Social Psychology chapter 4

selective avoidance

A tendency to direct attention away from information that challenges existing attitudes. Such avoidance increases resistance to persuasion.

elaboration-likelihood model (of persuasion)

A theory suggesting that persuasion can occur in two distinctive ways, differing in the amount of cognitive effort or elaboration it requires. These being systematic or heuristic processing.

persuasion

Efforts to change others' attitudes through the use of various kinds of messages.

spreading of alternatives

When individuals make a decision between two options, they tend to reduce the rating of the item they did not choose and increase the rating of the item they did choose.

central route to persuasion

Attitude change resulting from systematic processing of information presented in persuasive messages.

induced or forced compliance

Situations in which individuals are somehow induced to say or do things inconsistent with their true attitudes.

hypocrisy

The public advocating of some attitudes or behaviors and then acting in a way that is inconsistent with these attitudes or behaviors.

trivialization

a technique for reducing dissonance in which the importance of attitudes or behaviors that are inconsistent with each other is cognitively reduced.

cognitive dissonance

an negative internal state that results when an individual notices an inconsistency among two or more attitudes or between their attitudes and their behaviors.

heuristic processing

processing of information in a persuasive message that involves the use of simple rules of thumb or mental shortcuts.

forewarning

Advanced knowledge that one is about to become the target of an attempt of persuasion. Forewarning often increases resistance to the persuasion that follows.

peripheral route to persuasion

Attitude change that occurs in response to peripheral persuasion cues, often based on information concerning the expertise or status of would-be persuaders.

reactance

Negative reactions to threats to ones personal freedom. Reactance often increases resistance to persuasion and can even produce negative attitude change or the opposite of what was intended.

systematic processing

Processing of information in a persuasive message that involves careful consideration of message content and ideas.

less-leads-to-more effect

The fact that offering individuals small rewards for engaging in counterattitudinal behavior often produces more dissonance, and so more attitude change, than offering them larger rewards.