them, which grew up during World War II. This change in values, according to Inglehart has caused a change in values that effects everything from political structures to consumer behavior. Reading and assessing studies such as this helps communication professionals to better understand emergent trends and changes in society. This might explain why traditional advertisements have stopped working, or how public educational programs could be made more effective. It also explains differences among populations that once had aligned attitudes, values, and beliefs but are now very different in worldview. For example, first- and second-generation populations in the United States who have had calm upbringings might still identify as having a common heritage and ethnicity with another country, but may hold different attitudes, values, and beliefs than citizens of their home country who have grown up during a period of exceptional hardship.

These changes to different attitudes, values, and beliefs might affect how individuals in a community live, for example, what they eat or whom they choose to marry. Carol (2016) has studied the ways that marriages occur in Europe between Muslim migrants and native Europeans who are also practicing Muslims. Her study examines the ways that parents work to ensure that their traditional attitudes, values, and beliefs are honored when their children choose to marry, and the ways that attitudes, values, and beliefs are transferred to future generations.

Issues

"Culture clash" is the term often used to describe misunderstandings of attitudes, values, and beliefs. These clashes can occur over a specific topic or over a larger identification and concept of belonging. While some clashes emerge slowly, global migration has caused culture clashes to appear quickly in nations receiving immigrants. For example, Karlsen and Nazroo (2015) analyzed the ways that British citizens from different religious groups articulated their feelings of belonging in the United Kingdom. This study indicated that attitudes regarding cultural integration and whether a group or individual felt that they belonged within the larger British society varied among ethnic and religious groups.

Röder and Lubbers (2016) studied the ways that Polish immigrants changed their opinions, through a change of attitudes, values, and beliefs regarding homosexuality. Röder and Lubbers' study tracks how these changes occur over time in different Western European countries and examines the ways that those countries have worked to make immigrants feel included in their new communities, thereby encouraging significant changes to attitudes, values, and beliefs. Conversely, countries that kept immigrants separate from their new communities had minimal effect on immigrants' attitudes, values, and beliefs. These findings inform communities that are concerned with the ways that their members are fitting into larger society as well as maintaining their ethnic or religious traditions. They also inform national decision makers who are concerned about integrating citizens from around the world to prevent hate crimes, terrorism, and general unrest in local communities.

Clashes also occurs due to globalization and the bringing together of many different communities to make joint decisions. This is especially true regarding climate change that affects large swaths of land and does not stop at the borders of one cultural group. Because of the far-reaching implications of climate change, it is necessary for policy makers to overcome their differences to create meaningful policies that will affect future generations. These decisions are made even more difficult when different communities hold different attitudes, values, and beliefs regarding both climate change and the natural environment. Corner, Markowitz, and Pidgeon (2014) have found that both a change of values and emphasis on community engagement are necessary to encourage positive changes in human behavior. Communications professionals can help to make these changes by understanding the ways that attitudes, values, and beliefs are formed, change, and come into conflict. This information can help to make specific recommendations that can result in real, lasting, and positive changes.

Bibliography

Carol, S. (2016). Like will to like? Partner choice among Muslim migrants and natives in Western Europe. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 42(2), 261–276.

Cheng, T. M., Wu, H. C., Wang, J. T. M., & Wu, M. R. (2017). Community Participation as a mediating factor on residents' attitudes towards sustainable tourism development and their personal environmentally responsible behavior. Current Issues in Tourism, 1–19.

Corner, A., Markowitz, E., & Pidgeon, N. (2014). Public engagement with climate change: the role of human values. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 5(3), 411–422.

Devine-Wright, P., Price, J., & Leviston, Z. (2015). My country or my planet? Exploring the influence of multiple place attachments and ideological beliefs upon climate change attitudes and opinions. Global Environmental Change, 30, 68–79.

Dillard, V. et.al. (2021, June 15). Attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of religiosity, spirituality, and cultural competence of the medical profression: A cross-cultural study.Plos One, doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0252750

Everard, M., Reed, M. S., & Kenter, J. O. (2016). The ripple effect: institutionalizing pro-environmental values to shift societal norms and behaviors. Ecosystem Services, 21, 230–240.

Inglehart, R. (2015). The silent revolution: Changing values and political styles among Western publics. Princeton University Press.

Karlsen, S., & Nazroo, J. Y. (2015). Ethnic and religious differences in the attitudes of people towards being "British." The Sociological Review, 63(4), 759–781.

Kumar, Mohan. (2023, Nov. 29). The relationship between beliefs, values, attitudes, and behavior. Owlcation, owlcation.com/social-sciences/Teaching-and-Assessing-Attitudes

Merelo, G. (2017). Neither here nor there, I do not vote and I do not care: The external electoral participation of Mexican migrants in New Zealand. Journal of International Migration and Integration, 18(2), 641–656.

Röder, A., & Lubbers, M. (2016). After migration: Acculturation of attitudes towards homosexuality among Polish immigrants in Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and the UK. Ethnicities, 16(2), 261–289.

Schrodt, P., & Shimkowski, J. R. (2017). Family communication patterns and perceptions of coparental communication. Communication Reports, 30(1), 39–50. doi:10.1080/08934215.2015.1111400