Changing Attitudes

What is Attitude? showed that attitudes are formed from a combination of prejudice, stigma, stereotyping and knowledge. Or to put it another way, an attitude is a combination of of beliefs and behaviors towards an object. This blog post will consider how attitudes are changed.

Before beginning a discussion of attitudes it is useful to understand some concepts. Social influence occurs when emotions, opinions or behaviors are changed by the actions of other people. Social influence has many forms it is seen in peer pressure, conformity, obedience, persuasion and so on. Wikipedia continues:

In 1958, Harvard psychologist, Herbert Kelman identified three broad varieties of social influence.

1. Compliance is when people appear to agree with others, but actually keep their dissenting opinions private.
2. Identification is when people are influenced by someone who is liked and respected, such as a famous celebrity.
3. Internalization is when people accept a belief or behavior and agree both publicly and privately.

Associated with this are the needs people have to be right and to be liked. The need to be right is called informational influence or social proof. It is the need for information to match reality. The need to be liked is called normative influence and is the conforming to the expectations of others. 

Cognitive dissonance is stress or discomfort experienced when someone holds 2 or more contradictory beliefs, ideas or values at the same time. This was seen in the blog What is Attitude? When it was shown that people may have 2 contradictory attitudes at the same time. If the opposing attitudes are strong enough, the person who has them feels conflicted.

Attitudes are not stable because they are a combination of beliefs and behaviors towards. When cognitive dissonance occurs due to social influence and the motivation to be consistent the attitude can be changed. Attitudes can be changed in 3 basic ways by causing cognitive dissonance (see Wikipedia):

1. Compliance is when someone changes their behavior based on consequences. Their opinion does not necessarily change their attitude and they are often aware they have been coerced into changing their opinions.
2. Identification is changing a belief to be like that of a person that is admired. Often children's beliefs are similar to their parents's beliefs. 
3. Internalization happens when belief is rewarding in itself. The attitude is consistent with someone's value system and is merged with their own values and beliefs. 

Emotion also plays a major role in attitude change. Emotion works hand in hand with the way we think about a situation. There is lots of evidence that emotion plays a major role in the forming of attitudes. It is important to have an emotional buy in to an attitude. If for instance someone doesn't believe that their change in attitude will affect global warming, they are not likely to change that attitude.

The 3 studies that follow show how attitudes change. In this 2013 study, Inclusion of pupils with intellectual disabilities: primary school teachers' attitudes and willingness in a rural area in Uganda, it is possible to see how attitudes change according to knowledge. The study presents information on attitudes of teachers towards children with intellectual disabilities. The study opens describing the importance of attitude to teachers:

Teachers are role models for fellow teachers and for their pupils. If teachers appear apprehensive and fearful, it is likely that their pupils will follow their lead (Dunn and Fait 1989). Teachers who feel that their pre-service training has not prepared them for inclusive education appear to be pessimistic towards inclusion (Schumm and Vaughn 1995). Teachers have also supported the idea of inclusion, while at the same time expressing a more limited willingness to teach students with disabilities in their classrooms (Scruggs and Mastropieri 1996). The willingness of teachers to teach children with special needs is influenced by the teachers’ feelings of social support from others, and by their feelings of being capable to teach children with special needs (Ajzen 2005).

The results of this study clearly show that knowledge of working with children with intellectual disabilities was a great factor in attitude change, even if the teacher had no experience teaching children with intellectual disabilities:

Teacher training background was found to be an important factor in shaping the attitudes as well as the willingness of teachers, even when the training consisted solely of workshops and seminars. A large majority of the teachers (77.2%) in the district were untrained in special education. Those teachers who had some form of training in inclusive education (22.7%) had more positive attitudes and were more willing than teachers who had no training at all. For 19.5% of the participants, the training had consisted solely of seminars and short courses. This finding can, therefore, be regarded as a strong support for organising in-service and school-level training since few teachers in this area have had the opportunity to attend full-time formal training in inclusive education.
 Academic preparation and more knowledge plays a role in shaping teacher attitudes and willingness towards teaching pupils with special educational needs (Buell et al. 1999; Martinez 2003; Urquhart 1999), due to the teachers’ greater confidence in themselves, and greater beliefs that they could manage students during inclusion. In this study, it is likely that some of the teachers who possessed a more negative attitude towards teaching children with intellectual disabilities, did so simply because they did not know how to teach them

The 1997 study  HIV/AIDS, change in sexual behaviour and community attitudes in Uganda shows how behavior can change because of attitude changes towards death, in this case seeing the deaths of people due to HIV/AIDS infection. The author speculates the attitude change is not in response to education. Respondents became more willing to use condoms because of all the death they had seen amongst their peers:

The introduction notes: Given that Uganda and other countries in sub-Saharan Africa fall under Pattern II of the epidemic in which transmission is primarily through sexual activity, prevention efforts through health promotion and health education must be geared towards changing sexual behaviour and making it less risky (Livingston 1992). Patterns of sexual behaviour, such as partner selection and culturally determined sexual practices like 'dry sex' and refusal to use condoms are the primary determinants of the spread of HIV/ AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. Sexual mixing between high risk groups and the rest of the population, concurrent multiple partnerships, and lack of peer support for condom use are other risky practices that have been identified (National Research Council 1996). This has led some researchers to refer to AIDS as a sexual rather than medical problem (Carswell et al. 1986). It is not just the virus that is creating problems, but human beings also.
The discussion says: Furthermore the findings in Table 5 (Differentials in reason for change of attitude towards death by socio-demographic characteristic) reflect some element of peer promotion efforts. In the populations where a lot of AIDS deaths and suffering have been witnessed, for a male to have many sexual partners no longer brings prestige or makes him look tough and manly (Hawkins 1992). Keeping faithful to your spouse in order to keep your family free of the disease is becoming increasingly praiseworthy. In the focus-gröup discussions in Rakai district, it was noted that the youths and barmaids were willing to use condoms in future sexual encounters in order to prevent HIV infection (Konde-Lule et al. 1993). This can easily start new ways of doing things which are acceptable to peers.

Finally, this 2016 newspaper article, 10 activists changing lives for disabled people around the world, talks about the education by an activist with albinism. He uses education as his main means of changing attitudes

Supporting people with albinism. Peter Ogik, chair of the Source of the Nile Union of Persons with Albinism, Uganda. There is much stigma attached to albinism. I was was the first person to be born with albinism in our family, and in the whole community. Most people didn’t want to be associated with us because they used to say I was a curse. It became a hard life.
But I went to university and tried to show how people with albinism can make change in communities, and how they can look after their skins (98% of people with albinism have skin cancer and die before reaching age of 40). I wanted to become an activist for the voiceless and show the potential of people with disabilities.
I know this work is not easy, but what gives me hope is that at least we have started changing their attitudes. I do awareness-raising through music, entertainment, documentaries and I’m organising an international albinism event to try washing away the myth. After all, it’s just a skin that is missing the colour, but we have the potential to do everything.

The 3 examples above show that attitude change is possible. It is often not quick or simple. Furthermore, throughout this blog we have seen examples of people advocating on behalf of disability groups to change attitudes. For instance in the work of Annet Nakyeyune Tibaleka the Founder Little People of Uganda in Little People in Uganda and More about Little People of Uganda who said:

“Whenever you find yourself in a situation that is prone to misconception, which in most cases breeds stigma, seek to know as much as possible about that situation. It is only until you overcome ignorance, stigma, shame and denial, then can you be able to fight for the rights of others in similar
situation”.

Many other blog posts have highlighted activists and educators working to change attitudes. 3 examples will do:

1. In the video in Albinism and Prejudice in Uganda various people spoke about their experiences as albinos. All the people taking part in the film are activists.
2. The work of Rosemary Nambooze Nuwagabais on Down's Syndrome in Uganda highlighed the need to educate parents as well as the community about Down's syndrome.
3. The post on Autism Spectrum Disorder in Uganda spoke about Fredrick Sembatya's education of  the general public, families and the community.

All efforts to change attitudes and behavior are not wasted. It should be heartening that everyone that works to change prevailing attitudes fights against the ignorance of stigma and prejudice. The important lesson is that attitudes can be changed. No effort is wasted.