Chapter 6 - Attitudes and Persuasion

What 2 things does forewarning do?

1) it provides you with the opportunity of forming the counter arguments which can lessen the message impact 2) it provides you with more time to recall relevant facts and information which can serve useful in refuting

What 3 factors influence the theory of panned behavior

1) the person's attitude towards the behavior in question 2) the person's belief about how others will evaluate his/her action 3) perceived behavioral control

Why are attitudes so hard to change?

1) they change our social thought - we have a tendency to categorize information as positive or negative 2) attitudes strongly affect our behavior which is essential to our relations with other people because we can predict people's behavior in a wide range of contexts

When do we engage in systematic processing? (3)

1) when our capacity to process information relating to persuasive message is high (we have a lot of knowledge about the subject or a lot of time to think) 2) when we are motivated to do so (when the issue is important to us) 3) when we believe that it is important to form an accurate view

When do we engage in heuristic processing? (2)

1) when we lack the ability or capacity to process carefully (when we have to make up our mind quickly or have little knowledge about the issue) 2) when our motivation to perform such cognitive work is low (when the issue is unimportant to us)

Twin study & attitudes

It was found that identical twins that were raised apart were more similar than non-identical twins some attitudes are more heritable than others (weak finding) attitudes that are highly heritable may be more difficult to change and may exert stronger effects on behavior

Once attitudes are formed, they operate as what?

Schemas which strongly color our perceptions and thoughts

The Cognitive Approach to Persuasion

The question - "How do we process the information contained in persuasive messages?" The 2 solutions were systematic and Heuristic processing

What is the attitude-to-behavior process model

a model of how attitudes guide behavior that emphasizes the influence of both attitudes and stored knowledge of what is appropriate in a given situation on an individual's definition of the present situation. This influences overt behavior

Genetic Factors with Attitudes

a small but growing body of evidence indicates that genetic factors may actually play some role, although a small one, in attitudes

What is forewarning

advance knowledge that one is about to become the target of an attempt at persuasion; often increase resistance to the persuasion that follows

What is the central route

attitude change resulting from systematic processing of info presented in persuasive messages

What is the peripheral route

attitude change that occurs in response to persuasion cues - information concerning the expertise or status of would-be persuaders

What are the two components of attitude strength?

attitude importance and vested interest

Aspects of attitudes themselves (3)

attitude origins, attitude strength, attitude specificity

Are attitudes learned or are they genetically based?

attitudes are learned

What are attitude origins?

attitudes that are formed on the basis of experience often exert stronger effects on behavior

Social learning occurs through what processes?

classical conditioning subliminal conditioning instrumental conditioning observational learning

What is subliminal conditioning?

classical conditioning that occurs through exposure to stimuli that are below individual's threshold of conscious awareness

What is persuasion

efforts to change others' attitudes through use of various kinds of messages

what are attitudes?

evaluations of various aspects of the social world

what is attitude importance

extent to which an individual cares about the attitude or view

What is attitude specificity

extent to which attitudes are focused on specific objects or situations rather than on general ones

What are moderators

factors that influence the extent to which attitudes affect behavior

What is observational learning?

form of learning in which individuals acquire new forms of behavior or thought through observing others

What is classical conditioning?

form of learning in which one stimulus, initially neutral, acquires the capacity to evoke reactions through repeated pairing with another stimulus

What is instrumental conditioning?

form of learning in which responses that lead to positive outcomes or that permit avoidance of negative outcomes are strengthened; also known as operant conditioning

Research shows that we view information that supports our attitudes as what?

more convincing and accurate than information that refutes our attitudes

What is reactance

negative reaction to threats to one's freedom which often increases resistance to persuasion leads to the negative attitude change where you change your attitude/behavior in a direction that is completely opposite of what is being urged on you

what is systematic processing

processing of info in a persuasive message that involves careful consideration of message content and ideas

What is heuristic processing

processing of info in a persuasive message that involves the use of simple rules of thumb or mental shortcuts Occurs in a situation with cues

what 5 factors play a role in our ability to resist even highly skilled efforts at persuasion?

reactance, forewarning, selective avoidance, biased assimilation and attitude polarization

Factors that prevent us from expressing our attitudes (2)

situational constraints - they moderate the relationship between attitudes and behavior. They prevent attitudes from being expressed over behavior. our preference for situations that allow us to express our attitudes in our behavior ... we prefer situations in what we say and what we do coincide

Persuasion - The Early Approach

some source directs some type of message to some person or group of persons The early research question was "Who says what to whom with what effect?" BUT this didn't offer an account of HOW persuasion occurs

What is attitude strength?

stronger the attitude, the greater the impact

what is vested interest

the extent to which the attitude is personally relevant to the individual who holds it

What is social learning?

the process by which we acquire new information, behavior or attitudes from other people (usually by interacting with others or observing them)

What is social comparison?

the process through which we compare ourselves to others in order to determine whether our view of social reality is or is not correct

What is selective avoidance

the tendency to direct attention away from info that challenges existing attitudes; increases resistance to persuasion

What is biased assimilation

the tendency to evaluate information that disconfirms our existing views as less convincing or reliable than info that confirms these views no substance, not gonna change your attitude

what is attitude polarization

the tendency to evaluate mixed evidence or info in such a way that it strengthens our initial views and makes them more extreme

What is the theory of planned behavior?

theory of how attitudes guide behavior suggesting that individuals consider the implications of their actions by deciding to perform various behaviors it operates in situations where we give careful, deliberate thought to our attitudes & their implications for our behavior.

Once attitudes are formed they persist especially if what?

they are strongly accepted and closely related to interests or outcomes of the persons who hold them

Because of the social comparison process, what do we do?

we often change our attitudes so as to hold views closer to those of others the process of social comparison may contribute to the formation of new attitudes which is usually a result of hearing that other folks that we know and like and respect express certain views