CH 7 - Attitudes and Persuasion

Explain how a good mood affects persuasion through its effects on motivation and capacity for superficial (rather than systematic) processing.

When we are in a good mood we feel confident, in no danger, and doing fine the way we are, are the motivational consequences in responding to heuristic cues. Also when a good mood clouds our mind with other thoughts, it hinders our capacity, an dwe are less likely to systematically process

Define explicit attitudes. Are explicit attitudes always socially desirable distortions?

Attitudes people express. No

Define the central route to persuasion and explain how systematic processing is involved in the following four steps: attention, comprehension, reaction, and acceptance.

Central route to persuasion - Thinking carefully about the agruments presented about the central merits of the attitude object. How systematic processing is involved: - Attention: Grabbing the audience's attention by giving them a reason to watch and listen. - Comprehension: Keeping the message simple. - Reaction: Inducing peole to react to the message in favorable or unfavorable ways. - Acceptance: Achieving favorable congnitive or affective elaborations

Identify one way in which the effects of subliminal persuasion can be overcome.

Concious processing. we are consious of the message, we therefore, resist it as we would pesuasions in general .

Do people typically gather attitude-consistent or attitude inconsistent information?

It can vary. People are usually exposed to one side of an issue than the other, in which our first reactions make inconsistency less likely, therefore preventing us from gathering information that contradict our negative information. But infomration that accumulates do not always imply consistent evaluations of an attitude, such as knowing both sides of an argument in major issues. Also, inconsistency is common, such as positive views on blood drives, but a fear of giving blood because of needles

The process of forming, strengthening, or changing attitudes by communication

Persuasion

What effect does attributional processing have on the effectiveness of the expertise and credibility heuristics?

it induces us to ask questions toward justifying why an expert chooses a position whih undermines their trustworthiness

Identify the optimum level of guilt to induce persuasion and identify which motivation (mastery versus connectedness) is aroused by feelings of guilt.

only moderate levesl of guilt which activates connectedness and self-protection motives that make it likely for us to accept and like products or ideas that help us solve that guilt

How does motivation and capacity affect resistance to persuasive messages?

when we don't care abou ta particular issue, we are less likely to resist. Also, when we aren't given the ability and time opportunity we don't have much capacity to defend

Identify two ways in which capacity affects the use of superficial versus systematic processing of attitude-related information.

(1) Ability to process. if we can fully understand the content, we will systematically process. If content is beyond our capacity, we use heuristics (superficially). (2) Opportunity to concetrate. If we are bombarded by distractions, we use heuristics (superficially)

Name three consequences of systematic processing on attitudes?

(1) Careful thinking may leave us unconvinced. (2) If extensive thinking leaves us to think in biased ways. (3) Resistant to change if message was provided first, therefore, the second message is less influential

Identify two ways in which motivation affects the use of superficial versus systematic processing of attitude-related information.

(1) Mastery - the importance of being accurate. If we are held accountable for certain decisions, we are more likely to sytematically process. (2) Connectedness - Importance of self relevance. When information is more relevant to ourselves, we are more likely to systematically process. If they dont even apply to us, we use heuristics.

Identify four techniques researchers have developed to overcome people's tendency to hide their real attitudes.

(1) Techniques that guarantee anonymity, this induces honesty because whatever they express won't be linked to them. (2) Convincing participants that their real "pshsiological reactions are being measured, even when it's not. (3) Facial EMG - meausres involuntary muscle activity which allows percise measurements of both intensity and direction of attitudes. (4) Response time - measures the time people take to make a particular response to an attitude object. For example, if an object is evaluated positively, it may take longer to respond to if it is associated with something negative.

Identify two consequences of the strength with which attitudes are linked to objects.

(1) The attitude becomes automatic whenever we enccounter or think abou the object. (2) The attitude will become a shorthand subsittute for all information we have about the object. (3) Less likely the attitudes is moved around by new information.

What are two conditions that limit the impact of subliminal messages?

(1) The target may not be looking at the stimuli, not the right place, and the right time, and no in confusion of everyday environments. (2) Whne subliminal messages are easily detected.

Identify two ways in which attitudes have built-in defense mechanisms.

(1) We ignore information that challenges our prefered views and deal only with information that supports them. (2) We create our own bias by favoring supportive information and focus on criticizing opposing evidence.

Identify two consequences of defending our attitudes that makes our attitudes even more resistant to further persuasion attempts. How does motivation and capacity affect resistance to persuasive messages?

(1) When we continue to accept consistent information and criticize discrepent information, our views get stronger. (2) We hold our opinions with more certainty if we believe that we hae overcome the strongest persuasive messages.

Explain the ways in which individual differences in (a) need for cognition and (b) self-monitoring are related to superficial versus systematic routes to persuasion.

(a) People with a high need for cognition are more likely to put more time and effort in processing. People with low need for congnition are more responsive to heuristic cuses. (b) Levels of self-monitoring in processing persuasion depends on their specific goals. HSM's focus on how other see them, therefore, they concentrate more on information that is image-focused, while LSM's focus on self-expression, therefore, concentrate on information that is value-expressive

Define the cognitive, affective, and behavioral components of attitudes.

- Cognitive: What we know about an attitude object, our facts and beliefs. - Affective: How we feel about the object, the feelings and emotions the attitude object arouses. - Behavioral: Knowledge of our past, present, and furture interactions with the attitude object

Explain these three principles of attitude-based information processing: consistency, negativity, and accessibility.

- Consistency: Forming attitudes that are consistent with how we feel, know, and experience, therefore, positive information leads to postive outcomes. - Negativity: Negative information typically is more influential than positive information. - Accesibilty: Information that comes easily to mind that grabs our attention and perpetually salient

what do implicit attitude typically reflect and what do explicit attitudes typically reflect?

- Implicit attitudes reflect the positive or negative associations that people have to an object. - Explicit attitudes are more likely to reflect the evaluations people wish to endorse, like overcoming phobias or prejudices (commendable reasons) or socially desirable reasons

Define these four functions of attitudes: object appraisal, instrumental, social identity, and impression management.

- Object Appraisal: Features of an attitude object we focsu on that make the difference. - Instrumental/Utilitarian Function: Attitudes that will steer us toward things tha will help achieve goals and avoid things that will hurt us. - Social identity/Value-expressive: Helps us in defining ourselves and at the same time expressing the "right" views which can smooth interactions and creates good impressions. - Impression management: People adopt and support attitudes that they believe their audience endorses

Define superficial processing and systematic processing of persuasion messages.

- Superficial processing: Relying on salient or accesible information to make simple evaluative inferences about the attitude object. - Systematic Processing: Goes beyond simple cues and considers the validity and importance of attitdue-relevant information

Define attitude scales and identify two factors that affect people's responses to these scales.

An attitude scale is a series of questions that provides precise and reliable information about how strongly people agree or disagree with, favor or oppose, or like or dislike any attitude subject

Explain the role of assimilation and contrast in defending our attitudes.

Assimilation occurs when information is in support of our views while a contrast happens when there is opposing information that is inconsistent with our views.

A cognitive representation that summarizes an individual's evaluation of a particular person, group, thing, action, or idea

Attitude

Define the direction and intensity components of attitudes.

Attitutdes can be favorable, neutral, or unfavorable, so attitudes are sadi to have a positive, neutral, and negative direction. They also differ in intensity reflecting whether evaluations is moderate or extreme

"Define implicit attitudes. Are implicit attitudes always pure measures of people true attitudes?

Automatic evaluations of an object. No

The generation of favorable or unfavorable reactions to the content of a persuasive appeal

Elaboration

Identify the role of level of fear and effectiveness of recommendations determine the impact of fear on persuasion.

Fear must engage motivation and the message must arouse anxiety, show a need for mastery, connectedness, or protecting me and mine, otherwise the message is ignored.

Identify the role of fear and the amount of personal relevance

For fear to be affective, it must convince the audience that it will happen, and will happen to them, in which engages in personal relevance.

Define an ambivalent attitude.

Having cognitions that are evaluatively inconsistent with feelings toward particular object attitudes which reflects both positive and negative reactions

Identify the effectiveness of recommendations determine the impact of fear on persuasion

If Fear is overwhelming, people tend to ignore it and reject it, to overcome this, the message must include instructions on eliminating anxiety, which encourages mastery

Compare and contrast independent cultures and interdependent cultures in terms of the attitude functions emphasized in ads.

Independent Ads tend to emphasize rugged individualism, personal success, and idependence. Interdependent ads emphasize group benefits, interpersonal harmony, and family integrity

Explain the process of inoculation as it relates to defending our attitudes.

Inocullation is so powerful becuase it helps us to practice our defenses and ressiting persuasive messages

People's tendency to prefer objects to which they have been more frequently exposed

Mere exposure effect

Define the peripheral route to persuasion and explain the role of the following in persuasion: classical/evaluative conditioning, mood heuristic, familiarity heuristic, attractiveness heuristic, expertise heuristic, and message length heuristic.

Peripheral rule - forming attitudes based on persuasion heuristics rather than thinking about the attidue object itself. The roles that persuasion play in are: - Classical/evaluative conditioning: attitudes by association. - Mood Heuristic: if I feel good, I must like it. - Familiarity heuristic: Repeated exposure to a stimulus. - Attractiveness heuristic: Agreeing by pairing attitude objects with popular and attractive figures. - Expertise heurstic: Aggreeing with those who show competence and credibility. - Message length heuristic:The longer the message, the more valid it appears to be.

Association of a cue that is positively or negatively evaluated with the attitude object, allowing the attitude object to be evaluated quickly and without much thought

Persuasion heuristic

Compare and contrast rational and emotional persuasion messages.

Rational messages provide building blocks for a new attitude, while emotional appeals involve associating feelings with the attitude object in order to influence activities

Define subliminal persuasion. Can subliminal messages produce persuasion?

Subliminal persuasion: An attempt to persuade when the target audience dosen't realize it. Yes.