Cognitive Dissonance, Attitudes and Persuasion

How can reducing dissonance in different ways result in different attitudes (grasshopper study)?

...

What is the specificity principle?

Attitudes predict behavior when the attitude and behavior are similar

What is the tripartite model of attitudes?

Consistency between components informs attitude while inconsistency suggests ambivalence

What is an attitude?

The extent to which you like or dislike something

What is the difference between direct and indirect measures of attitudes?

Direct asking, and objective behaviors Proximity and brain signals

When is negative arousal necessary for dissonance results, and when is it unnecessary?

Discrepancy high → creates arousal → cognitive dissonance explains attitude change Discrepancy low → no arousal → self-perception explains the attitude change

What is the theory of planned behavior?

Explains that attitudes match behaviors only under certain situations

Explain multiple roles: how some variables that serve as cues under low elaboration can serve as arguments under high elaboration (remember MJ).

MJ selling Hane's serves as a cue MJ selling Nike basketball shoes serves as an argument

What 2 general factors determine the degree of elaboration?

Motivation (accountability and need for cognition) Ability (time pressure, lack of knowledge)

What is elaboration?

The amount of message-relevant thinking.

What is the self-perception approach to cognitive dissonance?

When we observe our own behavior and think not about 'reducing bad feelings,' but about understanding ourselves

What is one issue with explicit measurements? What is one issue with implicit measurements?

With explicit measures, people often infer what they think you want them to say, and implicit measures are often more difficult to obtain.

What is cognitive dissonance?

A situation in which two cognitions (or a cognition and a behavior) contradict each other, producing an uncomfortable state of arousal

What are at least three methods of reducing/avoiding cognitive dissonance? Be able to give an example of situations in which someone might use each one.

Add new consonant cognitions • Drinking for my friend's birthday is definitely more important than this paper Reduce perception of choice • I've had a lot of work in other classes, so I haven't gotten around to it Reduce importance of the conflict • It's only one paper, just two pages Change one of the dissonant cognitions • I'm just really not good at writing Change the behavior to bring it in line with dissonant cognitions • I will write this now!

What are the 3 components of attitudes (ABCs)?

Affect, behavior, and cognition

What is the effort justification? Provide an example of effort justification.

Effort Justification: After we spend a lot of effort on something, we hope that the end result was worth the effort. When it's not, we change our attitudes to deal with this dissonance. If we had to do a lot of work to get into a club that ends up not being great we pretend it is great because we need to justify why we did all the hard work

What is induced compliance? Explain the results of the peg-turning task.

Induced compliance: When people freely perform an attitude- discrepant behavior without receiving an adequate reward they change their attitudes to deal with this dissonance. Those who were given a greater reward for the peg turning task rated task honestly but those who received a smaller reward would rate the task as more fun to deal with dissonance

What are the 2 routes to persuasion and what determines which route is taken?

Peripheral: people don't think about the context of the message, but focus instead on superficial characteristics. • Less elaboration. • Involves heuristic cues. Central: people are more influenced by the strength and quality of the message • High/more elaboration • Everything is evaluated as an argument.

What was the Yale approach to attitude change?

Persuasion is a product of whether people can learn and remember arguments.

What is one example function of an attitude?

They allow us to make decisions quickly

What is post-decision dissonance? What is the spreading of alternatives?

Post-decision dissonance: When we have to make tough decisions between two attractive alternatives, dissonance can result. Spreading of Alternatives: After making decision we make our choice seem more desirable

What is persuasion?

A method of changing a person's cognition, affect, behavior, and attitudes toward some object, issue, or person.

What are the basic tenants of cognitive dissonance theory as Leon Festinger (1957) originally proposed?

Any two cognitions (cog/behavior) are either relevant to each other or not. If relevant, they can be dissonant or consonant. Dissonance causes negative arousal. People will be motivated to reduce this arousal

Why is it important to study attitudes?

Attitudes can help to predict behaviors in certain situations

What is attitude inoculate theory?

People do things because the beliefs were never challenged; therefore, people don't know how to resist persuasion. You have to teach people how to resist persuasion.

What is an example source effect on persuasion? What is an example message effect on persuasion?

Source effect: credibility, persuasion tends to work well if the person presenting the argument is trustworthy or if they appear to be an expert. Message effect: fear, if a message is moderately frightening, it may be more persuasive.

What is the difference between strong and weak arguments?

Strong arguments are compelling and logically consistent (resistant to change) • Recipients believe the outcomes of a strong proposal are: positive and highly probable. Weak are inconsistent • Susceptible to change and influence.

What is a consequence of central route processing? What are the qualities of a strong attitude?

Strong arguments: even if they are wrong, they are resistant to change

How does the specificity principle help us understand when attitudes will predict behavior?

The more specific the attitude behavior is towards a certain behavior, the easier it is to predict the behavior

What is mere exposure?

The more you are exposed to something, the more you like it

What is ambivalence?

The state of having mixed feelings or contradictory ideas about something or someone.