Chp. 5 Attitudes
Attitudes and Spontaneous Behavior Reactions
-According to the (attitude-to-behavior process) view, events trigger our attitudes and, simultaneously, the appropriate norms for how people should or typically do behave in a given situation -Several factors affect the strength of the relationship between attitudes and behavior; some of these relate to the situation in which the attitudes are activated, and some to aspects of the attitudes themselves.
Communicators
-Effective communicators have to be -credible -attractive in some way -likable (Michael Jordan)
Cognitive Dissonance: What It Is and How Do We Manage It?
-People are motivated to reduce cognitive dissonance. -They engage in strategies to do so.
Attitudes and Spontaneous Behavior Reactions, continued: Attitudes impact behavior in two ways
1) Conscious deliberation in which alternatives are weighed and people decide how to act 2) Spontaneously shaped perceptions of the situation and behavioral reactions
Implementation Plan
A plan for how to implement our intentions to carry out some action. (slow thinking) Involves -thinking of ones own attitude -implementing the attitude w/ a plan -consider the +/- behaviors
Selective Avoidance
A tendency to direct attention away from information that challenges existing attitudes. Such avoidance increases resistance to persuasion
Elaboration-likelihood model
A theory suggesting that persuasion can occur in either of two distinct ways, differing in the amount of cognitive effort or elaboration the message receives.
Fear appeals
Attempting to change people's behaviors by use of a message that induces fear. -mild fear works best than extreme fear doesn't
Central route
Attitude change resulting from systematic processing of information presented in persuasive messages -slow thinking
Peripheral route
Attitude change that occurs in response to peripheral persuasion cues, which is often based on information concerning the expertise or status of would-be persuaders -heuristic processing
Attitude Extremity: the Role of Vested Interests
Attitudes that are extreme, certain, and formed on the basis of personal experience with the attitude object tend to be strong attitudes, which are more likely to be accessible when a behavioral response is made. Greater attitude-behavior consistency is found when attitudes are strong rather than weak Recent research findings indicate that vested interests are particularly likely to affect judgments and behavior in the immediate context, whereas abstract values do so when the judgment or behavior is in the distant future
Do attitudes predict behavior?
Attitudes toward a group, issue, or object do not always directly predict behavior. Rather, there are situational constraints and norms that affect our willingness to express our true attitudes. Concerns about what others, especially those with whom we identify, may think of us can limit the extent to which our attitudes and behavior are consistent.
Mere Exposure
By having seen before, but not necessarily remembering having done so, attitudes toward an object can be formed. -proof of this working comes from Alzheimer patients b/c they don't remember seeing the stimuli
Subliminal Conditioning
Classical conditioning of attitudes by exposure to stimuli that are below individuals' threshold of conscious awareness. ex. pairing a photo w/ other photos that induce either positive or negative feelings (this can induce an attitude subconsciously to be negative or positive)
Social Networks
Composed of individuals w/ whom we have interpersonal relationships and interact w/ on a regular basis. -attitudes can shift in a different environment -if our attitude expressed is liked by the group our attitude increases -if our attitude expressed is disliked by the group our attitude decreases
Explicit Attitudes
Consciously accessible attitudes that are controllable and easy to report.
Role of Personal Experience
Depending on how attitudes are formed initially, the link between attitudes and behavior can differ Personal experience is one way to create involvement with an issue, and people who are more involved with an issue and whose values are linked with that issue are more likely to act on their attitudes ex. friend gives an opinion of a ford truck you don't like, the opinion is not your factor, it is your experience that is that determines your attitude (for sucks)
Alternative Strategies for Resolving Dissonance
Direct methods -Acquiring information or (justifications) that supports our behavior -Altering behavior -Disregarding inconsistency- any inconsistency between our attitude and behavior doesn't matter, there not consistent so who cares Indirect methods -Self-affirmation- my behavior and attitude are in dissonance so I result in giving myself positive feelings either by my actions (drinking beer) or telling myself I'm still a good person even though I'm an alcoholic.
Persuasion: Communicators, Messages, and Audiences
Efforts to change others' attitudes through the use of various kinds of messages Early research on persuasion —efforts to change attitudes through the use of messages—focused primarily on characteristics of the communicator (e.g., expertise, attractiveness), message (e.g., fear appeals, one-sided vs. two-sided arguments), and audience. Three components to persuasion -Communicators -Messages -Audiences
Attitude to behavior process model
Emphasizes the influence of attitudes and stored knowledge of what is appropriate in a given situation on an individuals definition of the present situation. This definition, in turn, influences overt behavior. -our knowledge of social norms helps predict our behavior -fast thinking which shapes our immediate behavioral reactions ex. driver cuts us off/ we think "jerk" or"this person must be in a hurry"
Attitude
Evaluation of various aspects the social world. -Attitudes influence behavior ex. Should marijuana be legalized? (to answer this question shows your attitude) -Social Psychologist study attitudes b/c attitudes are capable of coloring virtually every aspect of our experience. -some attitudes are resistant to change and some can change -we avoid negative attitudes and are attracted to positive attitudes -attitudes influence our thoughts
Reference Groups
Groups of people w/ whom we identify and whose opinions we value. -we can adopt a groups attitude w/o ever meeting any members of that group (type of observational learning)
Less-leads-to-more effect
Less reasons or rewards for performing an attitude-discrepant behavior often results in more dissonance and thus greater attitude change -not receiving rewards (ex. money) leads to an attitude change -less justification (reasons for our behavior) leads to an attitude change Dissonance is stronger and attitudes change more when there is no real justification for engaging in attitude-discrepant behavior
Messages
Messages that do not appear to be designed to change our attitudes are more persuasive than those that seem to be designed to achieve this goal
Conditioned Stimulus
Pairing the beer logo w/ the unconditioned stimulus to become the conditioned stimulus. Now positive attitudes are formed w/ the beer logo to increase beer sales.
Individual Differences in Resistance to Persuasion
People may be resistant to persuasion because they are motivated to engage in counterarguing. Some attempt to bolster their own beliefs when they encounter counterattitudinal messages
Theory of (planned) behavior
Previously named Theory of reasoned action- suggesting that in addition to attitudes toward a given behavior and subjective norms about it, individuals also consider their ability to perform the behavior. This view starts w/ the notion that the decision to engage in a particular behavior is the result of a rational process. Various behavioral options are considered, the consequences or outcomes of each are evaluated, and a decision is reached to act or not act. (slow thinking) How capable am I to create the behavior?
Systematic processing
Processing of information in a persuasive message that involves careful consideration of message content and ideas -slow thinking -engage when we are motivated -we relate to the message
Heuristic processing
Processing of information in a persuasive message that involves the use of simple rules of thumb or mental shortcuts -persuaded when we don't have a lot of info -motivation is low -advertisers, politicians, sales people push us in heuristic processing
Resisting Persuasion Attempts
Reactance Forewarning Selective Avoidance
Attitude Certainty
Research has identified two important components of attitude certainty: attitude clarity — being clear about what one's attitude is—and attitude correctness—feeling one's attitude is the valid or the proper one to hold The social context also is important in assessing the relative effects of attitude clarity and correctness. High clarity will be more predictive of behavior in private but not public contexts—where correctness and clarity are high-behavior will be seen in public and private social context.
Self-affirmation
Restoring positive self- evaluations that are threatened by the dissonance
Ego Depletion Can Undermine Resistance by
Self-regulation Ego Depletion
Attitude Formation: How Attitudes Develop
Social Learning Classical Conditioning Unconditioned Stimulus Conditioned Stimulus
The Cognitive Processes Underlying Persuasion
Systematic processing or Central route Heuristic processing or Peripheral route Elaboration-likelihood model
Implicit Association Test
Test used to measure implicit attitudes Can measure stereotypes IAT is based o the fact that we may associate various social objects more or less readily w/ positive or negative descriptive words. That is associating words together. Ex. Canadians/Polite, now one can associate that word by thinking Canadians are polite Criticism of the IAT -is merely cultural aspect and doesn't show implicit attitudes -one maybe aware of common negative stereotype regarding social groups, but not personally concur w/ that negative belief -African American leader Jesse Jackson may fail the IAT b/c he holds negative attitudes toward his own group. This can imply that assessing familiarity w/ culture rather than individual actual attitudes
Theory of (reasoned) action
The decision to engage in a particular behavior is the result of a rational process in which behavioral options are considered, consequences are evaluated, and a decision is reached to act or not to act. -We then come up w/ an Implementation plan after we have reasoned what action we want to take to guide our behavior (slow thinking)
Strength of Attitude
The term (strength) captures the (extremity) of an attitude (how strong the emotional reaction is), the degree of certainty with which an attitude is held (the sense that you know what your attitude is and the feeling that it is the correct position to hold), as well as the extent to which the attitude is based on (personal experience) with the attitude object
Habit
To the extent that a person repeatedly performs a specific behavior-and a habit is formed-that person's response may become relatively automatic whenever that same situation is encountered.
Implicit Attitudes
Unconscious associations between objects and evaluative responses. -not consciously accessible to us -implicit attitudes are hard to change
How Do Attitudes Guide Behavior? Attitudes Arrived at through Reasoned Thought
We give deliberate thought to our attitudes and their implications for our behavior. This process is called "Theory of Reasoned Action"
Unconditioned Stimulus
What your potential audience already responds positively toward. Beer marketers advertising to young adult males w/ attractive women in commercials
Pluralistic Ignorance
When we collectively misunderstand what attitudes others hold and believe erroneously that others have different attitudes than us ex. believing even though my stance on drunk driving is bad maybe different than those around me who believe drunk driving is okay.
Forewarning
advance knowledge that one is about to become the target of an attempt at persuasion. Forewarning often increases resistance to the persuasion that follows
Cognitive Dissonance
is an internal state which results when individuals notice inconsistency between two or more attitudes or between their attitudes and their behavior - it is saying something that we truly don't believe (is against our attitude, saying we believe in abortion even though we really don't)
Classical Conditioning
is learning in which one stimulus becomes a signal for the presentation of another stimulus; learning by association ex. 6 y/o served broccoli for the first time, sis say's broccoli is nasty, 6 y/o conditioned to broccoli is nasty ex. parent reacting negatively to a minority group, child now influenced
Self-regulation
is the limited capacity to engage our willpower and control our own thinking and emotions -engaging to try to keep our attitude (stance)
Social Learning
is the process through which people acquire new information, forms of behavior, or attitudes from other persons -many of our views are acquired in situations where we interact w/ others, or simply observe their behavior
Ego Depletion
is when our capacity to self-regulate has been reduced because of prior expenditures of limited mental resources -our attitude changes b/c -people w/ high ego depletion are persuaded easily are only persuaded w/ strong arguments -people w/ low ego depletion are not persuaded by low and strong arguments
Reactance
negative reactions to threats to one's personal freedom. Reactance often increases resistance to persuasion and can even produce negative attitude change or opposite to what was intended. -When individuals perceive as direct threats to their personal freedom reactance occurs
Illusion of truth effect
the mere repetition of information creates a sense of familiarity and more positive attitudes. -repeating a message over and over again -this makes us more familiar -marketers and politicians use this tactic
Social Comparison
the process through which we compare ourselves to others to determine whether our view of social reality is, or is not, correct (type of observational learning)
Instrumental Conditioning: Rewards for the "Right" Views
the strengthening of responses or attitudes that lead to positive outcomes or which avoid negative outcomes -Attitudes that are acquired through instrumental conditioning stem from differential rewards and punishments for adopting particular views. Attitudes shift as people enter new social networks composed of individuals who hold diverging attitudes. -this process can be subtle as the rewards can be a smile or hug
Role of the Social Context in the Link between Attitudes and Behavior
(Social context) directly affects the attitude-behavior connection Attitudes that we hold with greater clarity or certainty are more strongly linked to behavior than attitudes about which we feel some uncertainty. Older people show more consistency w/ attitude that young adults. Pluralistic Ignorance
When Dissonance Is a Tool for Beneficial Changes in Behavior
-implementing feelings of (hypocrisy) induces dissonance which therefore can reduce or eliminate behavior changes Hypocrisy: advocating some attitudes or behavior and then acting in a way that is inconsistent with these attitudes or behavior
Dissonance and Attitude Change: The Effects of Induced Compliance
Dissonance can lead to attitude change when we have reasons that are barely sufficient to get us to engage in attitude-discrepant behavior. Stronger reasons (or larger rewards) produce less attitude change; this is sometimes referred to as the less-leads-to-more effect.
Observational Learning: Learning by exposure to others
Individuals acquire new forms of behavior or attitudes as a result of observing others -Because we compare ourselves with others to determine whether our view of social reality is correct or not, we often adopt the attitudes that others hold. As a result of the process of (social comparison), we tend to adopt the attitude position of those we see as similar to ourselves but not of those we see as dissimilar.
