Changing Attitudes after Bad Publicity： Cognitive Consistency

卢晓青

Abstract： Based on the principle of consistency， this paper employed four walls technique to test whether participants negative attitude towards Vapiano can be improved through this technique. In general， there was no significant difference found between the attitudes of participants in the experiment and the control condition. However， the four walls technique seems to be effectively influencing the attitude in a positive way in the case of statement Nr. 3， which was about the quality of the food at Vapiano. More factors such as consumers involvement， eating habits， attitude strength and implicit attitudes should also be included in future researches.

Key words： principle of consistency， four walls technique， cognitive consistency， cognition dissonance

Peoples attitudes can be changed and influenced by various ways. One way to influence peoples attitudes is through the principle of commitment/consistency （Fennis & Stroebe， 2016）， based on the assumption that “people want to act in accordance with their previous behavior and when they have committed themselves to a course of action they tend to follow it through” （Sleegers， 2016）. The tension for consistency is associated with the act of commitment. One of the techniques based on this principle is the “four walls technique”， which means the targets are asked different questions to which they will be very likely to answer with “yes”. To be consistent with their previous answers， the targets are then very likely to also say “yes” to an essential last question （Cialdini， 1987）.

Research study

The four walls technique was applied to test attitudinal changes. Vapiano was chosen as the case due to its popularity and the strong negative impact of the scandal on Vapianos image. It is expected that if participants acknowledge that it is likely for Vapiano to improve their behavior， their attitude towards Vapiano will be positively influenced. This assumption leads to the hypothesis： ‘if the participants believe that Vapiano will not serve any food past the expiration date， the attitude of the participants towards Vapiano will be positive.

Participants

The goal was to approach only German people， as the scandal with the expired noodles had happened in Vapiano restaurants in Germany. Therefore， the research for this study was done via an online survey. In total， 2 different online questionnaires were developed： one control condition survey （N = 108， of which 100 were further analyzed） and one experimental condition survey （N = 103， of which 101were further analyzed）. The participants in this study were randomly assigned to either one of the two conditions.endprint

Materials

The questionnaires for both the control and the experimental condition were in English. The 2 online surveys were sent to people in Germany via Facebook and Whatsapp groups. Both questionnaires used a 5-point Likert scale （1 = Strongly disagree and 5 = Strongly agree） to measure participants attitude towards Vapiano. The results of the surveys were then further analyzed with the statistics program SPSS.

Research Method

Application of the four walls technique

Participants in the experimental group were asked to answer 3 questions. It was only possible to answer the questions with either “yes” or “no”. It was expected that all of them would answer with “yes” for all questions. Afterwards， the statements to measure the attitude towards Vapiano were rated. The following questions （in this order） were asked：

1. “Do you think that Vapiano had a good image before the scandal？”?2. “Do you think that Vapiano will stop to give customers expired noodles？” 3. “Do you think that Vapiano will actively try to improve their image？”

Five statements about Vapiano to measure participants attitude

In order to measure participants attitude towards Vapiano， they had to rate on a 5-point Likert scale （1 = Strongly disagree and 5 = Strongly agree） about five statements. The intention was to let the participants rate different statements which should cover several important aspects that they could associate with Vapiano （eg. the taste）. In the control condition， only these five statements about Vapiano were asked to be rated by participants to measure their attitude. In the experimental condition， the questions applying the four walls technique were asked first， followed by the exact same statements as in the control condition. It was expected that participants in the experimental group had a more positive attitude towards Vapiano after applying the four walls technique than the participants in the control condition.

Research Results

The food at Vapiano was rated in general as very tasty by all participants （control group mean = 4，27； experimental group mean = 4，36）. The quality of Vapianos food was rated rather positively as well， but not as positive as the previous statements. What is interesting here is that participants in the experimental group rated the foods quality slightly better （mean = 3，64） than participants in the control group （mean = 3，55）. This could be an indicator that the four walls technique applied in the experimental group indeed had a positive effect on participants attitude.endprint

Results also show that participants in the control condition rated 4 of the 5 statements slightly more positive than participants in the experimental condition. Only statement Nr. 3 （in my opinion the food at Vapiano is of good quality） was in average rated a little bit better by participants in the experimental condition （mean = 3，64） than participants in the control condition （mean = 3，55）.

Discussion of Results and Conclusion

In general， the four walls technique seems to be effectively influencing the attitude in a positive way in the case of statement Nr. 3， which was about the quality of the food at Vapiano. This may be explained by the principle of consistency and participants need to avoid cognition dissonance. However， attitudinal differences are too small and insignificant to derive significant conclusions from this result. There are some limitations in this research. For further study， well-tested questions from previous papers should be used to guarantee reliability and validity. More factors such as consumers involvement， eating habits， attitude strength and implicit attitudes should also be included in future researches.

References

Cialdini， R. B. （1987）. Compliance principles of compliance professionals： Psychologists of necessity. In Social

influence： The ontario symposium （Vol. 5， pp. 165-184）. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Hillsdale， NJ.

Fennis， B.M， & Stroebe， W. （2016）. The psychology of advetising. New York， NY： Routhledge. Festinger， L. A

theory of cognitive dissonance. Stanford： Stanford University Press， 1957.

Sleegers， W. （2016）. Attitudes and advertising lecture 9： Compliance [PowerPoint Slides]. Retrieved from

https：//edubb.uvt.nl/webapps/blackboard/execute/content/file？cmd=view&content_id=_1473890_1&course_id=_94610_endprint