Attitude

Ego involvement (personal involvement)

- commitment - issue involvement - response involvement - Personality and persuasibility - Mood and persuasion

commitment

feel/believe very strongly about sth>> if someone persuade sth against your belief>> more resistance to the persuasion

Strong vs weak arguments

strong arguments based on facts, objective; weak argument is subjective, target can argue back

personality and persuasibility

strong personality>> more resistance against persuasion vice versa

Forewarning

Informing people in advance that someone will try to change their attitudes (target has more time to find excuses/counter-argument)>> less effective to persuade

ABC consistently +ve

+ve attitude

Factors influencing attitude-behavior consistency

- situational pressures - relevance of attitudes to behaviour and salience of attitude -attitude strength (stability of attitude, accessibility of attitude, automatic activation of attitudes)

Distraction

-The process of drawing attention away from a persuasive message -Disabled central route of persuasion>> peripheral route becomes more effective

Communicator's characteristics (peripheral cue) to make the persuasion effective/lead to derogation (negative effect)

-credibility -expertise -trustworthiness -liking -reference groups

Communication /messages characteristics (communicator need to take note to achieve effective persuasion)

-discrepancy (quality of content) -strong vs weak arguments (quality of content) -repetition (quality of content) -message characteristics as peripheral cues (quantity of content) -matching message with attitude -distorting the message -blanket rejection

What can a target do to be more resistance against the message?

-distorting the message -blanket rejection

Situation characteristics

-forewarning -distraction -inoculation

3 attitude dimensions

1. affective (feel) 2. behavioural (act) 3. cognitive (think)

2 theories under cognitive consistency

1. balance theory 2. cognitive dissonance theory

Persuasion process involves

1. communicator 2. actual communication 3. target

Factors affecting cognitive dissonance

1. counter-attitudinal behaviour/attitude discrepant behaviour 2. insufficient justification 3. threats 4. choice 5. irrevocable commitment 6. foreseeable consequences 7. responsibility for consequences 8. effort

elaboration-likelihood model

2 ways to persuade people: - central route of persuasion (mind, logic) - peripheral route of persuasion (heart, emotion)

How attitude develops?

By learning: 1. classical conditioning 2. operant conditioning 3. observational learning 4. cognitive learning

Inoculation "immunisation"

People become more resistance to a persuasive communication when they are exposed to weak counter-arguments first

Cognitive consistency approach to attitude change

assumption: all human beings have a need to maintain consistency between the ways we think, feel and behave (ABC)

High cognitive dissonance

attitude change

relevance of attitudes to behaviour and salience of attitude

attitude must be very specific to behaviour/ relevant to behaviour for developing consistent attitude and behaviour

inconsistency between ABC

attitude will change

situational pressures PRESENT

attitudes and behaviour may not consistent

Have different attitude towards an object with someone you don't like

balance and consistency

Have the same attitude towards an object with someone you like

balance and consistency

automatic activation of attitude

become natural reaction, unconsciously, almost effortless

irrevocable commitment

behaviour irreversible >> high cognitive dissonance>> change attitude to fit behaviour eg. arranged marriage

reducing psychological tension/discomfort

by changing attitude

Affective

consists of the person's emotions and affect toward the object, especially positive/negative evaluations

Cognitive

consists of the thoughts the person has about that particular object (facts, knowledge, beliefs)

Distorting the message

choose to pick up certain message eg. smoking MAY cause lung cancer

Discrepancy

communicator tells you things against the his own interest>> give good impression of honesty>> effective persuasion

Behavioural

consists of how the person tends to act regarding the object

Matching message with attitude

construct the message in the way of matching the target's pre-existing attitude>> effective persuasion

response involvement

contrast with issue involvement may not interested in certain issue>> when you give a response>>become defensive on your response >>stand firm and insist your response as correct response because you don't want to lose face

After choosing between 2 equally attractive option, you are not satisfied with your choice

convince yourself that your choice is better than another to reduce the cognitive dissonance

Persistence of attitude change (sleeper effect)

delayed attitude change that are not apparrent immediately after exposure to a message

strong attitude (stability, accessibility, automatic activation)

enhance attitude-behavior consistency

Attitude

evaluative response (think, feel, act) towards an attitude object (person, place, thing, event) in +ve/-ve terms

accessibility of attitude

feels very strongly about the attitude object attitude object until it represents the primary core of your life, knows about the attitude object very well and has immediate access to the info related to the attitude object

Balance theory

focusing on 3 elements: P- person /you O-another person X-attitude object

stability of attitude

has strong attitudes, difficult to change their mind

Target characteristics of persuasion

human are emotional first, thinking 2nd (use peripheral route to increase effectiveness of persuasion) - aggression arousal - fear arousal

insufficient justification

if cannot justify the counter-attitudinal behaviour>>cognitive dissonance high>> attitude change ($1 boring experiment)

threats

if someone threaten you to do sth opposite with your attitude>> low cognitive dissonance >> no attitude change

Have different attitude towards an object with someone you like

imbalance and inconsistent

Have the same attitude towards an object with someone you don't like

imbalance and inconsistent

behaviour is relevant/salient (highlighted specifically) towards the attitude

increase attitude-behavior consistency

classical conditioning

learning through association +ve experience >> +ve attitude

observational learning

learning through imitation (role model) - vicarious (indirect) reinforcement: the role model expressed certain attitudes>> role model is reinforced for his attitude>> you learn that attitude

operant conditioning

learning through reinforcement and punishment

efforts

link with forseenable consequences. more effort you put into counter-attitudinal behaviour (eg. friend stop you from drunk driving, you refuse to listen and force him go home with you, accident happen, friend died) >> more responsible felt for the negative outcome>> high cognitive dissonance

Message characteristics as peripheral cues

look at quantity, longer message give better impression

counter-attitudinal behaviour/attitude discrepant behaviour

most basic factor, must exist to cause cognitive dissonance

attitude polarization

negative attitude >> more negative positive attitude>> more positive

Low cognitive dissonance

no attitude change

If one option is obviously/clearly better than another

no cognitive dissonance

Blanket rejection

only focus on one side (pro/cons), reject everything from the other side (pro/cons)

issue involvement

overlap with commitment, more concerns to certain issue>> less likely to be persuaded

responsibility for consequences

overrides foreseeable consequences (no matter you can/cannot predict the foreseeable consequences), if you felt responsible>> cognitive dissonance high

when imbalance occurs

people change attitude towards object to restore balance

peripheral route of persuasion

persuade people through the way they feel

central route of persuasion

persuade people through the way they think, tell logical argument based on objective facts *content is important

Cognitive dissonance

psychological tension/discomfort which resulting from differences of your behaviour with your thoughts and feeling

Repetition

repeat over and over>> hope that people are persuaded

mood and persuasion

target in good mood, effective to persuade sth positive target in bad mood, effective to persuade sth negative

situational pressures

the situation constraints your behaviour>> inconsistent of attitude & behaviour eg. future mother in law says harsh words to you>> you have -ve attitude towards her>>but you force a smile and respect her because you want to maintain good relationship

transfer of affect

transferring affect from 1 object to another that is associated with it eg. celebrity endorsement

cognitive learning

understand >> behavioral outcomes eg. able to apply nursing knowledge/skill

relevance of attitudes to behaviour and salience of attitude PRESENT

wants to develop -ve attitude towards process meat >>encourage behaviour of stop eating process meat instead of promote healthy eating

NO relevance of attitudes to behaviour and salience of attitude

wants to promote +ve attitude towards recycling>> promotes behaviour of environmental friendly

Spontaneous attitude change (attitude polarization)

when you have certain attitude towards a attitude object>> go into a group which having the same attitude with you >> discuss the issue>> have more positive/negative attitude towards the attitude object

choice

you freely choose to do sth opposite with your attitude >>cognitive dissonance high>> attitude change

foreseeable consequences

you know the consequences of your counter-attitudinal behaviour >> high cognitive dissonance>>