Chapter 7: Attitudes ad Attitude Change

Elaboration

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

Message-Length Heuristic

the longer the message, the more valid it appears to be

Mere-Exposure Effect

the phenomenon that repeated exposure to novel stimuli increases liking of them

Evaluative Conditioning

the process by which positive or negative attitudes are formed or changed by association with other positively or negatively valued objects

Social Identity Function

the way an attitude contributes to connectedness by expressing important self and group identities and functions

Impression Management Function

the way an attitude contributes to connectedness by smoothing interactions and relationships

Intrumental function

the way an attitude contributes to mastery by guiding our approach to positive objects and our avoidance of negative objects

Knowledge Function

the way an attitude contributes to mastery by organizing, summarizing, and simplifying experience with an attitude object

Attitudes are built from mental representations that can include what types of information?

- cognitive information: what people know about an attitude object - affective information: what people feel about an attitude object - behavioral information: knowledge of interactions with the attitude object in the past, present, or future

All the informational components accumulate to form an attitude, following three principles, what are they?

- consistency: new attitudes fit in a consistent way into existing knowledge, emotions, and experience - bad outweighs good: negative information has an edge over positive information - accessible information dominates: information that comes to mind very easily has more impact

what are the two limits of subliminal stimuli?

- it is difficult to expose people to this influence - its effect is only found by using certain stimuli

How does motivation influence superficial and systematic processing?

- mastery motivation: When being accurate is very important, you will be more motivated to process systematically - connectedness: When something is personally relevant, you will be more motivated to process systematically. - me and mine motivation: Students are more likely to systematically process a speech when it is self-relevant.

What are the three consequence to using a joint activation of object and attitude?

- the stronger the link, the more automatically the attitude is activated - the stronger the link, the more likely it is that we use this sole attitude as a source of knowledge -t he stronger the link, the more resistant the attitude is to new information

What are the four steps involved in systematic processing?

1. attending to the information: make sure attention is drawn to the message. 2. comprehending information: keep the message simple. 3. reacting to information: this is through the process of elaboration. 4. accepting or rejecting the advocated position: people have to accept the intended message.

What are the four heuristics that affect persuasion?

1. familiarity 2. attractiveness 3. expertise 4. message length

What are the two functions of attitudes?

1. helps people master their environment 2. help us gain and maintain connectedness with others

Strong Attitudes

a confidently-held extremely positive or negative evaluation that is persistent and resistant and that influences information processing and behavior

Attitude

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

Ambivalent Attitudes

an attitude based on conflicting negative and positive information

How do attitudes help gain and maintain connectedness with others?

by using two functions - social identity function and impression management function

How do attitudes help people master their environment?

by using two functions - the knowledge function and the instrumental function

Familiarity Heuristic

familiar items are seen as superior to those that are unfamiliar

Self-Monitoring

high self-monitors zero in on image-focused messages; low self-monitors are more attuned to value-expressive appeals

Culture's effect in Me and Mine Motivation

individuals from collectivist cultures are more likely to be persuaded by health warnings that focus on relational obligations, whereas individuals from individualistic cultures are more persuaded by messages that focus on the personal self

Need for Cognition

people with a high need for cognition are more eager to process information systematically

Attitude Change

process by which attitudes form and change by the association of positive or negative information with the attitude object

Promotion/Prevention Focused

promotion focused people are more persuaded by gain-oriented appeals, whereas prevention focused people find messages that talk about avoiding losses more compelling

Explicit Attitude

that attitude that people openly and deliberately express about an attitude object in self-report or by behavior

Subliminal Stimuli

stimuli that we don't perceive consciously but that nevertheless have an influence on us

Why are attitudes useful?

they help people to master their social environment and to express important connections with others

Implicit Attitude

automatic and uncontrollable positive or negative evaluation of an attitude object

How can implicit attitudes be measured?

- muscle activity: measure muscle tension while a person is thinking about an attitude object. - reaction time: how fast do people react to an attitude object? - The Implicit Association Test.

How can explicit attitudes be measured?

- self-reports: ask people. - observations: look at people's behavior.

How does capacity influence superficial and systematic processing?

- the ability to process: sometimes you lack the cognitive capacity to process systematically. In terms of advertising, children are unaware that advertisements are trying to persuade them to purchase products - the opportunity to concentrate: distraction prevents systematic processing

Expert Heuristic

an expert has the knowledge and can be trusted. a message that is delivered rapidly is also more credible. trustworthiness is an important characteristic for a credible communicator

Persuasion Heuristic

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

Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM)

people will be more likely to engage in systematic processing and consider the strength of the arguments in a message when they have the motivation and capacity to do so (central path). If either of these two things are lacking, people will engage in superficial processing and be more persuaded by heuristics (peripheral path)

Persuasion

process of forming, strengthening or changing attitudes by communication

Attractiveness Heuristic

we agree with those we like