Ambivalence and certainty can interact to predict attitude stability over time

Article history: Received 31 August 2015 Revised 28 November 2015 Accepted 30 November 2015 Available online 2 December 2015 The ability of attitudinal ambivalence and certainty to individually predict an attitude's stability over time has received mixed support. We proposed that ambivalence and certainty moderate one another's relationship with temporal attitude stability. That is, we hypothesized an interaction between these two attitude strength variables to predict stability over time. In three studies, we used two-stage designs in which attitudeswere assessed twice with an interval ranging from one to twelve months between measurements. Across these longitudinal studies examining different attitude objects, greater certainty was associated with greater stability across different time points as ambivalence decreased, and greater ambivalence was associated with greater instability as attitude certainty increased. Notably, the results held across health-related, social, and real-world political topics. © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.