Forming judgments of attitude certainty, intensity, and importance: The role of subjective experiences

Two studies examined the impact of subjective experiences on reports of att itude certainty, intensity, and importance. In Study I, participants with m oderate or extreme attitudes toward doctor-assisted suicide generated three (easy) or seven (hard) arguments that either supported or countered their opinion toward the issue prior to indicating the strength of their attitude . Participants with moderate attitudes rated their opinions as more intense personally important, and held with greater certainty when they had genera ted either a small number of supporting arguments or a large number of oppo sing arguments. Ratings provided by individuals with extreme attitudes were unaffected by the argument generation task. In Study 2, the impact of ease of recall on strength-related judgments was eliminated when it was rendere d nondiagnostic by a misattribution manipulation. Implications of these fin dings for attitude strength and other judgmental phenomena are discussed.