Attitudes: Explicit & Implicit

do IATs affect our implicit attitude?

yes

What are other important things about attitudes?

they can be irrational, inconsistent, and changed

how are implicit attitudes tested? (IAT online test activity)

they look at the average reaction time from your answers i.e. gender and work/home

What are some functions of attitudes?

1) instrumental/utilitarian (is it valuable?) -our attitudes give us things and we use it as a means to an end 2) ego- defensive -we make claims w/o logical reason 3) knowledge -it helps guide you to learn new things 4) value- expressive -expresses your values on things 5) Social- adjustment -finding similarities among others changes your attitude about them.

what does it mean to have an implicit attitude?

System 1 thinking (schema) UNCONSCIOUS value associated w/something -less likely to change over time -a lot more likely to influence our behaviors -less inconsistent

What is an attitude?

a learned evaluative response, directed at specific objects. -relatively enduring/lasting and slow to change -influences and motivates our behavior **we need to experience things in order to have an attitude about them

where do attitudes come from?

a)conditioning where we are rewarded or punished for having attitudes, and therefore in the future, we change them b) modeling and social learning

LaPiere(1934) study on attitude (explicit)

believed that people think conscious attitudes should affect our behaviors. La Piere looked at anti-asian sentiment and looked to see if there was a link in attitude & bhvr. he called hotels across the country and sent asians there. results? only one place turned them away, thus showing our attitudes don't always predict our behaviors. in different situations, different attitudes might matter more.

How is association or preference determined in the IAT test? and why do they look at speed and reaction time?

if you do it slow, then it means they're thinking about the context, so they need to use time to track the unconscious processes

what can we do to change our implicit attitude?

interact with more people, make thoughts more conscious, and seek out counter examples

what do the IAT results mean? preference?

you have an implicit attitude/feeling more positive towards white vs black people BUT there is no distinction between good and bad