How attitude functions, attitude change, and beliefs affect community sentiment toward the facebook law

Abstract

The public’s attitude toward an object (e.g., a law) can be referred to as community sentiment. Sentiment is not static, however; it could change for many reasons, including if the public receives more information about that object. The functions the attitude serves (i.e., to express one’s values), beliefs about the attitude object, and demographics also could relate to sentiment. This chapter assessed sentiment toward regulation of social networks (i.e., a law forbidding teachers to contact minors on sites like Facebook). Participants were initially uninformed about and unsupportive of the regulation of online social networks, but receiving information increased support (sentiment). This indicates that one’s well-thought-out sentiment might differ from one’s initial reactionary sentiment. Additionally, when individuals held a stronger social-expressive attitude function (i.e., participants who were more concerned with how others perceived them) or had a weak belief that such laws would negatively impact teachers, they were more supportive of the regulation. Other individual variables did not affect support. Results have implications for attitude theories, community sentiment, and laws regulating social networks.