A Theoretical Note on the Differences Between Attitudes, Opinions, and Values

✍ Scribed by Manfred Max Bergman

• Publisher: Swiss Political Science Association
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: German
• Weight: 162 KB
• Volume: 4
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1420-3529
• DOI: 10.1002/j.1662-6370.1998.tb00239.x

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

This theoretical note examines the concepts attitude, opinion, and value. It is argued that such acquired behavioral pre‐dispositions are re‐lated but have different conceptual foci and tend to address different phenomena. Although it is important to recognize their interconnected‐ness, their indiscriminate use is likely to lead to messy theoretical ar‐guments and misleading interpretations of empirical findings. This ar‐ticle discusses key‐aspects that need to be considered in the study of at‐titudes, opinions, and values, as well as the relations between these.