THE MODERATING INFLUENCE OF ATTITUDE STRENGTH ON THE SUSCEPTIBILITY TO CONTEXT EFFECTS IN ATTITUDE SURVEYS

In 3 experiments, the authors assessed whether attitude strength moder ates the susceptibility of attitudes to item context effects in survey s. In Experiment I, respondents completed multiple measures of attitud e strength. Three weeks later, respondents participated in a context e xperiment. Results revealed that respondents with weak attitudes exhib ited significantly larger context effect for 1 of 2 issues. In Experim ent 2, the results of Experiment 1 were conceptually replicated by use of measures of interattitudinal embeddedness to assess attitude stren gth. In Experiment 3, significant strength-moderated context effects w ere found when attitude strength was assessed in a multi-item, multidi mensional manner but not when it was assessed with a single item. Disc ussion focuses on measurement and theoretical issues related to the mo deration and mediation of context effects in attitude surveys.