Study of attitudes and persuasion remains a defining characteristic of contemporary social psychology. This review outlines recent advances, with emphasis on the relevance of today's work for perennial issues. We reiterate the distinction between attitude formation and change, and show its relevance for persuasion. Single- and dual-process models are discussed, as are current views on dissonance theory. Majority and minority influence are scrutinized, with special emphasis on integrative theoretical innovations. Attitude strength is considered, and its relevance to ambivalence and resistance documented. Affect, mood, and emotion effects are reviewed, especially as they pertain to fear arousal and (un)certainty. Finally, we discuss attitude-behavior consistency, perhaps the reason for our interest in attitudes in the first place, with emphasis on self-interest and the theory of planned behavior. Our review reflects the dynamism and the reach of the area, and suggests a sure and sometimes rapid accumulation of knowledge and understanding.

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This research examines the possibility that the relation between attitude similarity and attraction is mediated by people's attributions of the other's evaluation of them. Using the hypothetical stranger paradigm, we manipulated subject/stranger similarity and the stranger's evaluation of the subject. Auxiliary dependent variables tapped subjects' (N = 226) estimates of the extent to which they were in agreement with the stranger and their perception of the stranger's evaluation of them. The results demonstrated significant effects for both manipulated variables on attraction. Partial correlational analyses demonstrated that the similarity-attraction relation was mediated by subjects' inferences of the stranger's evaluation of them; holding inferred evaluation constant strongly attenuated the similarity-attraction association. Moreover, the inferred evaluation-attraction relation was unaffected when attitude similarity was partialed from it. The correlational pattern is contrary to that put forward by Byrne (1971) and suggests a reconsideration of the conventional interpretation of the similarity-attraction relation.The study of factors that influence people's attraction to others is a major and continuing preoccupation of social psychology (

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