Social judgment theory studies how people form attitudes and make judgments when presented with persuasive messages. It examines the degree of acceptance, rejection, or noncommitment to specific stimuli and the latitude of existing viewpoints. It was created in the 1960s to predict how likely persuasive communications would alter attitudes. Attitudes are based on a complex of factors and can be difficult to change. The theory has been applied in marketing and politics to shape the presentation of products, services, political candidates, and social initiatives.
Social judgment theory, sometimes referred to as SJT, addresses questions about how people’s internal processes function when faced with persuasive messages intended to produce attitude changes. A result of social psychology, SJT was formulated after conducting tests using aptitude questionnaires and drawing inferences from the test subjects’ behaviors. In establishing social attitudes among populations studied, social judgment theory examines the degree to which test subjects demonstrate acceptance, rejection, or noncommitment when presented with specific stimuli. SJT also looks at the degree of latitude in a subject’s existing viewpoints that can lead to acceptance or rejection of a persuasive communication. It has been found that there is a correlation between people’s ego involvement in a given problem and their degree of latitude for accepting or rejecting attitudes regarding that problem.
Beginning in the 1960s, social scientists and psychologists began looking for a method to predict how likely certain persuasive communications would be to alter people’s attitudes. Social judgment theory was created as a means to do this. Test takers were asked to compare characteristics of different objects such as height, weight, and color. It was found that, when given a standard for comparison, subjects tended to use that standard to classify various objects.
Determining how people form judgments, especially in the realm of social stimuli, is a challenging field of study that social judgment theory intends to facilitate. Judgments take place when a person subjected to two or more stimuli forms an opinion about them. Current circumstances as well as the individual’s past experience help shape attitude formation. Because people’s attitudes are closely connected with their personal identity, they are often based on a complex of factors and can be difficult to change through external stimuli. Having subjects categorize a group of statements into those they agree or disagree with or are neutral about has helped social scientists understand how attitudes are formed.
In applying social judgment theory, it has been found that social attitudes are often not based on the subject’s cumulative experience, especially when the position is extreme. The individual’s native attitude is considered an anchor point in establishing a continuum of acceptance versus rejection of a given position. The degree to which an individual can accept or reject a position is known as the acceptance latitude and rejection latitude. Issues involving family, politics and religion tend to have narrower latitudes of acceptance and rejection. The application of SJT in the realms of marketing and politics has become a significant way to shape the way products, services, political candidates and social initiatives are presented to the public.
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