Information Integration Theory

Information integration theory “suggests that people form attitudes that result from a blending of positives and negatives” (Heath & Bryant, 1992, p. 15). In this way, information integration theory is nicely parsimonious.

You may like the taste of pizza, but you may dislike its calories and fat content. You may like the prestige and comfort of driving a luxury car, but you may dislike the cost and low gas mileage of the car. You may dislike the time demands of a regular exercise program, but you may like how it makes you look and feel. People form an attitude toward everything they encounter. Attitudes include affective or evaluative components, referring to likes or dislikes, as well as cognitive components that involve degrees of certainty, or the extent to which people consider something as likely to be true.

Information integration theory argues that attitudes “provide consistency for judgment and behavior because they reflect patterns of preferences that each individual has established” (Heath & Bryant, 2000, p. 202). This approach also argues that attitudes “are not singular or undifferentiated evaluative cognitions. Rather, each attitude is the product of several affective (evaluative) qualities that are combined into a single expression of opinion” (Heath & Bryant, 2000, p. 202).

Theories that help explain how people think and form attitudes are important in communication. Public relations practitioners can use theory to better understand how people receive and process messages.

Information integration theory is an approach that can increase understanding of how people can be influenced by information. “Information is the essence of the persuasion process,” noted Martin Fishbein and Icek Ajzen (1981, p. 339). Information integration can help explain how attitudes interact and how attitudes affect behavioral intention. This approach explains behavior as the result of attitude toward an action and of belief about the social expectation of others who approve or disapprove of the action.

Sometimes considered a perspective more than a single theory, information integration emphasizes the important role of information in affecting attitudes, or predispositions for behavior. This approach focuses on attitude change through the information variables of valence and weight.

The valence of information relates to direction (positive or negative) as a function of agreement or disagreement. The weight of information relates to credibility assigned by the person evaluating a message. The information-integration perspective has been appreciated for more than three decades, and it includes a number of widely used theories including expectancy-value theory and theory of reasoned action.

According to expectancy-value theory, attitudes are a function of beliefs and evaluations. The relationship may be expressed mathematically as attitude toward something equals the sum of each belief about the object multiplied by the evaluation. The theory allows for change in attitude to occur as a result of shift in weight of specific beliefs, of shift in valence (positive or negative) of a belief, or of addition of new beliefs. Fishbein and Ajzen viewed beliefs as “the building blocks of the cognitive structure, the information base that supports evaluative systems as well as intentions and behaviors” (Heath & Bryant, 2000, p. 203).

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