Change in Hierarchically Organized Attitudes

This study tests a theory of attitude change in hierarchies proposed by Hunter, Levine, and Sayers (1976). That theory was verified in that (a) messages input at the top of the hierarchy have an influence that is spread throughout the hierarchy by internal processes while (b) messages input at the bottom of the hierarchy have no effect on any attitude except the one at which the message was specifically directed and the specific effect “decays” because of the internal processes in the hierarchy. Several models of change due to direct and indirect message effects were proposed and tested. The results suggest that the message integration process for attitudinal hierarchies is best represented by a two-step consolidation model.