Does attitude really exist? The anticipation model of implicit attitude

This article presents the anticipation model of implicit attitude. According to this model, implicit attitude is a part of the general nonspecific characteristics of an object or situation fixed in an individual’s experience. This experience can be applied to new objects or situations, without taking into account their specificity, and become a basis for anticipation of their properties. The validity of such an approach is confirmed by psychosemantical study. The proposed model allows the removal of the issue of an artificial nature of attitude because it emphasizes its functional importance in the cognition process and behaviour. Implicit attitude is considered an aspect of experience that serves as a basis for forming preliminary mental representations of objects. This approach allows for the integration of original and modern conceptions of attitude. The results obtained render a generalized interpretation of such well-known psychological phenomena as the halo effect and the spreading attitude effect