SP Chapter 7

How might operant conditioning be relevant to everyday life?

-because adults tend to implement operant conditioning in order to get kids to do certain things -more specifically, adults tend to use praise as a reward for kids when the kids express attitudes that are considered to be socially desirable

Describe what the behavior aggregation counterargument is, and why it is significant.

-**this is one of the responses made that went against Wicker's proposal that attitudes are just trivial and have no predictive value for people's behaviors -it says that our attitudes actually can predict our behaviors, so long as we aggregate our behaviors -what this means is that you have to consider multiple types of behaviors in different contexts in order to be able to see how their attitudes will predict their behaviors, rather than only considering one single behavior -so if a person has a more positive attitude toward a concept, they will engage in more types of behaviors that fit into this concept, and vice versa with negative attitudes toward it

What is the broad attitude in contexts argument? Why is it significant?

-**this is one of the responses made that went against Wicker's proposal that attitudes are just trivial and have no predictive value for people's behaviors -it says that the general attitudes we have towards certain concepts can influence our behaviors so long as those attitudes are active in the person's consciousness and they influence how the person thinks about the choices they have to make -so, if the person has been reflecting on their attitude toward a certain concept, this is going to influence their behaviors when they are faced with a situation as to whether or not to do a behavior that fits this concept

Explain what attitude accessibility is, and discuss why it is significant.

-**this is one of the responses made that went against Wicker's proposal that attitudes are just trivial and have no predictive value for people's behaviors -this refers to how easily an attitude is able to come to the person's mind -and it is believed that, the more accessible an attitude, the more influential it will be on the person's behaviors, so that highly accessible attitudes are good predictors of the person's behaviors

What is meant by behavioral intentions? Why is it important?

-**this is one of the responses made that went against Wicker's proposal that attitudes are just trivial and have no predictive value for people's behaviors -this refers to looking at whether a person actually plans to do a behavior that is trying to be predicted or not -and behavioral intentions involve three different influential factors: behavioral attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control -and it has been found that, if a person's behavioral intention is high, then they likely will actually do the behavior

Discuss what the difference between an attitude and a belief is.

-a belief is a piece of information you have about something, and it can either be a fact that you know or an opinion that you hold about a particular thing, whereas an attitude refers to a broader, global evaluation you make toward an object or an issue to determine whether you like it or not -we have attitudes in order to choose things, but we have beliefs in order to explain things

Describe the counterargument proposed which talks about general attitudes and specific behaviors, and why it is important.

-**this is one of the responses made that went against Wicker's proposal that attitudes are just trivial and have no predictive value for people's behaviors -this response defends that attitudes actually are quite important, and not trivial as Wicker had proposed -this argument says that the reason people have been having difficulties with having people's attitudes predict their behaviors is because they have been trying to see how people's general attitudes towards things predict their specific behaviors -but this is not going to be effective because there is too much disconnect between the two -so instead, it says that looking at people's specific attitudes towards certain topics and concepts can actually predict what their behaviors would be for that specific concept

Discuss how classical conditioning is important to the discussion of attitudes.

-**this is one of the ways that it is believed we come to form attitudes -it is believed that classical conditioning can lead us to form attitudes because our attitude is the conditioned response, and the thing that we are developing an attitude towards is the unconditioned stimulus -because the US could end up becoming associated with a CS that is positive, which would lead us to form a more positive attitude toward the thing -or the US could be associated with a CS that is negative, which would lead us to feel more negatively toward the thing

Discuss why operant conditioning is important when considering people's attitudes.

-**this is one of the ways that it is believed we come to form attitudes -it is believed that we tend to develop more favorable attitudes towards stimuli that end up rewarding us, whereas we tend to feel more negative attitudes towards the things that punish us

Describe what is meant by the concept of embodied attitudes, including why it is important.

-**this is one of the ways that it is believed we come to form attitudes -this is a concept that was initially brought up by Charles Darwin -it is the belief that our attitudes are rooted in our bodily states/bodily movements, so it says that our bodily movements actually shape the attitudes we hold towards stimuli -this would be like if we are exposed to a stimulus while at the same we were nodding our heads up and down (like nodding yes), vs. side to side (like shaking no); and nodding our heads up and down would lead us to hold a higher preference for the attitude than we would have had if we had been shaking our head side to side

What is social learning? Why is it significant?

-**this is one of the ways that it is believed we come to form attitudes -this is a theory proposed by Albert Bandura, and it is the belief that we come to learn how to behave by watching others, making inferences based on what they see the person doing (it is good to do if they get rewarded, and bad if they get punished), and then imitate them or not based on the inferences they make -and it is specifically related to attitudes because we can come to learn what attitudes are considered socially acceptable to hold and express by watching whether others get rewarded or punished for holding such attitudes

Discuss what happens with the mere exposure effect. Why is it significant?

-**this is one of the ways that it is believed we come to form attitudes -this is the way in which people tend to show a greater preference for a stimulus the more that they are exposed to it

Explain what effort justification is. Why is it significant?

-**this is one theory of consistency, and it is also related to dissonance because of inconsistency -it is the tendency that people have whereby they try to convince themselves that all of their hard work, struggles, and sacrifices that they've made for something are worthwhile -that is because this involves trying to change their attitudes to try to justify and rationalize the suffering they have gone through to try to justify their behaviors to resolve the dissonance, to make it seem like their behaviors were worth it

What is the cognitive dissonance theory? Why is it significant?

-**this is one theory of consistency, and it is also related to dissonance because of inconsistency -it says that people feel cognitive dissonance, an unpleasant psychological tension, when their attitudes and their behaviors are inconsistent -and this feeling of cognitive dissonance motivates them to then either try to rationalize their behaviors to themselves, or change their attitudes so that they align with their behaviors

What is post-decision dissonance? Why is it important?

-**this is one theory of consistency, and it is also related to dissonance because of inconsistency -this is how people experience unpleasant psychological tension when they have to make a difficult choice, and so this leads them to justify the choice that they have made so as to try to resolve the dissonance -they reason with themselves that the decision they chose is a much better option than the one that they didn't choose

How is dissonance related to emotions? Explain.

-because it has been found that dissonance actually closely resembles emotional reactions we have -that is because it's been found that dissonance involves the same elements as emotional reactions, which means that it has a feeling of arousal, paired with a cognitive label as well, so we experience dissonance when we feel the unpleasant physiological arousal from our behaviors, and we also attribute this feeling to the fact that we acted inconsistently with our attitudes

Why does it matter that we are prone to having irrational beliefs?

-because it has been found that those who hold more rational beliefs tend to be more anxious -they have less effective ability to cope with hardships -they are more likely to develop depression -and they tend to have lower self-esteems

In what ways is the mere exposure effect influential? Explain.

-because it has been found that, when we are repeatedly exposed to a certain type of meaningful stimulus, this can actually end up leading us to have a greater preference for other stimuli similar to it that we had never previously seen before -and it has also been found that it can influence the attitudes we hold towards ourselves, seen in the way that people tend to have a greater preference of pics of themselves that are mirrored as compared to straight on, because we are much more used to seeing our reflections mirrored -and it has also been found to occur not only in humans, but also in other animals, too

In what ways are belief and coping related to one another? Explain.

-because the beliefs that we have can help us to be able to make sense of, and understand, our worlds and what happens in them -and therefore, our beliefs can influence how well we are able to cope with misfortunes that occur, because they can either lead us to more effectively be able to cope and return to normal, or our beliefs can hinder our abilities to regain normal functioning after the misfortune

In what way is dissonance aptly considered interpersonal?

-because, while it is true that we have a personal drive to remain consistent between our attitudes and behaviors, we are much more strongly motivated to have consistency between them so as to be considered a consistent person by others so that they do not reject us -so, dissonance is usually more strongly related to our self-presentations, rather than our self-esteems

Discuss how attitudes and beliefs are related.

-both of them help us by serving interpersonal functions

What is necessary to have in order for a person's beliefs to help them effectively cope with a misfortune they are experiencing? Why is this needed?

-consistency -that is because, in order for coping to actually be effective, the person needs to be able to have the misfortune they endured be consistent and fit into their beliefs about the world and about the reasons for why the problem occurred

What is the difference between a downward comparison and an upward comparison?

-downward comparisons refer to beliefs that say things could have been worse and comparing yourself to someone who has it worse than you, whereas upward comparisons are beliefs that consider comparing yourself and your situation to one that is better than yours -downward comparisons are one type of belief that is involved in helping people to be able to effectively cognitively cope with misfortunes, whereas upward comparisons do not serve this same purpose

Who is Alan Wicker? Discuss his importance to social psychology.

-he proposed an argument against Gordon Allport's belief that attitudes are considered the most important thing to study -Wicker said that attitudes are not important, and instead they are actually quite trivial -and he said that attitudes do not cause our behaviors, nor do they even accurately predict them -and this led to social psychologists becoming very distressed by the idea that attitudes might not actually be important, considering how a lot of them at this point had dedicated a lot of time to studying them

Why is Gordon Allport significant to social psychology?

-he proposed the idea that attitudes are the most important concept to study

Is the drive for consistency more heavily influenced by nature forces, or by nurture forces? Explain.

-in terms of nature factors, it has been found that the motivation to retain consistency between our actions and our attitudes is pretty culturally universal -however, nurture forces are seen in how the actual experience of cognitive dissonance that can occur when having to make choices doesn't really seem to be culturally universal -that's because the dissonance seems to occur more strongly in North Americans than it does in East Asians, likely because in NA, there are greater social pressures and expectations put on people to remain consistent

What is one problem that can arise through considering dual attitudes? How is this remedied?

-it can be difficult to measure automatic attitudes -the way that they are measured is by measuring the reaction time the person has to the particular stimulus being evaluated by them -it is believed that, if they have a faster reaction time to the stimulus, then they have a stronger attitude towards it

Explain the relationship between religion and coping.

-it has been found that one effective way to cope with tragedy is through having religious beliefs for several reasons... 1. religious beliefs help to provide an explanation for what happened, which allows them to be better able to cope 2. it helps prevent them from going to ineffective and unhealthy coping strategies 3. it can help to deter feelings of dissonance because they are able to find consistency by referring back to how it is the result of the higher power

How are doubting, believing, and understanding all related? Explain.

-it has been found that, when we understand something, believing that information is an automatic response that immediately follows -but doubt is related because then we can take the time to think it over and decide if we truly do believe it or if we actually have doubts about it instead

Discuss how the duplex mind is related to believing and disbelieving.

-it is thought that believing something is the result of the automatic system because it's thought that, once we start to understand something, then the automatic system causes us to have a response where we also believe it -and we continue to believe this thing we understand unless we recruit the deliberate system to override it and determine if the the information is actually false and we don't believe it

How might the drive for consistency be related to evolution?

-it is thought to relate to the belief that one purpose of human thought is to help us argue -and so it is believed that, since evolution has shaped our brains for trying to argue and convince people, we have an aversion to inconsistency because, if we were to start contradicting ourselves and started being inconsistent in what we're saying, this really depletes the strength of our argument

Is religion always going to be a fool-proof means of effective coping? Explain why or why not.

-it is true that appealing to religion in times of trouble is a really effective means for coping with it -but there are also some problems that can arise that can interfere with one's abilities to cope with said trouble -namely, sometimes people might end up feeling a lot of resentment towards the higher power for the misfortune that they faced; sometimes religious beliefs can make people feel fear or guilt for things that they have done or that have occurred to them; and sometimes people feel distress if they find that certain religious doctrines are inconsistent

How is the A-B problem related to sexuality? Explain.

-it's been found that there is an A-B problem seen in the way that the majority of men who said that they favored homosexual activity had actually engaged in it, whereas much fewer women who said that they favored it had actually engaged in it, showing how the A-B problem was with the women's inconsistencies -and it has also been found that women show another inconsistency/A-B problem in that they are more likely to say that they don't approve of certain sexual activities that they actually do engage in -**and it is believed that the reason women experience this A-B problem more than men is because men tend to like and dislike the same types of sexual behaviors regardless of who they are doing it with and such, but for women, their attitudes towards different acts tend to be more specific to factors like who they are doing it with, the reasons behind why they are doing it, etc.

How might the drive for consistency be related to the duplex mind? Explain.

-it's thought that both parts of the duplex mind influence us to have this motivation to remain consistent -that's because the automatic system helps us by detecting when we are starting to act or think inconsistently, and it kind of alerts the deliberate system through causing a feeling of distress or arousal -and then the deliberate system comes along and tries to help us find a way to resolve this feeling by helping us be able to rationalize, justify, and rethink things

Out of the different purposes proposed, what is thought to be the primary purpose for why we have attitudes?

-it's thought to help us be able to make our way through the world because attitudes help us to sort things that we come across into very basic categories of considering them "good" or "bad"

Social learning is also called _____.

-observational learning imitation -vicarious learning

What are the components of behavioral intentions? How are they influential?

-subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and behavioral attitudes 1. behavioral attitudes refer to how the person feels about doing the particular behavior 2. subjective norms are the person's perceptions about whether important people in their life think they should do the behavior they are considering doing or not 3. perceived behavioral control is the person's beliefs about whether they are actually able to do the behavior or not -**all three of these factors influence a person's behavioral intention, which means that all three of these factors are going to influence whether a person is actually planning to do a behavior or not

Describe what cognitive coping is.

-that is the idea that the beliefs we have play a major role in helping us be able to effectively cope with, and recover from, misfortunes that occur to us -it says that there are three different types of beliefs that we have to establish or reestablish after the misfortune... 1. downward comparisons, and the belief that things ultimately could have been worse, so in a way they were actually pretty lucky 2. the belief that they are still a good person, and that they have control over what happens to them in life 3. the belief that everything essentially happens for a reason, and that there is some higher purpose for why it happened

What occurs with polarization? How does polarization happen?

-that is the way that our attitudes about a thing could get stronger or weaker by having us think more about that thing; our attitudes can become more extreme towards a thing -the way this works is that, when we think more about that thing, we may start to think of new ideas or insights that we didn't previously consider when we had made our original attitude toward it, and so these new ideas and insights can influence our attitudes to change to become stronger or weaker

Define coping.

-that refers to the ways that people try to deal with misfortunes that occur so that they can get back to a more normal level of functioning

It has been found that those who _____ are better able to cope than those who don't.

-those who are able to provide or create an explanation for the misfortune that they have endured are more effective in coping than those who could not develop an explanation for why it occurred

Is the idea of dual attitudes credible? Why or why not?

-there are some mixed feelings on the topic -there are some psychologists that feel that we don't actually have two separate types of attitudes, and instead there only appears to be due to the way that psychs tend to go about testing them -but a lot of psychologists do believe that we have dual attitudes, because there do seem to be many instances in which it appears that sometimes our conscious attitudes that we have towards something say one thing, but then our more automatic reactions to the same thing reveal a different kind of attitude

Assess the accuracy of this statement: it has been found that attitudes serve hardly any use to humans.

-this is not true! -instead, it has actually been found that attitudes greatly help us more quickly and easily make decisions, and attitudes also help us be able to make better decisions as well -so, they are quite practical and useful to us!

Assess the accuracy of this statement: the process of attitude polarization is typically logical.

-this is not true! -that is because, typically those who hold initial strong attitudes towards a certain thing are going to not be logical in the way that they think about the thing, but instead they are going to be very biased -so they are going to more uncritically believe information that confirms their already established attitudes, but they are going to be much more critical of information they receive that goes against this belief -therefore, the person is going to end up holding a more polarized and extreme attitude whereby they more strongly hold their initial attitude

Assess the accuracy of this statement: it has been found that self-blame is always the best way to cope with a misfortune that occurs.

-this is not true! -while it has been found that self-blame for the event actually can be an effective means of coping, it really depends on the way that they are going about self-blaming -because it is going to be effective if the self-blame says that the misfortune occurred to them because their actions were bad, as compared to if their self-blame says that the reason the misfortune occurred is because they themselves are a bad person

What is meant by assumptive worlds? Why is this concept significant?

-this is the idea that there are three different types of assumptions that a person could make about the world -and these three assumptions are... 1. that the world is benevolent, people are nice, and you can usually count on good things happening most of the time 2. the world is fair and just, so you get what you deserve, and how you treat others is what is returned to you 3. I am a good person, and therefore deserve good things to happen to me -**assumptive worlds are significant because they are all types of beliefs that help people be able ot live happy and healthy lives, but these beliefs are also easily disrupted when a person becomes a victim of a crime because now your beliefs have been violated -**and this is related to the relationship between our beliefs and coping because, if our assumption is violated, then we need to find a good way to be able to cope, and this often means that we attempt to find a way to maintain our original belief/assumption about the world while still finding a way to explain why the crime occurred

Describe what selective exposure is. Why does it matter?

-this is the way in which people purposely try to seek out media and information that confirms what they already believe -**significant because this is one way that people try to avoid feeling dissonance -that's because, by purposely only listening to media that supports their beliefs, they don't run the risk of hearing conflicting attitudes, which can lead them to start changing their own attitudes, so that they become inconsistent with their behaviors, thereby leading to dissonance

What is belief perseverance? Why does it matter?

-this is the way in which, once we form a belief about something, it is often very hard to change it, even when the information that we used to found the belief is discredited -it matters because this can sometimes interfere with our abilities to actually be able to accurately understand the thing, because we are only considering our perspective of it, rather than taking in other possible perspectives and information about it

How can a person be abel to maintain optimism in the face of loss?

-this primarily refers to gamblers... -but it has been found that they are able to maintain optimistic beliefs about their chances because they use little tricks to try to convince themselves that a lot of the losses that they sustained were actually "near wins" so they don't count the losses against themselves -because it helps them to feel better if they only lost by a little bit, because then they can convince themselves that they ultimately should have won, thereby maintaining their optimism that they can still succeed and win in the future rather than just discounting themselves and throwing in the towel because they think they'll never win and all they do is lose

What is a filter bubble? Why are they significant?

-this refers to an algorithm that certain internet sites implement in order to try to predict what type of information people coming to the site would like to see, based on information like the types of websites that they typically visit, etc. -**significant, because this is considered one form of selective exposure, but it is especially important because it is kind of like a forced form of selective exposure because the internet users don't really have a choice in the fact that they are being exposed to information that already coincides with their attitudes and beliefs

What is meant by the phrase dual attitudes? Explain what this means, and why it is significant.

-this refers to how we have two different attitudinal evaluations of the same object, whereby one of our evaluations of it is an automatic attitude and the other is a deliberate attitude -the automatic attitude refers to our gut-level response to whether we like something or not, and it is our really quick evaluation and determination of whether we like the thing or not without thinking much about it -and the deliberate attitude refers to our reflective evaluation of whether we like the thing or not, whereby we actually think more carefully about the thing to decide -**significant because this involves the operations of the duplex mind, because the automatic system supplies us with our automatic attitudes, whereas the deliberate system supplies us with our deliberate attitudes -**and it's also significant because there are times when our automatic and deliberate attitudes might be inconsistent from each other

Explain what is meant by the A-B problem.

-this refers to when we experience a problem where we face an inconsistency between our attitudes (A) and our behaviors (B)

What has been found to actually be an effective means of coping? Why might this be effective?

-to blame oneself for the misfortune that they have endured -that is because, through this method, it can actually kind of provide the person with a greater sense of control over the misfortune that occurred, which helps them be able to cope -because it helps them feel like they can avoid the misfortune from happening again if they avoid the behavior they attribute to having caused it this time

Under what conditions would you need to present information to someone to get them to understand it? What about if you wanted to get them to believe it?

-to understand it, you would want to present the information to the audience when they are well rested and alert -but if you want them to actually believe everything that you are saying, then it is going to be best to present the information to them when they are not at full mental power

How do our social groups influence our attitudes? What are the pros and cons of this influence?

-we tend to hold similar opinions and attitudes about things that the people within our group also hold -and our groups also influence our attitudes in that we tend to be biased to be more accepting of information that people within our group present us with about something, as compared to information that we receive from people not in our group -**this is good because it can make it easier for the people in the group to get along and work together if they have similar ideas and thoughts -**but it can also be bad because it could lead to poor decision making in the group, depending on what those attitudes they share are

When is attitude polarization most likely to occur?

-when the person already has a strong initial attitude towards the thing -or if the person doesn't want to admit that they were wrong in their initial attitude

More generally, how do people go about restoring consistency?

-when they have inconsistency between their attitudes and behaviors, they try to find the easiest way to do it -so they opt for trying to change their attitudes because it is easier to change their attitudes than it is to change their behaviors

How can one go about decreasing the effects of belief perseverance? How effective is this?

-you have to try to explain the opposite stance/belief of the thing that you have a belief about, so that you are basically considering the other side's perspective about this thing (play devil's advocate) -this has been found to be quite effective because it actually helps to provide the person with a much more accurate understanding of the topic/thing by considering both sides of it, rather than only sticking to their own biased beliefs and discrediting any information that goes against it

What are the counterarguments that have been proposed that seek to argue against Wicker's proposal that attitudes are trivial and have no influence or predictive value on our behaviors?

1. attitude accessibility 2. behavior aggregation 3. behavioral intentions 4. broad attitudes within context 5. general attitudes and specific behaviors argument

What is the purpose for having attitudes towards different things?

1. by having attitudes, this can allow us to be better able to make choices more easily because we are just kind of bombarded with such a vast array of different options that having attitudes (preferences) towards them helps the process be easier 2. they can help us be able to adjust to novel situations because they can help us find things in our environments that we like so that we gravitate towards those, whereas we avoid the things we don't like 3. they can influence our behaviors and whether we choose to take a risk or not 4. they help us be able to more easily navigate our complex worlds

What are the theories that have been proposed that seek to explain how people maintain consistency?

1. cognitive dissonance theory 2. effort justification 3. choice justification

What are the different ways that the belief that everything has some higher purpose can take on?

1. it could manifest as religious beliefs, in which a person believes that misfortunes they are experiencing are all kind of part of their deity's plan for them 2. it could manifest as them turning the misfortune they experienced into a good deed so as to help others who are facing a similar misfortune

In what ways is classical conditioning seen in our daily lives?

1. it is thought that classical conditioning could be one reason that people tend to develop prejudices against social groups that frequently get associated with negative information in the media, because the US is the group, the CS is the negative media, and the CR is our negative attitude we develop towards them 2. advertisers use classical conditioning a lot to get people to like their products more, because they associate their products (US) with a well-liked celebrity (CS) so that we develop a CR of a more positive attitude toward their products

What are the different theories proposed for explaining how we come to form attitudes?

1. mere exposure effect 2. classical conditioning explanations 3. embodied attitudes 4. operant conditioning explanations 5. social learning explanations

What characteristics are shared by all consistency theories?

1. they all specify the conditions that need to exist in order for humans to have thoughts and feelings regarding consistency and inconsistency 2. they all believe in the assumption that inconsistency is an unpleasant feeling for people and it motivates people to try to regain consistency 3. they all specify the conditions that need to exist in order for humans to regain consistency

Discuss the different ways that humans' attitudes differ from other animals' attitudes.

1. we express a much larger breadth of attitudes towards many more things 2. we feel a much greater degree of pressure to remain consistent between our attitudes and behaviors 3. we try to rationalize our beliefs and behaviors so as to help ourselves feel less dissonance 4. we can use deliberate thought to think about something, which can lead us to become more polarized in our opinion towards it 5. we are able to make true and false evaluations of things to determine whether we should believe or disbelieve something 6. we rely on our beliefs to help us better understand the world and to help us cope

True or false: cognitive coping can only be effective if the person's beliefs that they have control over what happens to them in life are true.

False! Cognitive coping can still be effective so long as the person just believes that they have some degree of control over what happens to them in life, even though it might not necessarily be completely true. That is because it still provides a source of comfort to them, which helps them be better able to deal with the misfortune that occurred.

True or false: consistency is a major concern for nearly all animals.

False! For the most part, the motivation to maintain consistency, and the tension felt when inconsistency between their attitudes and behaviors occurs, is primarily a human thing.

True or false: it has been found that all forms of harm have an equal impact on people.

False! Instead, it has been found that psychological harm actually tends to have the most lasting effect on us, compared to physical or pragmatic harm that might result as well.

True or false: psychologists believe that our attitudes are often strong predictors of our behaviors.

False! Instead, there is actually a bit of evidence that has shown that sometimes the way that we actually act towards something is very inconsistent with the attitudes that we express towards it. However, there have been some social psychs that have tried to show that there is a link between our attitudes and our behaviors. Such arguments include how asking people about specific attitudes can help predict specific behaviors; that it is necessary to measure multiple different behaviors to get a sense of predictive value of attitudes instead of just a single behavior; that attitudes influence our behaviors so long as they influence how we think about certain behaviors; considering the person's intentions to do a behavior; and the accessibility of attitudes.

True or false: all of our attitudes are strictly deliberate.

False! It is believed that we have both deliberate attitudes where we come to conclusions about whether we like something or not after thinking more deeply about it, but we also have automatic attitudes where we kind of have a gut reaction to it and quickly evaluate it as something good/bad, liked/disliked. And we can easily consciously override our automatic attitudes towards things by thinking more about them, but if we don't engage in this thinking, then the automatic attitude is the one that sticks for us.

True or false: without fail, the more we are exposed to a stimulus, the more we are going to like it.

False! It is true that the mere exposure effect leads us to develop a greater preference towards stimuli that we are repeatedly exposed to. However, this is only true if we were neutral to it to begin with. That is because it has been found that the mere exposure effect doesn't work if you initially disliked the stimulus, because further exposure ends up leaving you disliking it even more.

True or false: social learning says that people learn how to behave by always imitating what others do.

False! While it is true that social learning believes that sometimes this is how people learn to behave, it also emphasizes how we don't just blindly imitate people's actions. Instead, we observe what they are doing, see if they get rewarded or punished for their behaviors, and then we choose whether we want to engage in the same behavior or not, based on the outcomes we see occurring to the other person.

True or false: all animals have attitudes.

This is true in a sense! It is true that most animals do have attitudes, but these attitudes are typically quite simple and limited in number, and primarily more about straightforward things like what foods they like to eat or not, where they like to sleep or not, etc. But with human animals, we tend to have such a greater expanse of different attitudes towards many things because our social lives are so complex that we require a lot of different attitudes to be able to choose from all of the options available to us.

Why do social psychologists care so much about studying attitudes?

because attitudes can be used to help predict people's behaviors