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Critically discuss two theories of attitude change In our society, persuasion attempts are a common part of our every day lives; politicians try and persuade us to vote for them and their policies, while advertisers are continually trying to convince us that their product is better than their rivals. But what is it that causes people to change their attitudes? This essay will outline and examine the extent to which two different theories present an adequate explanation as to what causes attitudes to change. It shall look firstly at the Yale persuasion approach, proposed by Hovland (1951), which suggests that in order to understand attitude change, it is essential to study the effects of different variables concerning the message, its source, the audience and the context. It will then examine Festinger's theory of cognitive dissonance which proposes that our need for cognitive consistency means that our attitudes will be modified so...

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