Someone who has always voted a certain way and defends that choice with feeling holds an attitude. Attitudes are learned evaluations—positive, negative, or mixed—toward people, objects, ideas, or events.

They contain cognitive beliefs, emotional reactions, and behavioral tendencies. Strong attitudes resist change and guide attention and memory toward confirming information. They form through direct experience, social learning, and persuasive messages. Explicit attitudes are reported consciously; implicit ones operate outside awareness and can be measured with reaction-time tasks.

Persuasion research examines when messages shift attitudes and when they fail. Cognitive dissonance arises when behavior contradicts a valued attitude, often prompting either attitude change or rationalization. In social psychology, attitudes help explain prejudice, consumer choice, and political polarization. Changing deep attitudes usually requires more than information; it needs new experiences and social support.

An attitude felt strongly enough can outlast contradictory evidence for years.