Attitude
Ego involvement (personal involvement)
- commitment - issue involvement - response involvement - Personality and persuasibility - Mood and persuasion
commitment
feel/believe very strongly about sth>> if someone persuade sth against your belief>> more resistance to the persuasion
Strong vs weak arguments
strong arguments based on facts, objective; weak argument is subjective, target can argue back
personality and persuasibility
strong personality>> more resistance against persuasion vice versa
Forewarning
Informing people in advance that someone will try to change their attitudes (target has more time to find excuses/counter-argument)>> less effective to persuade
ABC consistently +ve
+ve attitude
Factors influencing attitude-behavior consistency
- situational pressures - relevance of attitudes to behaviour and salience of attitude -attitude strength (stability of attitude, accessibility of attitude, automatic activation of attitudes)
Distraction
-The process of drawing attention away from a persuasive message -Disabled central route of persuasion>> peripheral route becomes more effective
Communicator's characteristics (peripheral cue) to make the persuasion effective/lead to derogation (negative effect)
-credibility -expertise -trustworthiness -liking -reference groups
Communication /messages characteristics (communicator need to take note to achieve effective persuasion)
-discrepancy (quality of content) -strong vs weak arguments (quality of content) -repetition (quality of content) -message characteristics as peripheral cues (quantity of content) -matching message with attitude -distorting the message -blanket rejection
What can a target do to be more resistance against the message?
-distorting the message -blanket rejection
Situation characteristics
-forewarning -distraction -inoculation
3 attitude dimensions
1. affective (feel) 2. behavioural (act) 3. cognitive (think)
2 theories under cognitive consistency
1. balance theory 2. cognitive dissonance theory
Persuasion process involves
1. communicator 2. actual communication 3. target
Factors affecting cognitive dissonance
1. counter-attitudinal behaviour/attitude discrepant behaviour 2. insufficient justification 3. threats 4. choice 5. irrevocable commitment 6. foreseeable consequences 7. responsibility for consequences 8. effort
elaboration-likelihood model
2 ways to persuade people: - central route of persuasion (mind, logic) - peripheral route of persuasion (heart, emotion)
How attitude develops?
By learning: 1. classical conditioning 2. operant conditioning 3. observational learning 4. cognitive learning
Inoculation "immunisation"
People become more resistance to a persuasive communication when they are exposed to weak counter-arguments first
Cognitive consistency approach to attitude change
assumption: all human beings have a need to maintain consistency between the ways we think, feel and behave (ABC)
High cognitive dissonance
attitude change
relevance of attitudes to behaviour and salience of attitude
attitude must be very specific to behaviour/ relevant to behaviour for developing consistent attitude and behaviour
inconsistency between ABC
attitude will change
situational pressures PRESENT
attitudes and behaviour may not consistent
Have different attitude towards an object with someone you don't like
balance and consistency
Have the same attitude towards an object with someone you like
balance and consistency
automatic activation of attitude
become natural reaction, unconsciously, almost effortless
irrevocable commitment
behaviour irreversible >> high cognitive dissonance>> change attitude to fit behaviour eg. arranged marriage
reducing psychological tension/discomfort
by changing attitude
Affective
consists of the person's emotions and affect toward the object, especially positive/negative evaluations
Cognitive
consists of the thoughts the person has about that particular object (facts, knowledge, beliefs)
Distorting the message
choose to pick up certain message eg. smoking MAY cause lung cancer
Discrepancy
communicator tells you things against the his own interest>> give good impression of honesty>> effective persuasion
Behavioural
consists of how the person tends to act regarding the object
Matching message with attitude
construct the message in the way of matching the target's pre-existing attitude>> effective persuasion
response involvement
contrast with issue involvement may not interested in certain issue>> when you give a response>>become defensive on your response >>stand firm and insist your response as correct response because you don't want to lose face
After choosing between 2 equally attractive option, you are not satisfied with your choice
convince yourself that your choice is better than another to reduce the cognitive dissonance
Persistence of attitude change (sleeper effect)
delayed attitude change that are not apparrent immediately after exposure to a message
strong attitude (stability, accessibility, automatic activation)
enhance attitude-behavior consistency
Attitude
evaluative response (think, feel, act) towards an attitude object (person, place, thing, event) in +ve/-ve terms
accessibility of attitude
feels very strongly about the attitude object attitude object until it represents the primary core of your life, knows about the attitude object very well and has immediate access to the info related to the attitude object
Balance theory
focusing on 3 elements: P- person /you O-another person X-attitude object
stability of attitude
has strong attitudes, difficult to change their mind
Target characteristics of persuasion
human are emotional first, thinking 2nd (use peripheral route to increase effectiveness of persuasion) - aggression arousal - fear arousal
insufficient justification
if cannot justify the counter-attitudinal behaviour>>cognitive dissonance high>> attitude change ($1 boring experiment)
threats
if someone threaten you to do sth opposite with your attitude>> low cognitive dissonance >> no attitude change
Have different attitude towards an object with someone you like
imbalance and inconsistent
Have the same attitude towards an object with someone you don't like
imbalance and inconsistent
behaviour is relevant/salient (highlighted specifically) towards the attitude
increase attitude-behavior consistency
classical conditioning
learning through association +ve experience >> +ve attitude
observational learning
learning through imitation (role model) - vicarious (indirect) reinforcement: the role model expressed certain attitudes>> role model is reinforced for his attitude>> you learn that attitude
operant conditioning
learning through reinforcement and punishment
efforts
link with forseenable consequences. more effort you put into counter-attitudinal behaviour (eg. friend stop you from drunk driving, you refuse to listen and force him go home with you, accident happen, friend died) >> more responsible felt for the negative outcome>> high cognitive dissonance
Message characteristics as peripheral cues
look at quantity, longer message give better impression
counter-attitudinal behaviour/attitude discrepant behaviour
most basic factor, must exist to cause cognitive dissonance
attitude polarization
negative attitude >> more negative positive attitude>> more positive
Low cognitive dissonance
no attitude change
If one option is obviously/clearly better than another
no cognitive dissonance
Blanket rejection
only focus on one side (pro/cons), reject everything from the other side (pro/cons)
issue involvement
overlap with commitment, more concerns to certain issue>> less likely to be persuaded
responsibility for consequences
overrides foreseeable consequences (no matter you can/cannot predict the foreseeable consequences), if you felt responsible>> cognitive dissonance high
when imbalance occurs
people change attitude towards object to restore balance
peripheral route of persuasion
persuade people through the way they feel
central route of persuasion
persuade people through the way they think, tell logical argument based on objective facts *content is important
Cognitive dissonance
psychological tension/discomfort which resulting from differences of your behaviour with your thoughts and feeling
Repetition
repeat over and over>> hope that people are persuaded
mood and persuasion
target in good mood, effective to persuade sth positive target in bad mood, effective to persuade sth negative
situational pressures
the situation constraints your behaviour>> inconsistent of attitude & behaviour eg. future mother in law says harsh words to you>> you have -ve attitude towards her>>but you force a smile and respect her because you want to maintain good relationship
transfer of affect
transferring affect from 1 object to another that is associated with it eg. celebrity endorsement
cognitive learning
understand >> behavioral outcomes eg. able to apply nursing knowledge/skill
relevance of attitudes to behaviour and salience of attitude PRESENT
wants to develop -ve attitude towards process meat >>encourage behaviour of stop eating process meat instead of promote healthy eating
NO relevance of attitudes to behaviour and salience of attitude
wants to promote +ve attitude towards recycling>> promotes behaviour of environmental friendly
Spontaneous attitude change (attitude polarization)
when you have certain attitude towards a attitude object>> go into a group which having the same attitude with you >> discuss the issue>> have more positive/negative attitude towards the attitude object
choice
you freely choose to do sth opposite with your attitude >>cognitive dissonance high>> attitude change
foreseeable consequences
you know the consequences of your counter-attitudinal behaviour >> high cognitive dissonance>>