Depending on the topic, people's opinions can change from moment to moment or last a lifetime. The factors that make one opinion long-lasting and another short-lived, however, are not always clear.
Past studies have shown that opinions based on hard facts and data can remain constant over time, but new research published in the journal Psychological Science finds that opinions based on feelings and emotions can also stand the test of time.
As part of their study, the researchers asked more than 1,000 people to what degree they believed opinions based on feelings or emotional reactions were more stable over time than those based on thinking and reasoned analysis. Only 15% expressed any belief that opinions based on emotion would be more stable over time.
To test the role that emotion plays in forming long-lasting opinions, the researchers conducted seven independent studies involving more than 20,000 participants in various real-world situations.
The first survey, which was conducted the day after Christmas, measured feelings about recently received gifts. The participants were given a list of adjectives (形容词) to describe their opinions toward their gifts. Adjectives like "worthwhile" were associated with a practical reaction to the gift, while words like "delightful" were more strongly associated with an emotional reaction. One month later, the participants completed a follow-up survey to test the endurance (持久性) of their opinions. The results showed that the stronger the positive emotional reaction, the more likely that opinion remained fixed one month later.
In the final test, participants read one of two messages about an imaginary sea animal. One message contained broad-ranging facts about the animal (low-emotion condition). The other message was about a swimmer's underwater interaction with the animal (high-emotion condition). The participants in the high-emotion condition showed significantly less change in their opinions across time.
"Emotionality is an unrecognized predictor (预测因子) of long-lasting opinions, said Andrew Luttrell, a researcher at Ball State University. "These findings are important for understanding why some opinions are so difficult to change as well as how to create opinions that stick. "
