Examining conflict between components of attitudes: Ambivalence and inconsistency are distinct constructs.

Positive and negative associations underlying ambivalent attitudes

“…Someone with a strongly ambivalent attitude may at the same time be very certain about this attitude, due to the fact that the associations between attitude object and positive and negative attributes are strong. This may help explain why ambivalent attitudes seem weak in some respects (e.g., low attitude stability), but 'act as' strong attitudes in other respects, such as resistance to persuasion when arguments provided in a message are weak (Maio, Esses, & Bell, 2000). Future studies must clarify the precise relation between the strength of positive and negative associations and diVerent strength-related eVects.…”

Can I borrow a feeling? Spillover of negative arousal from inconsistent information during attitude formation diminishes perceptions of well-being

“…Much like traditional work on attitude ambivalence (Maio et al, 2000), individuals experiencing implicit ambivalence have been shown to direct more cognitive resources towards processing information about the attitude object (Petty & Briñol, 2009). Given Table 1 Zero-order correlations between the variables measured in the current experiment.…”

“…Explicit ambivalence is associated with feeling mixed or confused about the attitude object (known as "felt" ambivalence; Newby-Clark, McGregor, & Zanna, 2002), which often leads to more extensive processing of information related to the object to reduce inconsistency or confusion (e.g., Maio, Esses, & Bell, 2000). Unlike the research on explicit ambivalence, people receiving inconsistent subliminal primes (e.g., "war") and behavioral information (e.g.…”

The moderating role of anticipated affective ambivalence in the formation of entrepreneurial intentions

“…The attitudinal affective component refers to the encoding of emotions and feelings associated with the attitudinal object, and the cognitive component is generally conceived of as containing the encoding of attributes and beliefs about the attitudinal object. When the affective and cognitive components are consistent (affective-cognitive consistency), the attitude is in a stable state, suggesting a strong ATT-INT link (Maio et al 2000). Anticipated affective ambivalence therefore suggests that students apply distinct and competing evaluations from nascent entrepreneurship so that cognitive structures associated with both positive and negative anticipated affect are activated (Larsen et al 2001;Williams and Aaker 2002).…”