Social psych test 2
induced compliance
forced compliance- subtlying compelling individuals to behave in a manner that is inconsistent with their beliefs, attitudes, or values in order to elicit dissonance ex: predicted people 1 dollar group would rationalize the behavior. if you want to persuade a person to do something you should use a small incentive- change their attitudes about task
attitude inoculation
general tendency to selectively attend to and favorably evaluate evidence that supports preexisting attitudes. attitude inoculation- small attacks on our beliefs that would engage our attitudes prior commitments and knowledge of structures thereby counteract the larger attack -idea come from virus inoculation.
forced compliance paradigm
get people to do something they dont want to do- offer little incentive. they will change their attitude to justify the unrewarding action. study 20 vs 1 dollar
ben franklin effect
good deads- we come to like our enemies when we do favors for them. I dont like you// but im doing you a favor causes dissance attitude change towards the person. Must perceive yourself to have free will.
peripheral route (heuristic)
tend to the superficial parts of message that are tangential to its substance. ex: expertise/ credibility motivation factors: 1. reduce motivation 2. interfere with our ability to attend to the message carefully.
insufficient justification
those paid 2.50 felt no pressure in changing this attitudes because their behavior was psychologically justified by the large payment of cash. those paid only .50 cents had no such justification and thus felt the weight of their inconsistency.
Attitude and behaviors
Attitudes do not predict behavior well.
external justification
Dissonance most likely when minimal external justification present. Explanation for counterattitudinal behavior that lies outside the individual: Large reward,Threat of severe punishment
post decisional dissonance
Feelings of dissonance experienced after a behavioral choice has been made from a set of competing alternatives ex: selecting a college reduce dissonance: 1. intentionally thinking the other alternatives are positives are now negatives. convincing your choice is an even better choice 2.Spreading of alternatives- reduce dissonance by accentuating desirableness of chosen option 3. do both ^ these are only attempts at reducing dissonance may not work end result is convincing yourself that you chose the best options
Introspection
May lead us to focus on the easiest-to-identify reasons for liking and disliking something at the expense of the real reasons. More likely to regret their choice later. "Why you like your bf?" Like rifh between expressed behavior and attitudes
consumer advertising
Mcclaim claims that advertising doesnt work to go and buy their products. how much company spends on a product may have little effect on whether people buy it. however, ads have in increase in product loyalty, product awareness, warm or excited feelings about the product which may influence purchasing behavior
Centrality
Measure a variety of attitudes within a domain and calculated how strongly each attitude is linked to the others ex: strong attitude towards abortion then strongly correlated with attitude on stem cell research, sex education..
pratical applications obedience
Nazi Germany My Lai Massacre Cult suicides Abu Ghraib
testing for arousal
No arousal involved for self-perception theory ex: experiment gave a placebo and told them that either it would have no effect, that it would make them real tense, make them feel relaxed. those who freely chose to wrote the essay would experience arousal in the relaxed group would think it is a positive attitude about the essay
Automatic attitudes
People's immediate evaluative reactions that they may not be conscious of or conflict with their consciously endorsed attitudes. (Implicit attitude measures)
automatic behavior
caused by our attitudes- sometimes can bypass attitudes altogether. behavior is elicited by a stimuli present in the environment ex: primed with elderly walk slower.
ways to reduce dissonance
change cognition or add a cognition any method would work we do whatever is the easiest and often easier to change beliefs about attitudes then behaviors
source characteristics
characteristics of the people who deliver the message including the persons attractiveness, credibility and expertise
theories of attitude change
cognitive dissonance yale attitude approach dual process models: ELM, heuristics/systematic
conformity
conformity can be good or bad. the tendency to conform is generally beneficial - pay taxes, to form lines, stay to the right..
group size
conformity increases as the size of the group increases. both exert more normative and informational social influence. however it levels off pretty quickly (after about 3/4)
when does dissonance work and self perception?
dissonance- people behavior is inconsistent with pre-existing attitudes that are clear cut and some importance self perception- are invoked when behavior clashes with attitudes that are relatively vague. also self perception does not work with self-affirmation theory because original threat (self as irrational) is not there, cant always be clueless about attitudes
group unanimity
dropped to 5% of conformity when the participant had an ally. An ally weakens both normative social influence and social influence. doesnt even need to offer the right answer- just a different one. what matters is the break in unanimity.
is dissonance universal?
east Asians more likely to question their actions when others are observing them. also, exhibit dissonance effects in the free choice paradigm led to think about other people possible reaction to their choice. western cultures: dissonance may be prompted by a concern about one ability to make an adequate choice that reflects on one decision making ability. for eastern culltures, it may be prompted by a concern one ability to make choices that would be approved by others
difficulty of task
easy task eliminate informational social influence
ELM
elaboration likelihood model- a model of persuasion the central route of peripheral route studies: participants read 8 week statements or 8 strong statements in support of a comprehensive exam.. when the exam would be implemented 10 years later was not relevant to the students the source mattered. but the strength of the argument did not. - high personal relevance linked to being persuaded by strong rather than weak arguments the central route more about bringing about attitude change that is more enduring.
blind choice and spreading alternatives
even happens with blind choice (random): given travel vacations had to blindly pick which one people justify their choice
expertise and status
expertise primarily affects informational social influence. experts are likely to be right. Status affects more normative influence- approval of high status people. study: using pilot, navigator and gunner asked to solve math problem- if the pilot came up with the answer usually went with it 63% if gunner did
motivation persuasion route
factors influencing the motive to process a message carefully. -personal relevance -need for cognition
can dissonance be feel vicariously?
felt more positive towards raising tuition when you identified with the person. ex: dorm ingroup/out group favor increasing tuition.
Attitudes inconsistent
1. Attitudes may conflict with one another 2. The different components of an attitude may not always align (ex cognitive vs affect)
self perception theory
Bem- people do not always come to know their own attitude by looking inwards and discerning what they think or how they feel about something. but often they look outwards at their own behavior to infer what their attitudes are. are not troubled by an unpleasant state of arousal- merely engage in a rational inference process- do not change attitudes infer what they are. a consensus emerged that both dissonance and self-perception thoery work together influence peoples attitudes.
balance theory
Fritz Heider's claim that people try to maintain balance among their beliefs, cognition and sentiments. support for heider's balance theory comes from two types of studies: studies that establish two relationships in a triad and then elicit peoples inferences about the third... studies that present various balanced and imbalanced relationships and examined how well people remember them. ex: beloved celebrity + say positive thing about establishment = like establishment also easier to remember some like baseball assume their bff likes it too
Attitudes second hand info
If an attitude is from first hand experience- may tell our behaviors. Higher correlation between student attitudes and overt behavior among those directly affected then those who were not directly
principles of effective persuasion
If motivation & ability high, use strong arguments Central route > more lasting change, affects behavior If motivation or ability low, use simple cues (experts, attractiveness, celebrities, etc.) Avoid counter-arguing cognitive responses Avoid awareness of persuasive intent, reactance
Attitude
Is an evaluation of an object along with positive-negative dimension. is not a mood/outlook on life Involves an affect-emotions and feeling the object triggers (i like when blah) cognitions- beliefs about the object.. thoughts that typically reinforce a person's feelings (knowledge/beliefs about the object- dogs smell) behaviors- actions towards the objects (approach vs avoid)
Response latency
The time it takes an individual to respond to an attitude question- the quicker it takes to respond the stronger attitude on the topic
dissonance and self perception
Two processes Dissonance- Attitude change; "hot"; homeostasis Self perception- Attitude formation; "cold"; information processing Dissonance theory would seem to do a better job of accounting for Ben Franklin effect, maltreatment of victims, effort justification Self-perception theory would seem to do a better job of accounting for spreading of alternatives, increased confidence after a decision Ability of theories to account for forced compliance & insufficient punishment effects will depend on strength of initial attitude
Implicit attitude measures
Used when people may be unwilling or unable to report their true attitudes. It's an indirect measure of attitude- using affective priming and implicit association test IAT.
culture
message characteristic: how a message is targeted to a particular cultural group. american advertising emphasizes the individual asian focuses on the collective self.
why do we mimic? 1
William James said because of ideomotor action: whereby merely thinking about a behavior makes the performance more likely. ex: thinking about a bowl of ice cream makes you go in freezer and get it. the brain regions responsible for perception overlaps with those responsible for action. when we see other people act in a certain way the idea of that behavior is brought into mind and makes us more likely to behave that way ourselves.
normative social influence
^ did not speak of those situation in which there is a clear conflict between an individuals own judgement and that of the group. Asch's experiment- 8 individual gathered together to perform a simple task to determine which line matched another. 3/4 of the participants conform to the incorrect judgments. people primarily conform was to avoid standing out, negatively in the eyes of the group. or the desire to avoid disapproval, criticism, ostracism that other people might deliver
heuristics systematic model
a model of persuasion that maintains that there are two different routes of persuasion. the systematic route and the heuristic (similar to ELM)
when does cognitive dissonance work?
a particular inconsistency will arouse dissonance if it implicates our core sense of self. by Aronson we act in ways that are inconsistent with our core values and beliefs and 1. if the behavior is freely chosen 2. the behavior is not sufficiently justified 3. the behavior has negative consequences 4. the negative consequences were forseable
the media and persuasion
almost all attitudes are shaped by mass communication. third party effect: the assumption by most people that other people are more prone to be influenced by persuasive messages. difficult to measure retrospective designs fallible
public service announcements
are inserted into television breaks and urge the public to follow beneficial health or social practices. the present compelling arguments against taking drugs or smoking cigarettes. dont have much effect on behavior.
value-expressive functions
attitudes help us express our most cherished values usually in groups where these values can be supported and reinforced reference groups- groups whose opinions matter us and affect our opinions ex: children have party affiliations based on parents view.
insufficient punishment
best way to control someone/change behavior is using mild threats- threatens the children in an ambiguous way (disappointed in you) they convince themselves they dont want to play with it. large reward/severe punishment ->EJ-> temporary change reverts back in few days small reward/mild punishment -> IJ-> lasting attitude change
Yale school approach
broke down the persuasive argument into three components: the who/source of message 2. the what or content nature of the message 3. and the whom or target of the message nature of the audience
General attitudes and instances
high specific attitudes typically do a better job of predicting specific behaviors and general attitudes typically do a better job of predicting how a person behaves generally. What people think of as attitudes are often expressions of attitudes towards a prototype - encounter many people do not fit prototype then behaviors and attitudes are different ex: gays
free choice
in the free choice group, the standard dissonance effect was obained: those paid .50 changed their attitudes more than those paid 2.50 opposed for non free choice
attentional biases and resistance
indicate that people are inclined to attend selectively to info that confirms their original attitudes. we tune in to information that reinforces our attitudes and we tune out information that contradicts our attitudes we also selectively evaluate the information we take in. we are prone to look favorably on information that supports our attitudes ex: study caffeine male and females uptake- the females highest caffeine most likely not believe the ad also more critical of evidence that violated cherished beliefs about their personal health. people are most likely to downplay their diagnoses.
why do we mimic? 2
is to prepare for interaction with them, the interaction is likely to go smoothly if we establish some type of rapport. ex: thinking about old people make them walk like old people. only works when think positively attititude towards group we mimic others as a way to lay the groundwork for smooth gratifying interactions.
the interpretive context
knowing why our opinions are different lessons both informational and normative social influences. easier to stand ground when we have a clear understanding of what might be causing others to make different judgements
knowledge of function of attitude
knowledge function- help organize our understanding of the world. what we attend to and what we remember. ex: showed students a political debate who won- the people they had preexisting attitudes about
cults
led to cognitive dissonance. if there is no annihilation left two options: message from god, miscalculation -> people more committed to the group.
minority opinion on the majority
majority opinion does not always prevail- ex: abolitionists conformity pressures can be resisted. have their effect mainly through informational social influence. this can lead the majority to consider the stimulus more carefully. majorities elicit more conformity- public compliance minorities- influences fewer people but true in private acceptance.
previous commitments and resistance
many persuasive messages fail because they cannot overcome the targets previous commitments. ex: political allegiances are often passed from parents to child and so political ads trying to change it not a likely outcome. also evidence that public commitments make people resistant to attitude change ex: people are asked to make a public statements regarding their attitudes- they are more resistant to subsequent counterattitudinal messages thought polarization hypothesis: the hypothesis that more extended though a particular issue tends to produce more extreme attitudes.
vividness
message characteristic: embedded in personal narrative and emotional appeal can be more persuasive than statistical facts. ex: vivid media images identifiable victim effect: the tendency to be more moved by the plight of a single individual than by a more abstract numbers.
message quality
message characteristic: high quality messages are more persuasive in general and are especially so for people the message is relevant. make conclusions explicit also explicitly refuting the opposition, argue against self-interest
fear
message characteristic: the right kind of fear might heighten the participant motivation must give a solution too. Persuasive messages attempting to change people's attitudes by arousing their fears Emphasizes harmful physical or social consequences of failure to comply if too low level, then fail to capture attention; high level can be too threatening and can lead to dissonance reduction and defensive processing; moderate is most effective when specific recommendations for reducing fear are provided ex: study stop smoking with film and pamplet
turning in the learner
milgrim tried to make the learner more prominent. in the proximity version, the learner perceived the shock in the same room where the participant was. touch proximity- participant was required to force the learners hand into shock plate. as the participant became more real- found it increasingly difficult to deliver the shocks. the more we are removed from others, the easier it is to hurt them.
cognitive dissonance theory
most influential consistency theory- Leon Festinger that people are troubled by inconsistency among their thoughts, sentiments, and actions. aversive emotional state when people experience an inconsistency between two cognitions experience strong motive to reduce dissonance
bad deeds
most people consider themselves moral if you harm someone induces dissonance because our actions and beliefs that we are good person is incongruent. To reduce dissonance, we often derogate our victim, making it more likely that we will do further bad things to him or her by changing belief about behavior "was not that bad" or add cognition about the victim " if the person is bad- deserve it"
political advertising
most studies document no significant correlation between the amount a candidate spends on an election and success in the election. very small effects on voting behavior. mainly influence late decision voters. negative ads may turn people off from voting.
changes in attitude certainty
no attitude change means that no changed has occurred in the direction or extremity of the target attitude but it is possible other facets of the attitudes are changed suggests that the conviction or certainty with which an attitude is held may change even if the direction does not. ex: people are exposed to a counterattitudinal persuasive argument and asked to argue against the message. the process of resisting change can increase or decrease attitude certainty. resistance enhances attitude certainty when people perceive that they have resisted persuasion.
summary variations result milgrim
office building, ordinary person in charge, experimenter in a remote location, victim in same room as P, victim touching P, and two confederate rebel-most change
opposing forces
one hand the forces compelling them to complete the experiment and to continue delivering shocks (due to normative social influence, advanced science, agreement to be a participant) and the other wanting to stop the experiment (moral imperative) makes for a stressful situation
the media and conceptions of social reality
others have argued that the media have an even more unsettling influence: they shape what you think is important and true agenda control" efforts of the media to select certain events and topics to emphasize thereby shaping which issues and events are important ex: heavy television watchers contrue social reality much like the reality they view on tv- endorse more racial prejudice and assume women have more limited abilities than men. assume that the world is quite dangerous women who are exposed to thin females in the media are more likely to accept this thin ideal as normal
embodied nature of cognition and emotion
our thoughts and feeling are affected by our physical stress and bodily movements. ex: if people are happy tend to smile study: asked students tested new headphones to either move their head up and down or side to side- more side to side said they didnt like it. another made them hold a pen in teeth- smile and another on top of mouth- frown rate cartoons. support the alternative view that our attitudes and beliefs are partly embodied in the physical movement associate with those attitudes.
negative consequences
people experience dissonance when their behavior results in harm in some way.the standard dissonance effect should occur only when a person is convinced. that was exactly what the researchers found boring task rated more favorably with little incentive to lie to another person who appeared to believe the lie l
culture conformity pressure
people from interdependent culture likely to be more susceptible to both informational and normative social influences. are expected to conform more than independent cultures.
Central route (systematic)
people think carefully and deliberately about the content and source of the message. tend to the cogency of the argument. all this elaborate thinking can lead to change of attitudes of not motivation factors: issue is personally relevant, knowledgable in domain and personally responsible-
permanent decisions induce more dissonance
people to rationalize their decisions. ex: knox and Inkster interviewed bettors at a racetrack before and after placing their bets- felt good after placing bet festinger argues that dissonance reduction takes place only after only after irrevocable decision is made. however found out these processes can occur before and after want to feel made the right decision people estimate higher chance of wining after placing bets than before
free choice paradigm
post decisional dissonance: examine if we rationalize our choice. P rates 10 objects- forced choice between two objects. asked to rerank objects afterwards. chosen item is rate higher spreading the alternatives- accentuating desirability of object
resisting persuasion
prior knowledge makes people scrutinize messages more- have more beliefs, emotions and habits tied to their attitudes. ex: a study of enviornmental preservation divided students into two groups those pro- knew a lot of info those pro- who didnt know as much. showed counterarguments the pros- with knowledge resisted attitude change attitude inoculation and awareness of persuasive attempts
ego defensive functions of attitudes
protecting us from unpleasant facts or emotions. we develop certain attitudes to maintain cherished beliefs about ourselves or our world. ex: conservatism manage fear and uncertainty - to ward off unpleasant feelings gravitate towards belied that envision a structured orderly world
mood
receiver characteristic: people who are great communicators try to create a mood for their audience in both peripheral and central routes
need for cognition
receiver characteristic: refers to the degree to which people like to think deeply about things. people high in the need for cognition like to think, puzzle, ponder and consider multiple perspectives on the issue.
age
receiver characteristic: younger people are more susceptible to persuasive arguments than are adults or elderly.
receiver characteristics
receivers who are more personally involved, knowledgeable, and responsible respond to messages quite different from those who are less motivated
social influences
refers to the many ways that people affect one another including changes in attitudes, beliefs,feelings and behaviors. conformity- changing one behavior or beliefs in response to explicit or implicit pressure from others (real or imaginary pressures) compliance- responding favorably to an explicit request by another person. obedience- an unequal power relationship submitting to the demands of the more powerful person
Measuring attitudes
self reports: questionnaires best at measuring explicit attitudes Likert scale-a numerical scale used to assess people's attitudes, it includes a set of possible answers with labeled anchors on the extreme ex: course evaluations IAT: implicit measure of attitudes measure one's association between two concepts. best used for attitudes people dont know they have or dont want to say
informational social influence
sherif: interested in how groups influence the behavior of individuals by shaping how reality is perceived experiment stationary point in dark room seems to be moving. peoples answers seemed to converge over time- form the group norm the use of other people-their comments and actions as a source of information about whats likely to be right proper or effective. we want to be right and the opinions of other people are useful info. also if it is ambiguous/ dont have pronounced info regarding topic
the sleeper effect
source characteristic: an effect that occurs when messages from unreliable sources initially exert little influence but later cause individuals attitudes to shift. ex: people read articles about submarines at first read for journal article was unmoved then changed views. it seems that over time people dissociate the source of the message from the message itself.
attractiveness
source characteristic: attractive communicators can promote attitude change through peripheral route.
credibility
source characteristic: of the communicator. refers to the expertise and trustworthiness of the communicator. ex: ads for toothpaste. produce more attitude change in the peripheral route.
effort justification
tendency to increase our liking for something if we worked hard/ was painful experience to obtain. ex: boot camp/ frat hazing peoples tendency to reduce dissonance by justifying the time, or money devoted to something that has turned out unpleasant or disappointing. sweet lemons rationalization- "its really not that bad"- ex: undergraduate females thought about joining discussion group about sex. told must pass a screening test- either neutral, sorta sexual, very sexual words. told all were in. change the likings of the group with sever close to 100 percent
utilitarian form of attitudes
that is they alert us to rewarding object we should approach and to costly or punishing objects we should avoid. ex: goal trying to get good grade: attitudes toward objects relative to your goal- library/ books should become more positive. also people prefer landscapes that have water, lush tress- we have positive attitudes because these attitudes conferred with our ancestors.
anonymity
the ability to respond anonymously eliminate normative social influence. write down response eliminates judgments. informational tends to influence internalization- or our private acceptance of the position advanced by the majority. normative on the other hand has greater impact of public compliance then private belief
foreseability
the forseeable negative consequences our actions that generate cognitive dissonance
cultural differences in mimicry
the researchers therefore anticipated that the Hispanic interviewees would do better in the interview when the interviewer mirrored their behavior.
system justification theory
the theory motivated to see the existing political and social status quo as desirable, fair and legitimate. extolling the virtues of the prevailing system is typically an easier way than bringing effective change.ex: women often feel like they deserve lower pay than men doing the same work. work of stereotype- women may not have much power but they are nicer and warmer..
terror management theory
the theory that people deal with potentially paralyzing anxiety that comes with the knowledge of dying with the convicting that they have lived up to its values and prescriptions try to achieve symbolic immortality thinking of themselves are connected to a broader cultures- make people more hostile who criticize their country more committed to their in-groups and more hostile to outgroups
tight vs loose cultures
tight cultures- have very strong norms regarding how people should behave and do not have tolerate departure from those norms. loose cultures- their norms not so strong their members more deviant. Tight nations are more dictatorial have sharp control of media more laws and higher monitoring - india, germany, china Korea, italy and britain loose countries- hungary, isreal the netherlands, ukraine and new zealand and brazil tighter nations tended to have higher population densities, fewer natural resources,
self-affirmation and dissonance
want to feel good about ourselves not necessarily about inconsistency. bolstering self-esteem by taking note of important elements of our identity. also, Steele lab coat experiment asked people to choose between two objects of similar value asked science and business major. at the end asked to put on coat- science major didnt experience dissonance write counter attitudinal essay- made people feel irrational also some participants were asked to affirm valued self-affect: had no effect on attitude change
milgrims experiement
was interested in the kind of pressure that were powerful enough to lead people to do something far more significant then report the wrong line. people continued to obey the experimenters orders and shock the confederate. despite cues that the learner was suffering around 60% administered the max shock.
automatic mimicry
we mindlessly imitate others people behavior. we are often subconscious copycats. study: where students were to describe various photographs from popular magazines with another confederate. the confederate would rubbed his face or shook his foot tended to mimic (conform) to the behavior exhibited by the confederate
message characteristics
what makes a communicator persuasive.Motive behind communication Is motive to influence obvious? Argument Strength- high quality vs low quality One vs. Two-Sided
gender
women are raised to value more interdependent and to nurture social relationships more then men. However, more likely to conform when they are confused by events- their great sophistication about relationships may give them the confidence to resist he influence of the majority research should that women conform more than men but just a little bit. women tend to conform more in stereotypical male domains.
