Uploaded March 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Social Sciences has gone in this seventeenth edition to social psychologists Icek Ajzen, Dolores Albarracín, Mahzarin Banaji, Anthony Greenwald and Richard Petty for “revolutionizing the way we understand and measure attitudes" with an influence that extends to “psychology, sociology, political science, education, health, economics and other areas.”
Dolores Albarracín has focused her research on understanding how attitudes can be changed, especially with regard to persuasive messages. In her book Action and Inaction in a Social World: Prediction and Change of Attitudes and Behaviors, she shows that appeals to action are more effective than those encouraging inaction when the goal is to achieve a given behavior, and that when a recipient lacks time to analyze a persuasive message, their attitude and behavior will be determined by the emotional factor.
She has also explored ways to discredit disinformation and conspiracy theories, which are now understood as a problem of social influence rather than a function of individual personality. She reasons that a society facing more uncertainty is more susceptible to conspiratorial messages, which spread through both interpersonal relationships and other media.
00:04 Professor Albarracín, the jury's report highlights your contribution to understanding how attitudes and behaviors can be modified through persuasion. How would you explain your contribution to the field?
03:59 From your experience, what recommendations or strategies are most efficient to modify behaviors, specifically in health and to confront misinformation and conspiracy theories?
06:10 How does the connection between beliefs, attitudes and behaviors work, and to what extent can they be influenced?
09:17 To what extent and in what sense are social sciences in general and social psychology in particular relevant in the advancement of knowledge?
Discover more here: frontiersofknowledgeawards-fbbva.es/noticias/frontiers-knowledge-award-17-edition-social-sciences-to-social-psychologists-ajzen-albarracin-banaji-greenwald-petty
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The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Social Sciences has gone in this seventeenth edition to social psychologists Icek Ajzen, Dolores Albarracín, Mahzarin Banaji, Anthony Greenwald and Richard Petty for “revolutionizing the way we understand and measure attitudes" with an influence that extends to “psychology, sociology, political science, education, health, economics and other areas.”
Dolores Albarracín has focused her research on understanding how attitudes can be changed, especially with regard to persuasive messages. In her book Action and Inaction in a Social World: Prediction and Change of Attitudes and Behaviors, she shows that appeals to action are more effective than those encouraging inaction when the goal is to achieve a given behavior, and that when a recipient lacks time to analyze a persuasive message, their attitude and behavior will be determined by the emotional factor.
She has also explored ways to discredit disinformation and conspiracy theories, which are now understood as a problem of social influence rather than a function of individual personality. She reasons that a society facing more uncertainty is more susceptible to conspiratorial messages, which spread through both interpersonal relationships and other media.
00:04 Professor Albarracín, the jury's report highlights your contribution to understanding how attitudes and behaviors can be modified through persuasion. How would you explain your contribution to the field?
03:59 From your experience, what recommendations or strategies are most efficient to modify behaviors, specifically in health and to confront misinformation and conspiracy theories?
06:10 How does the connection between beliefs, attitudes and behaviors work, and to what extent can they be influenced?
09:17 To what extent and in what sense are social sciences in general and social psychology in particular relevant in the advancement of knowledge?
Discover more here: frontiersofknowledgeawards-fbbva.es/noticias/frontiers-knowledge-award-17-edition-social-sciences-to-social-psychologists-ajzen-albarracin-banaji-greenwald-petty
Follow us and learn about all our initiatives: fbbva.es/en
