Attitudes and Persuasion

Factors that aid persuasion

- Attractiveness of the communicator - How relatable the communicator is - How much of an expert the communicator is - The music that plays - The colours portrayed

What affects attitude-behaviour relationship under the theory of planned behavior?

(a) the attitude toward the behaviour (the stronger the better), (b) subjective norms (the support of those we value) (c) perceived behavioral control (the extent to which we believe we can actually perform the behavior).

What is attitude ambivalence?

- Ambivalence of an attitude refers to the ratio of positive and negative evaluations that make up that attitude. The ambivalence of an attitude increases as the positive and negative evaluations get more and more equal.

Example of the bait and switch technique

- An example is a car dealership that advertises a low-priced car in a newspaper ad but doesn't have that car available when you visit the dealership to purchase it. Again, people are more likely to buy an alternative higher-priced product after they have committed themselves to the purchase than they would have been without the original information. Once you imagine yourself owning the car, your attitude toward the car becomes more positive, making the idea of giving it up more costly and also making it more likely that you will buy it.

What is inoculation in social psychology?

- Attitude inoculation is a technique used to make people immune to attempts to change their attitude by first exposing them to small arguments against their position

The three dimensions of an attitude

- Attitude strength - Attitude accessibility - Attitude Ambivalence

What is an attitude?

- Attitudes are evaluations people make about objects, ideas, events, or other people.

Potential paths to persuasion

- Commitment and Consistency = We are more likely to honor a commitment if we commit to it orally, in writing, or in public. - Reciprocity = We feel obligated to return a favor. - Social Proof = We tend to follow what others are doing. - Authority = We tend to obey authority figures. - Liking = We are more easily persuaded by people that we like. - Scarcity = Opportunities are more valuable to us when they are less available

What are the two types of attitudes?

- Explicit attitudes - Implicit attitudes

What are explicit attitudes?

- Explicit attitudes are conscious beliefs that can guide decisions and behavior.

Utilising fear in ads

- Fear messages are more effective when people feel that they know how to rectify the problem, have the ability to actually do so, and take responsibility for the change.

The principle of attitude constancy

- For any given attitude object, the ABCs of affect, behavior, and cognition are normally in line with each other

An example of insufficient justification

- For example, in an experiment by Festinger and Carlsmith participants performed a really boring task. Afterwards they were asked to be dishonest to the next participant by lying about how fun and entertaining the task was. One group of participants was given $1 for lying while another group was given $20 to lie. They found that the $1 group rated the task as being a lot more fun than the $20 group. The insufficient justification effect occurred. Both groups needed a justification for being dishonest: the $20 group had an external justification (getting $20) while the $1 group didn't so they developed an internal justification (that the task was more fun than it actually was).

Where do attitudes come from?

- Heriditary - Social factors = Social roles, social norms - Experience - Learning = CC, OC

What are high and low self monitors?

- High self-monitors are those who tend to attempt to blend into the social situation in order to be liked - low self-monitors are those who are less likely to do so.

What is an example of the sleeper effect?

- I was going to the races and a work friend (who knows little about horses) wrote down the name of three horses of which he had heard. When I pulled out the piece of paper I had forgotten who wrote it, but noticed that one of the horses had won. I consequently bet on all of the other horses. I did not win.

What happens when the message is too complex?

- If the message is too complex to understand, we may rely on spontaneous cues, such as the perceived trustworthiness or expertise of the communicator and ignore the content of the message.

Self worth and Dissonance

- If we can affirm our self-worth, even on dimensions that are not related to the source of the original dissonance, the negative feelings we experience are reduced and so is the tendency to justify our attitudes

What are implicit attitudes?

- Implicit attitudes are unconscious beliefs that can still influence decisions and behavior.

Example of the pre giving technique

- In this case, a charitable organization might mail you a small, unsolicited gift, followed by a request for a monetary donation. Having received the gift, many people feel a sense of obligation to support the organization in return, which is, of course, what they are counting on!

Components of thoughtful processing

- Message strength - Source expertise - Personal relevance to the listener/viewer

What is the bait and switch technique?

- Offer them something that appears to be very good value. This should be a real bargain, an offer they can't possibly refuse, even if they were not thinking about it.

Examples of the ABCS in a person's attitude

- Perspective of an environmentalist who recycles • In terms of affect: They feel happy when they recycle. • In terms of behavior: They regularly recycle their bottles and cans. • In terms of cognition: They believe recycling is the responsible thing to do.

What is self-perception?

- Self-perception occurs when we use our own behavior as a guide to help us determine our own thoughts and feelings

What is the sleeper effect?

- Sleeper effect is the increase of the impact that a persuasive message has on a person over time. In other words: the more time passes after a person has been exposed to a persuasive message, the more their attitude will be influenced by it.

The two types of message processing

- Spontaneous message processing - Thoughtfully message processing

What is attitude strength?

- Strong attitudes are those that are firmly held and that highly influence behavior. Attitudes that are important to a person tend to be strong. Attitudes that people have a vested interest in also tend to be strong. Furthermore, people tend to have stronger attitudes about things, events, ideas, or people they have considerable knowledge and information about.

What is the low-ball technique?

- The Low-Ball Technique is a technique used in sales and other styles of persuasion to offer products or services at a bargain price in order to first attract a buyer, but then adds on additional expenses to make the purchase less of a bargain than originally thought.

What is attitude accessibility?

- The accessibility of an attitude refers to the ease with which it comes to mind. In general, highly accessible attitudes tend to be stronger.

An example of spontaneous message processing

- The clever and funny TV ads that are broadcast during the Super Bowl every year are likely to be effective because we watch them, remember them, and talk about them with others. In this case, the positive affect makes the ads more salient, causing them to grab our attention

What is post-decisional dissonance?

- The feeling of regret that may occur after we make an important decision

What is insufficient justification?

- The insufficient justification effect is when a person finds an internal cause for an explanation to a behavior because there isn't an external cause.

What is the foot-in-the-door phenomenon?

- The phenomenon is the tendency for people to comply with some large request after first agreeing to a small request.

What is persuasion?

- The process by which a message induces change in beliefs, attitudes and behaviours.

What is psychological Reactance?

- The strong emotional response that we experience when we feel that our freedom of choice is being taken away when we expect that we should have choice is known as psychological reactance.

What is cognitive dissonance?

- The term cognitive dissonance is used to describe the feelings of discomfort that result from holding two conflicting beliefs.

An example of overjustification?

- There were some very cool studies many years back in which children were given opportunities to play with some toys. They really enjoyed playing with these toys -- it was fun for them. Then the researchers gave the children rewards for playing with the toys. What happened was the kids no longer enjoyed playing with the toys. It became less about fun and more about "work". Still think that people do their best work if they get paid well for it?

What is subliminal advertising? How effective is it.

- When a message, such as an advertisement or another image of a brand, is presented to the consumer without the person being aware that a message has been presented, for instance by flashing messages quickly in a TV show, an advertisement, or a movie. - Less effective when there are more salient features and will generally be weak.

Persuasion techniques

- foot in the door phenomenon - bait and switch technique - low ball technique - pre giving technique

What is overjustification?

- getting a reward for doing something that was intrinsically rewarding (it was fun to do all on its own) is now seen as totally different because they were getting rewarded for it.

What is forewarning?

-Giving people a chance to develop a resistance to persuasion by reminding them that they might someday receive a persuasive message and allowing them to practice how they will respond to influence attempts.

What is spontaneous message processing (peripheral route to persuasion)?

- we focus on whatever is most obvious or enjoyable, without much attention to the message itself. - Emotional aspects (affect) makes the ads more salient.

What is thoughtful message processing (central route to persuasion?

- when we think about how the message relates to our own beliefs and goals, and involves our careful consideration of whether the persuasion attempt is valid or invalid

Age and Persuasion

Life Cycle Explanation: Attitudes change as people grow older Generational Explanation: A generational gap develops

Primacy Vs. Recency

Primacy: Information presented first usually have the most influence Recency: Information presented last sometimes have the most influence

Ideal conditions for attitudes to affect behavior

• When the attitude and the behavior both occur in similar social situations • When the same components of the attitude (either affect or cognition) are accessible when the attitude is assessed and when the behavior is performed • When the attitudes are measured at a specific, rather than a general, level • For low self-monitors (rather than for high self-monitors)