Application of Social Judgement Theory

by Laura Lavelle

Social Judgement Theory involves how we judge a statement or idea. This happens almost immediately in our head. The statement falls under our latitude of acceptance, or latitude of rejection, or our latitude of noncommitment. Where it falls in our mind depends on a number of things, including how important the issue is to our lives. This concept is known as ego-involvement.

For an example I will use an issue that has been in the news quite a bit in the last few years, the school voucher system. In this system the government gives students money to attend private schools. Many people have a strong opinion on this issue. One person is my mother. She has taught in the Cleveland Public Schools for more than 25 years, where a school voucher program was in effect for three years. She is completely opposed to a publicly funded voucher system. She has a very high level of ego-involvement on this issue because it effects her life.

If someone were to use the argument that private schools were failing at educating students and that money would be better spent sending these students to private schools, it would immediately fall under her latitude of rejection. She would say that the system is not failing and that money could be used to improve the public school systems. The argument in favor of vouchers may cause the boomerang effect. It may make my mother's attitude against vouchers even stronger. This is a risk of trying to change the opinion of someone who has a high ego-involvement with an issue.

The best way to attempt to change the attitude of a highly ego-involved person is to try an argument that is on the edge of the person's latitude of acceptance. This could cause a small positive shift in attitude. Changing my mother's attitude would be a hard thing to do, but one way to do it would probably be to argue that classes are too large and that in private schools the classes are smaller. This may fall under her latitude of acceptance because she does believe that classes are too large. So this could result in a small positive attitude change for her.

In conclusion, changing the attitude of a person that has a high level of ego-involvement in an issue can be a hard thing to do. It involves finding just the right argument to persuade them even slightly so as not to drive them further away from accepting your argument.

Click hereto read more about voucher systems

Click here to read an article about the voucher system in the Cleveland Public Schools

Click here to see an application of Social Penetration Theory which is another of the Economic and Balance Theories

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This page was last updated on March 14, 2000 by Laura Lavelle