social psyh module 3
example of externa justification ("saying is believing" paradigm.)
"Hey, I would like you to come out strongly in favor of Castro and Cuban communism." What's more, suppose I hand you $5,000 for doing it. After counting the money, you gasp, put the $5,000 in your pocket, return to the discussion, and defend Castro to the hilt. The next morning when you wake up, would you ex- perience any dissonance? I don't think so. Your cognition "I said some things about Castro and Cuban communism that I don't believe" is dissonant with the cognition "I am a truthful and decent person." But, at the same time, you have adequate external justification for having made that statement: "I said those favorable things about Cuban com- munism to earn $5,000—and it was worth it." You don't have to soften your attitude toward Castro to justify that statement because you know why you made those statements: You made them not be- cause you think they are true but to get the $5,000. You're left with the knowledge you sold your soul for $5,000—and it was worth it.
There are a number of person variables that affect how a message is received. Two of the most important variables are _________________________
"need for cognition" and "self-monitoring."
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language defines propaganda as
"the systematic propagation of a given doc- trine"
Research by Matthew McGlone28 reveals our susceptibility to such tactics. He found that college students were more persuaded by unfamiliar aphorisms that rhyme _____________than the same ideas presented in nonrhyming form ("woes unite enemies"). The peripheral route to persuasion can be surprisingly subtle—yet surprisingly effective.
("woes unite foes")
There are several ways in which communications can differ from one another. I have selected five ways I consider to be among the most important:
(1) Is a communication more persuasive if it is designed to appeal to the audience's reasoning ability, or is it more persuasive if it is aimed at arousing the audience's emotions? (2) Are people more swayed by a communication if it is tied to a vivid personal experience or if it is bolstered by a great deal of clear and unimpeachable statistical evidence? (3) Should the communication present only one side of the argument, or should it also include an attempt to refute the opposing view? (4) If two sides are presented, as in a debate, does the order in which they are presented affect the relative impact of either side? (5) What is the relationship between the effectiveness of the communication and the discrepancy between the audience's original opinion and the opinion advocated by the communication?
Research conducted during this era (1960's-1970's) compared the attitudes and beliefs of heavy viewers (more than 4 hours a day) and light viewers (less than 2 hours a day). They found that heavy viewers
(1) expressed more racially prejudiced attitudes; (2) overestimated the number of people employed as physicians, lawyers, and athletes; (3) perceived women as having more limited abilities and interests than men; (4) held exaggerated views about the prevalence of violence.
Dissonance effects are greatest when
(1) people feel personally responsible for their actions, and (2) their actions have serious consequences. That is, the greater the consequence and the greater our responsibility for it, the greater the dissonance; the greater the dissonance, the greater our own attitude change.
What it does mean is that, by knowing some- thing about the way both inhibition and retention work, we can pre- dict the conditions under which either the primacy effect or the recency effect will prevail. The crucial variable is time; that is, the amount of time separating the events in the situation:
(1) the amount of time between the first communication and the second communication, and (2) the amount of time between the end of the second communication and the moment when the members of the audience must finally make up their minds.
Among the ingredients of persuasion explored by social psychologists are these four:
(1) the communicator, (2) the message, (3) how the message is communicated, and (4) the audience
What are the key factors that can increase the effectiveness of a communication or persuasive attempt? Basically, three classes of variables are important:
(1) the source of the communication (who says it), (2) the nature of the communication (how he or she says it), and (3) characteristics of the audience (to whom he or she says it).
There are at least four ways in which the members of an audience can reduce their discomfort:
(1) they can change their opinion; (2) they can induce the communicator to change his or her opinion; (3) they can seek support for their original opinion by finding other people who share their views, in spite of what the communicator says; or (4) they can derogate the communicator—convince themselves the communicator is stupid or immoral—and thereby invalidate that person's opinion.
Prior exposure, in the form of a watered- down attack on our beliefs, produces resistance to later persuasion because
(1) we become motivated to defend our beliefs, and (2) we gain some practice in defending these beliefs by being forced to examine why we hold them.
They found that a message from a high credible source was more likely to be accepted than a message from a low credible source. However, weeks later they found that the high credible source message decreased in acceptance over time and yet the low credible source message increased in acceptance over time _______________.
(the sleeper effect)
The typical household's television set is on for more than 7 hours a day, and the average American watches 30 hours of television a week—that's a little more than __________________ hours a year. The aver- age high-school graduate has spent much more time watching television than interacting with his or her parents or with teachers.71
1,500
if a modern Machiavelli were ad- vising a contemporary ruler, he might suggest the following strategies based on the theory and data on the consequences of decisions:
1. If you want people to form more positive attitudes toward an object, get them to commit themselves to own that object. 2. If you want people to soften their moral attitudes toward some misdeed, tempt them so that they perform that deed; con- versely, if you want people to harden their moral attitudes to- ward a misdeed, tempt them—but not enough to induce them to commit the deed.
one survey found that only ___ percent of sixth-graders believed television commercials told the truth all or most of the time; by the tenth grade, only 4 percent felt they were truthful even most of the time.
12
Roger Johnson5 recently analyzed the content of television news programs, including the broadcasts of major and local networks for a period of 6 months. In terms of the number of stories and the amount of time devoted to the stories, violence, conflict, and human suffering dominated the news, accounting for more than _____________ percent of the newscast.
53
He found the bias to be especially strong in the local news, which devoted nearly _____________ percent of the typical newscast to violent crime.
80
More than_________ percent of preschool children asked for toys or food they saw advertised on television, according to a survey of their mothers.12 In fact, almost two-thirds of the mothers reported hear- ing their children sing commercial jingles they learned from televi- sion, most by the age of three.
90
attitude
A belief and feeling that can predispose our response to something or someone.
sleeper effect
A delayed impact of a message that occurs when an initially discounted message becomes effective, such as we remember the message but forget the reason for discounting it.
Social psychologists offer two possible explanations for age differences:
A life cycle explanation generational explanation
role
A set of norms that defines how people in a given social position ought to behave.
lowball technique
A tactic for getting people to agree to something. People who agree to an initial request will often still comply when the requester ups the ante. People who receive only the costly request are less likely to comply with it.
Cialdini and his collaborators (1978) explored a variation of the foot-in-the-door phenomenon by experimenting with the lowball technique. For example,
After the customer agrees to buy a new car because of its bargain price and begins completing the sales forms, the salesperson removes the price advantage by charging for options or by checking with a boss who disallows the deal because "we'd be losing money." Folklore has it that more lowballed customers now stick with the higher-priced purchase than would have agreed to it at the outset
example of low ball
Airlines and hotels use the tactic by attracting inquiries with great deals available on only a few seats or rooms; then, when those aren't available, they hope the customer will agree to a higher-priced option. M arketing researchers and salespeople have found that the principle works even when we are aware of a profi t motive (Cialdini, 1988). A harmless initial commitment—returning a postcard for more information and a "free gift," agreeing to listen to an investment p ossibility— often moves us toward a larger commitment
example of foot in the door
Angela Lipsitz and others (1989) report that ending blood-drive reminder calls with, "We'll count on seeing you then, OK? [pause for response]" increased the show-up rate from 62 to 81 percent. • In Internet chat rooms, Paul Markey and his colleagues (2002) requested help ("I can't get my e-mail to work. Is there any way I can get you to send me an e-mail?"). Help increased—from 2 to 16 percent—by including a smaller prior request ("I am new to this whole computer thing. Is there any way you can tell me how to look at someone's profile?"). Nicolas Guéguen and Céline Jacob (2001) tripled the rate of French Internet users contributing to child land-mine victims organizations (from 1.6 to 4.9 percent) by fi rst inviting them to sign a petition against land mines.
Physical attractiveness
Arguments, especially emotional ones, are often more influential when they come from people we consider beautiful
example of insufficient deterrence effect
Aronson (the author of one of your texts) and Carlsmith (1963) demonstrated this effect when using five-year olds as subjects. The subjects were allowed to play with some interesting toys which they obviously had positive feelings toward. The supervising adult told the child in one condition that the adult would be leaving the room for a while and would be "annoyed" if the child played with the toys (the threat of "mild" punishment condition). In another group, the supervising adult told the child that the adult would be leaving the room for a while and would be "angry" if the child played with the toys and would "take the toys home" (the threat of "severe" punishment condition). None of the children played with the toys while the adult was out of the room. In which condition did the child's attitude toward the toys change from favorable to unfavorable? According to the insufficient deterrence principle, only in the "mild" punishment condition did the child have an insufficient deterrence to not play with the toys. Therefore, as predicted, in the mild punishment condition the child's attitude toward the toys changed from favorable to unfavorable. Presumably the child thought "I did not play with the fun toys and yet there was no good reason not to play with them." This created dissonance which was then resolved by the child thinking, "I did not play with the toys because the toys were not fun to play with."
example of vivid
As a reasonable and sensible person, you consult Consumer Reports and you learn that the car with the best repair record is the Volvo. Naturally, you decide to buy a Volvo. But suppose that, the night before you are to make the purchase, you attend a dinner party and announce your intention to one of your friends. He is incredulous: "You can't be serious," he says. "My cousin bought a Volvo last year and has had nothing but trouble ever since. First, the fuel injection system broke down; then the transmis- sion fell out; then strange noises started to come from the engine; fi- nally, oil started to drip from some unknown place. My poor cousin is literally afraid to drive the car for fear of what will happen next."
A life cycle explanation
Attitudes change (for example, become more conservative) as people grow older.
generational explanation:
Attitudes do not change; older people largely hold onto the attitudes they adopted when they were young. Because these attitudes are different from those being adopted by young people today, a generation gap develops
In one famous study, college men volunteered to spend time in a simulated prison constructed in Stanford's psychology department by Philip Zimbardo
By a fl ip of a coin, Zimbardo designated some students as guards. He gave them uniforms, billy clubs, and whistles and instructed them to enforce the rules. The other half, the prisoners, were locked in cells and made to wear humiliating hospital-gown-like outfi ts. After a jovial fi rst day of "playing" their roles, the guards and the prisoners, and even the experimenters, got caught up in the situation. The guards began to disparage the prisoners, and some devised cruel and degrading routines. The prisoners broke down, rebelled, or became apathetic. There developed, reported Zimbardo (1972), a "growing confusion between reality and illusion, between role-playing and self-identity. . . . This prison which we had created . . . was absorbing us as creatures of its own reality." Observing the emerging social pathology, Zimbardo was forced to call off the planned two-week simulation after only six days
_____________________ Company is one of the best at employing the research findings gathered by social psychologists and marketers. Their one big blunder was trying to market "New Coke" in the 1980's
Coca Cola
example of inoculation
During the presidential debates of the 2000 election, George W. Bush was given an inoculation strategy by his handlers to use on Al Gore. Bush employed a framing strategy of predicting early in the first debate that Gore would be using facts and figures that Bush framed as "fuzzy math." When Gore would cite a statistic, Bush would tell the audience that Gore was using the "fuzzy math" that Bush had predicted Gore would use. Even though Bush offered no facts to support his claims of fuzzy math, according to some pundits and audience members who fell for this gambit, Bush effectively neutralized Gore's advantage in experience and grasp of details by suggesting that Gore's figures were suspect and therefore invalid. He, in effect, inoculated audience members against Gore's arguments.
how much fear should you arouse? Should you evoke just a little fear, lest people become so frightened that they tune out your painful message?
Experiments show that, often, the more frightened and vulnerable people feel, the more they respond
specific instructions alone are not enough to produce action. _________________ is a necessary component for action in such situations.
Fear
Cognitive dissonance theory was proposed by________________ (1957)
Festinger
When we are conscious of our attitudes
For our attitudes to guide our actions, we must pause to consider them. Thus, when we are self-conscious, perhaps after looking in a mirror, or reminded of how we feel, we act truer to our convictions (Fazio, 1990). Likewise, attitudes formed through a signifi cant experience are more often remembered and acted upon
Jonathan Freedman (1965) introduced elementary school children to an enticing battery-controlled robot, instructing them not to play with it while he was out of the room.
Freedman used a severe threat with half the children and a mild threat with the others. Both were sufficient to deter the children. Several weeks later a different researcher, with no apparent relation to the earlier events, left each child to play in the same room with the same toys. Of the children who had been given the severe threat, three-fourths now freely played with the robot; of those given the mild deterrent, two-thirds still resisted playing with it. Apparently, the deterrent was strong enough to elicit the desired behavior yet mild enough to leave them with a sense of choice. Having earlier chosen consciously not to play with the toy, the mildly deterred children internalized their decisions. Moral action, especially when chosen rather than coerced, affects moral thinking
________________messages focus on the advantages of healthy behavior (for example, "If you wear sunscreen, you'll have attractive skin" rather than "If you don't wear sunscreen, you'll have unattractive skin"). Thus, a global climate change article that ends by describing future catastrophic consequences is less persuasive to many skeptics than one that concludes by discussing possible solutions (Feinberg & Willer, 2010).
Gain-framed
In 1793 Benjamin Franklin tested the idea that doing a favor engenders liking. As clerk of the Pennsylvania General Assembly, he was disturbed by opposition from another important legislator. So Franklin set out to win him over
I did not . . . aim at gaining his favour by paying any servile respect to him but, after some time, took this other method. Having heard that he had in his library a certain very scarce and curious book I wrote a note to him expressing my desire of perusing that book and requesting he would do me the favour of lending it to me for a few days. He sent it immediately and I return'd it in about a week, expressing strongly my sense of the favour. When we next met in the House he spoke to me (which he had never done before), and with great civility; and he ever after manifested a readiness to serve me on all occasions, so that we became great friends and our friendship continued to his death. (quoted by Rosenzweig, 1972, p. 769
example of operant conditioning
If you win a free Big Twenty Coke every now and then after twisting off the top of a plastic Coke bottle, you have been rewarded for buying the product. This should in turn make you more favorably disposed to buying more of the product in the future.
example of the effect of good feeling
Irving Janis and colleagues (1965; Dabbs & Janis, 1965) found that Yale students were more convinced by persuasive messages if they were allowed to enjoy peanuts and Pepsi while reading the messages. Similarly, Mark Galizio and Clyde Hendrick (1972) found that Kent State University students were more persuaded by folk-song lyrics accompanied by pleasant guitar music than they were by unaccompanied lyrics.
______________, on the other hand, tend to respond to more nuanced, fact-based arguments that appeal to reason rather than strong emotions.
Liberals
Low self-monitors
Lower social skills are more easily persuaded by fact oriented advertisements (e.g., an ad that emphasizes the reliability of a car). exhibit behavior that is fairly consistent with their internal attitudes
How can an honest person become corrupt? Conversely, how can we get a person to be more honest?
One way is through the dissonance that results from making a difficult decision.
Jerome Frank wrote a classic book called __________________ in the 1960's in which he contends that all schools of psychotherapy and counseling basically employ similar change agents that are designed to persuade patients to change attitudes
Persuasion and Healing
The two main dual process models are
Petty and Cacioppo's (1986) Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) Chaiken's (1987) Heuristic Systemic Model (HSM).
Attractiveness comes in several forms
Physical attractiveness Similarity
Another way in which evil acts influence attitudes is the paradoxical fact that we tend not only to hurt those we dislike but also to dislike those we hurt. for example
Several studies (Berscheid & others, 1968; Davis & Jones, 1960; Glass, 1964) found that harming an innocent victim— by uttering hurtful comments or delivering electric shocks—typically leads aggressors to disparage their victims, thus helping them justify their cruel behavior. This is especially so when we are coaxed into it, not coerced. When we agree to a deed voluntarily, we take more responsibility for it. The phenomenon appears in wartime. Prisoner-of-war camp guards would sometimes display good manners to captives in their first days on the job, but not for long. Soldiers ordered to kill may initially react with revulsion to the point of sickness over their act. But not for long (Waller, 2002). Before long, they will denigrate their enemies with nicknames. People tend to dehumanize their enemies and humanize their pets.
When external influences on our actions are minimal
Sometimes we adjust our attitude reports to please our listeners. This was vividly demonstrated when the U.S. House of Representatives once overwhelmingly passed a salary increase for itself in an off-the-record vote, and then moments later overwhelmingly defeated the same bill on a roll-call vote. At other times social pressure diverts our behavior from the dictates of our attitudes (leading good people sometimes to harm people they do not dislike). When external pressures do not blur the link between our attitudes and actions, we can see that link more clearly.
example of Reactance
Suppose that, as I walk down the street, I am gently asked to sign a petition. I don't know much about the issue, and as it is being explained to me, another person accosts us and begins to pressure me not to sign. Reactance theory predicts that, to counteract this pressure and reassert my freedom of choice, I would be more likely to sign. This scenario was actually staged by Madeline Heilman, and the results con- firmed her prediction that, under most circumstances, the more in- tense the attempts to prevent participants from signing the petition, the more likely they were to sign.
cognitive dissonance
Tension that arises when one is simultaneously aware of two inconsistent cognitions. For example, dissonance may occur when we realize that we have, with little justification, acted contrary to our attitudes or made a decision favoring one alternative despite reasons favoring another
example of classical conditioning
The "Things go better with Coke" advertisement is an example of classical conditioning. The idea is to pair the product with "happy" times. Even Polar Bears are happy sliding on the ice and snow when drinking a Coke
there is no simple relation between one-sided arguments and the effectiveness of the communication. It depends to some extent upon how well informed the audience is:
The more well informed the members of the audience are, the less likely they are to be persuaded by a one-sided argument and the more likely they are to be persuaded by an argument that brings out the important opposing arguments and then proceeds to refute them.
foot-in-the-door phenomenon
The tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request.
selective exposure
The tendency to seek information and media that agree with one's views and to avoid dissonant information.
Self-perception theory
The theory that when we are unsure of our attitudes, we infer them much as would someone observing us—by looking at our behavior and the circumstances under which it occurs.
why does the sleeper effect happen
They explained the results as being due the subject forgetting the credibility of the source over time and only remembering the strength of the message. The effect seems to work best if the message is strong and is received before the source's credibility is revealed.
Tory Higgins and his colleagues (Higgins & McCann, 1984; Higgins & Rholes, 1978) illustrated how saying becomes believing.
They had university students read a personality description of someone and then summarize it for someone else, who was believed either to like or to dislike that person. The students wrote a more positive description when the recipient liked the person. Having said positive things, they also then liked the person more themselves. Asked to recall what they had read, they remembered the description as more positive than it was. In short, people tend to adjust their messages to their listeners, and, having done so, to believe the altered message
tricomponent model.
This model suggests that attitudes are a constellation of cognition, affect, and behavior that has either a negative or a positive bias
people do frequently grow and learn from their mistakes. How?
Through a greater understanding of my own defensiveness and dissonance-reducing tendencies. Through the realization that performing stupid or immoral actions does not necessarily mean I am an irrevocably stupid or immoral person. Through the development of enough ego strength to tolerate errors in myself. Through increasing my ability to recognize the benefits of admitting my errors in terms of my own growth and learning, as well as my ability to form close, meaningful relationships with other people.
___________________Audiences Use Peripheral Cues
Uninvolved
our attitudes do influence our actions, especially when three conditions are met:
When external influences on our actions are minimal When the attitude is specific to the behavior When we are conscious of our attitudes
example of insufficient justification
Zimbardo's subjects were asked to eat a fried grasshopper by either a cold and arrogant person or by a friendly person. After eating the grasshoppers, which group do you think changed to favorable attitudes about fried grasshoppers as hors doeuvres? (Hint: which subjects had the least justification for eating the fried grasshoppers, the subjects asked by the cold arrogant person or the subjects asked by the friendly person?). You guessed it. The subjects who ate the grasshoppers when asked by the cold arrogant person had an insufficient reason to do so. Therefore, they were the ones who changed to more favorable grasshopper attitudes.
Presuming that attitudes guide behavior, social psychologists during the 1940s and 1950s studied factors that influence attitudes. Thus they were shocked when dozens of studies during the 1960s revealed that what people say they think and feel often has little to do with how they________________
act
It also matters who receives a message. Let's consider two audience characteristics: ______________________
age and thoughtfulness.
Attitudes
are beliefs and feelings that can influence our reactions
Over the last 50 to 60 years, it is likely that more research has been conducted and more has been written on the topic of _______________formation and change than on any other single topic in the social sciences."
attitude
The smaller the ex- ternal reward I give to induce you to recite the speech, the more likely it is that you will be forced to seek additional justification for delivering it by convincing yourself that the things you said were actually true. This would result in an actual change in __________________ rather than mere compliance.
attitude
An opinion that includes an evaluative and an emotional component is called an ___________________
attitude.
Compared with opinions, ____________________are extremely difficult to change.
attitudes
low self-monitors exhibit behavior that is somewhat consistent with their ________________
attitudes
We know that stars are seldom knowledgeable about the products they endorse. Besides, we know the intent is to persuade us; we don't just a ccidentally eavesdrop on Jennifer Lopez discussing clothes or fragrances. Such ads are based on another characteristic of an effective communicator:
attractiveness
Many streams of evidence confirm that attitudes follow ______________.
behavior
lying produces greater attitude change when the liar is undercompensated for lying, especially when the lie is likely to evoke a change in the audience's belief or_________________.
behavior
he idea of creating attitude questions that are specific to the behaviors predicted is a part of Fishbein and Ajzen's (1975) theory of reasoned action and is called the "__________________."
behavioral intention
Dissonance theory
best explains what happens when our actions openly contradict our well-defined attitudes. When, say, we hurt someone we like, we feel tension, which we might reduce by viewing the other as a jerk
Self-perception theory
best explains what happens when we are unsure of our attitudes: We infer them by observing ourselves. If we lend our new neighbors, whom we neither like nor dislike, a cup of sugar, our helpful behavior can lead us to infer that we like them.
At a sinister level, cults and political parties (e.g., the Chinese Communists during much of the latter half of the 20th Century) who employ "_____________" are not simply interested in outward conformity, but rather desire inward attitude changes.
brain washing
Many people assume that the most potent social indoctrination comes through ______________, a term coined to describe what happened to American prisoners of war (POWs) during the 1950s Korean War.
brainwashing
Hovland, Harvey, and Sherif: People will consider an extremely discrepant communication to be outside their latitude of acceptance—________________________
but only if the communicator is not highly credible.
The Two Routes to Persuasion
central arguments peripheral cues
Persuasion researchers Richard Petty and John Cacioppo and Alice Eagly and Shelly Chaiken (1993) report that persuasion is likely to occur via either a_________________
central or peripheral route.
As Petty notes, "When the message advocates or is expected to advocate something pleasant, positive mood has produced increased message processing over negative mood." This suggests that under specific situations, anticipation of pleasant moods may activate central process thinking. Negative moods, especially those associated with personally relevant messages, presumably activate problem-solving processes that motivates us to use ______________________.
central process thinking
Fortunately, most clients entering therapy are motivated to take the _________________—to think deeply about their problems under the therapist's guidance
central route
People with a high need for cognition enjoy thinking and are more likely to use the________________ of processing than those who are low in need for cognition (they prefer peripheral route processing).
central route
When people are motivated and able to think about an issue, they are likely to take the ___________— focusing on the arguments. If those arguments are strong and compelling, persuasion is likel
central route to persuasion
The theory states that when we hold an attitude that is incongruent with our behavior, we will experience __________________
cognitive dissonance.
_________________ have a greater psychological need to manage uncertainty and threat.
conservatives
they are far more moved by arguments that induce fear and cast issues in simple black and white terms.
conservatives
People who are able to think of ________________ are more likely to resist persuasive communications.
counterarguments
Research has found that, in producing resistance, inoculation is most effective when the belief under attack is a ______________________
cultural truism.
What Leventhal and his colleagues discovered is that people who had a reasonably good opinion of themselves (high self-esteem) were those who were most likely to be moved by high degrees of fear arousal. People with a low opinion of themselves were least likely to take immediate action when confronted with a communication arousing a great deal of fear—but (and here is the interesting part) after a ________________, they behaved very much like the participants with high self-esteem. That is, if immediate action was not required but action could be taken later, people with low self-esteem were more likely to take that action if they were exposed to a communication arousing a great deal of fear.
delay
If the victim is able and willing to retaliate at some future time, then a harm-doer feels that equity will be restored and thus has no need to justify the action by________________
derogating the victim
Cognitive dissonance theory,
developed by the late Leon Festinger (1957), proposes that we feel tension or a lack of harmony ("dissonance"), when two simultaneously accessible thoughts or beliefs ("cognitions") are psychologically inconsistent. Festinger argued that to reduce this unpleasant arousal, we often adjust our thinking. This simple idea, and some surprising predictions derived from it, have spawned more than 2,000 studies
National Opinion Research Center archives, James Davis (2004)
discovered, for example, that Americans reaching age 16 during the 1960s have, ever since, been more politically liberal than average. Much as tree rings can, years later, reveal the telltale marks laid down by a drought, so attitudes decades later may reveal the events, such as the Vietnam War and civil rights era of the 1960s, that shaped the adolescent and early twenties mind. For many people, these years are a critical period for the formation of attitudes and values.
Dissonance theory pertains mostly to ______________between behavior and attitudes. We are aware of both. Thus, if we sense some inconsistency, perhaps some hypocrisy, we feel pressure for change. That helps explain why British and U.S. cigarette smokers have been much less likely than nonsmokers to believe that smoking is dangerous (Eiser & others, 1979; Saad, 2002).
discrepancies
If there is insufficient justification for engaging in counterattitudinal behavior, it results in_______________
dissonance
In an ingenious experiment by Ellen Berscheid and her associates,57 college students volunteered for an experiment in which each of them delivered a painful electric shock to a fellow student; as expected, each participant derogated the victim as a result of having delivered the shock. But half the students were told there would be a turnabout— that is, the other students would be given the opportunity to shock them. Those who were led to believe their victims would be able to retaliate did not derogate them. In short, because the victims were able to retaliate, __________________was reduced.
dissonance
Persuasion is also enhanced by a _______________ that inhibits counterarguing (Festinger & Maccoby, 1964; Keating & Brock, 1974; Osterhouse & Brock, 1970). Political ads often use this technique. The words promote the candidate, and the visual images keep us occupied so we don't analyze the words. Distraction is especially effective when the message is simple
distraction
Individuals who feel inadequate are more _______________ influenced by a persuasive communication than individuals who think highly of themselves.
easily
Dissonance- reducing behavior is _______________; by reducing dissonance, we maintain a positive image of ourselves—an image that depicts us as good, or smart, or worthwhile. Again, although this ego-defensive behavior can be considered useful, it can have disastrous conse- quences.
ego-defensive behavior
The power of the media is perhaps best illustrated by a phenomenon known as ________________
emotional contagion.
Americans' voting preferences have been more predictable from _____________________ to the candidates than from their beliefs about the candidates' traits and likely behaviors (Abelson & others, 1982). What matters is not just candidates' positions (which candidate embodies your views) but their likeability (who you want to spend time with).
emotional reactions
Central route processing more often produces ____________attitude change.
enduring
the thoughtful central route to persuasion provides the most _________________ attitude and behavior change. Therapists should therefore aim not to elicit a client's superficial agreement with their expert judgment but to change the client's own thinking.
enduring
Indeed, it has been said by no less an expert than the director of the British Broadcasting Corporation that television news is a form of __________________
entertainment.
A few years later, four teenagers in New Jersey made a suicide pact and then carried out their plan. Within a week of this multiple suicide, two teenagers in the Midwest were found dead under similar circumstances. Media reports no doubt spotlighted the confusion and grief surrounding teenage suicide. But is it possible that the media's coverage of these tragedies actually inspired copycat suicides? According to sociologist David Phillips, the answer is a qualified "yes. The increases held, even when the researchers took other possible causes into account. Thus, the most likely explanation for the increase in teenage suicides following media publicity is that such publicity ac- tually triggers subsequent copycat suicides.
example of emotional contagion
Our opinions are influenced by individuals who are both _______________
expert and trustworthy.
For example, Sally might think that a person who talks fast is more competent than one who talks slow. This heuristic causes her to perceive the fast talking politician as having greater ________________ than his slow talking competitor.
expertise
Central route processing often swiftly changes _____________ attitudes.
explicit
Central route processing often swiftly changes _______________attitudes.
explicit
"Very nice, Joyce," Joe answers. Theoretically, Joe's cognition "I am a truthful person" is dissonant with the cognition "I said that painting was nice, although it really is disastrous." Whatever dissonance might be aroused by this inconsistency can easily and quickly be reduced by Joe's cognition that it is important not to hurt other people: "I lied so as not to hurt Joyce; why should I tell her it's an ugly painting? It serves no useful purpose." This is an effective way of reducing dissonance because it completely justifies Joe's action. In effect, the justification is situation-determined. I will call this _____________________
external justification.
If a credible person's message is persuasive, its impact may ___________________ as its source is forgotten or dissociated from the message
fade
Robert Zajonc has shown that, all other things being equal, the more ______________ an item is, the more attractive it is.
familiar
experiments suggest that if you want people to do a big favor for you, an effective strategy is to get them to do a small favor first. In the best-known demonstration of this _________________
foot-in-the-door phenomenon
This process of using small favors to encourage people to accede to larger requests has been dubbed the ________________
foot-in-the-door technique.
Jonathan Freedman and David Sears (1965) demonstrated the diffi culty of trying to persuade people under such circumstances. They warned one group of California high schoolers that they were going to hear a talk: "Why Teenagers Should Not Be Allowed to Drive." Those _________________did not budge in their opinions. Others, not forewarned, did budge
forewarned
The evidence mostly supports the generational explanation. In surveys and resurveys of groups of younger and older people over several years, the attitudes of older people usually show less change than do those of young people. As David Sears (1979, 1986) put it, researchers have "almost invariably found ________________ rather than life cycle effects."
generational
opinions are primarily cognitive; that is, they take place in the head rather than in the gut. They are also transient—they can be changed by________________
good, clear evidence to the contrary.
Evil sometimes results from __________________escalating commitments. A trifling evil act can whittle down one's moral sensitivity, making it easier to perform a worse act. To paraphrase La Rochefoucauld's 1665 book of Maxims, it is not as difficult to fi nd a person who has never succumbed to a given temptation as to find a person who has succumbed only once. After telling a "white lie" and thinking, "Well, that wasn't so bad," the person may go on to tell a bigger lie.
gradually
As Conway and Ross pointed out, one way for people to get what they want is to revise what they _________________.*
had
Credibility
has been defined as a combination of trustworthiness and expertise
Irving Janis and his associates
have discovered, people who have been allowed to eat desirable food while reading a persuasive communication are more influenced by what they read than are people in a control (noneating) group.
Brehm found that _________________participants said they were less hungry (or thirsty) than low-dissonance participants who were deprived of food (or water) for the same length of time. A
high- dissonance
High self-monitors
higher social skills are more easily persuaded by image oriented advertisements (e.g. an ad that emphasizes the sportiness of a car) xhibit behavior that is less consistent with their internal attitudes
Products associated with _______________were better liked, as measured by an implicit attitude test, and were more often chosen
humor
Retention is greatest, and recency effects will therefore prevail, when the audience must make up its mind _________________after hearing the second communication.
immediately
McGuire suggested that, if people receive prior exposure to a brief communication that they are then able to refute, they tend to be "______________________" against a subsequent full-blown presentation of the same argument, in much the same way that a small amount of an attenuated virus immunizes people against a full-blown attack by that virus.
immunized
Peripheral route processing more slowly builds _____________ attitudes, through repeated associations between an attitude object and an emotion
implicit
Peripheral route processing more slowly builds ______________ attitudes, through repeated associations between an attitude object and an emotion
implicit
Adolescent and early adult experiences are formative partly because they make deep and lasting________________
impressions
people who are in a good mood view the world through rose-colored glasses. But they also make faster, more _________________decisions; they rely more on peripheral cues
impulsive
example of emotional contagion.
in October 1982, when seven people in the Chicago area died after taking Extra Strength Tylenol capsules laced with cyanide, the tragedy was widely publicized by the national news media. The effects of this prominent coverage were immediate: Similar poisonings were reported in cities across the country, involving the contamination of mouthwash, eye drops, nasal spray, soda pop, and even hot dogs. Dramatically billed as "copycat poisonings," these poisonings, in turn, received widespread media attention. The public reaction took on all the properties of a spiral: Many people panicked, seeking med- ical aid for burns and poisonings when they suffered from no more than common rashes, sore throats, and stomachaches. False alarms outnumbered actual cases of product tampering by seven to one.8 Be- cause these events occurred just prior to Halloween, worried officials in scores of communities banned trick-or-treating, fearing that many individuals might mimic the murders by contaminating children's candy.
the impact of a noncredible person may correspondingly _________________ over time if people remember the message better than the reason for discounting it
increase
Behavior is a product of both the______________________
individual person and the situation
an attitude will influence our behavior if other _______________, perhaps because something brings it to mind. Under these conditions, we will stand up for what we believe.
influences are minimal, if the attitude specifically relates to the behavior, and if the attitude is potent
How can we help people to resist attempts to influence them? An elaborate method for inducing such resistance has been developed by William McGuire and his associates. This method has been appropriately dubbed the ____________________
inoculation effect.
McGuire (1964) proposed an "____________________" in which he stated that the influence of a strong persuasive message can be reduced by first giving a person a weakened version of the message
inoculation theory
The inverse of the insufficient justification effect is another cognitive dissonance effect called the ___________________
insufficient deterrence effect.
"I misled a bunch of people; I told them a lot of things about Cuba that I don't really believe" is dissonant with his cognition "I am a reason- able, decent, and truthful person." What does he do to reduce dissonance? He searches around for external justifications. First, it occurs to Joe that he might have been drunk and therefore not responsible for what he said. But he remembers he had only one or two beers— no external justification there. Because Joe cannot find sufficient external justification for his behavior, it is necessary for him to attempt to explain his behavior by using ____________________, changing his attitude in the direction of his statements. That is, if Joe can succeed in convincing himself that his statements were not so very far from the truth, then he will have reduced dissonance; that is, his behavior of the preceding night will no longer be absurd in his own view.
internal justification
The central route (Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) )
involves high effort thinking use if the message is personally relevant we think more carefully and analytically about the message. permanent attitude change
the peripheral route
involves low effort thinking (being a "cognitive miser") message will not be personally relevant result in temporary attitude changes
A cultural truism
is a belief accepted as unquestionably true by most members of a society, like "The United States is the most wonderful country in the world" or "If people are willing to work hard, they can succeed."
cognitive dissonance
is a state of tension that occurs whenever an individual simultaneously holds two cognitions (ideas, attitudes, beliefs, opinions) that are psychologically inconsistent. Stated differently, two cognitions are dissonant if, when considered alone, the opposite of one follows from the other.
Dissonance
is characterized as an unpleasant drive state that the person is motivated to reduce
peripheral route to persuasion
is less judicious; rather than relying on a careful process of weighing and considering the strength of arguments, the person responds to simple, often irrelevant cues that suggest the rightness, wrongness, or attractiveness of an argument without giving it much thought. F
What I am stating is that, if a person goes through a difficult or a painful experience in order to attain some goal or object, that goal or object becomes more attractive—a process called_____________________
justification of effort.
Unhappy people ruminate more before reacting, so they are _______________ easily swayed by weak arguments
less
When it comes to producing a lasting change in attitude, the greater the reward, the ______________ likely any attitude change will occur. I
less
On the other hand, an uninformed person is less apt to know of the existence of opposing arguments. If the counterargument is ignored, the _____ members of the audience are persuaded
less-informed
The Heuristic Systemic Model (HSM),
like the ELM, is a dual process model. Systematic processing in the HSM is equivalent to central route processing in the ELM. Heuristic processing in the HSM is similar to peripheral route processing in the ELM. Where it differs is in its emphasis on the use of heuristics and schemas to guide decision-making
Social psychologists have found that those who are high in physical attractiveness are generally perceived as more ______________. Therefore, the spokesperson for the product or service is usually high in physical attractiveness or is attractive in other ways. Similarity between the communicator and the recipient is also an important variable leading to likeability; in general, the greater the similarity, the greater the likeability. Dembroski et al. (1978) asked African American junior high students to watch a videotape asking them to use proper dental care. When the communicator was an African American, the children had more positive attitudes toward dental hygiene and later cleaner teeth than when the communicator was White.
likeable
Those who are _________________ in need for cognition are also more likely to be influenced by the trustworthiness of the communicator.
low
Namely, people with__________________have less need to derogate their victims- less dissonance.
low self-esteem
I have referred to dissonance-reducing behavior as "irrational." By this I mean it is often _______________ in that it can prevent people from learning important facts or from finding real solutions to their problems.
maladaptive
Interestingly enough, increasing self-awareness by placing ____________ in front of people tends to make these individuals behave in ways that are more consistent with their internal attitudes. If a child is able to take prohibited candy out of a bowl because the supervising adult has left the room, the child in a mirror condition is less likely to take the candy than a child in a no mirror condition. Presumably, most of these children have internalized images of themselves as honest (not willing to steal candy), and the mirror reminds them of these internalized images and attitudes ("it is bad to steal").
mirrors
it is generally believed that attitudes are learned through _________________________
modeling, classical conditioning, and operant conditioning
Actions and attitudes feed each other, sometimes to the point of ________________. The more one harms another and adjusts one's attitudes, the easier it becomes to do harm. Conscience is corroded
moral numbness
When the attitude is specific to the behavior
more specific attitudes toward jogging better predict whether they jog (Olson & Zanna, 1981), their attitudes toward recycling do predict whether they recycle (Oskamp, 1991), and their attitudes toward contraception predict their contraceptive use (Morrison, 1989).
Recent studies have found that the mere exposure effect works best on stimuli that we do not already have strong ______________ attitudes about. However, if we already have strong negative attitudes about the stimulus, repeated exposures will cause us to dislike the stimulus more.
negative
A communicator can be an unattractive, immoral person and still be effective, as long as it is clear that he or she has _________________ (and perhaps something to lose) by persuading us.
nothing to gain
example of peripheral route to persuasion
one's spontaneous decision, while shopping, to pick up some ice cream of a particular brand—is made unthinkingly (Dijksterhuis & others, 2005). Something as minor as German music may lead customers to buy German wine, whereas others, hearing French music, reach for French wine (North & others, 1997). Billboards and television commercials—media that consumers are able to take in for only brief amounts of time—therefore use the peripheral route, with visual images as peripheral cues. Instead of providing arguments in favor of smoking, cigarette ads associate the product with images of beauty and pleasure. So do soft-drink ads that promote "the real thing" with images of youth, vitality, and happy polar bears. On the other hand, magazine computer ads (which interested, logical consumers may pore over for some time) seldom feature Hollywood stars or great athletes. Instead, they offer customers information on competitive features and prices. T
The term __________________ is what a person believes to be factually true. Thus, it is my opinion that eating vegetables is good for me, that wearing seat belts reduces traffic fatalities, and that New York City is hot in the summer.
opinion
A communicator's trustworthiness (and effectiveness) can be increased if he or she does not seem to be trying to influence our ________________
opinion.
How can we reduce this discomfort? Simply by changing our _________________
opinions or actions.
In general, the more we trust the communicator, the more likely we are to be persuaded by the communicator's message if we are using the________________ channel of information processing.
peripheral
Uninterested audiences more often travel the ____________route; they are more affected by their liking of the communicator
peripheral
Expertise is more important in determining credibility when the message is complex. The greater the complexity of the message, the more likely we are to use __________________
peripheral processing
If a speaker is articulate and appealing, has apparently good motives, and has several arguments (or better, if the different arguments come from different sources), we usually take the easy _________________and accept the message without much thought
peripheral route
sometimes the strength of the arguments doesn't matter. Sometimes we're not motivated or able to think carefully. If we're distracted, uninvolved, or just plain busy, we may not take the time to refl ect on the message's content. Rather than analyzing whether the arguments are compelling, we might follow the _______________________ — focusing on cues that trigger automatic acceptance without much thinking
peripheral route to persuasion
considering arguments about how to remedy an ailing economy has to do with the central route; getting scared and angry by the image of Willie Horton has to do with the __________________
peripheral route.
When a communicator has high credibility, the greater the discrepancy between the view he or she advocates and the view of the audience, the more the audience will be ________________; on the other hand, when a communicator's credibility is not high, he or she will produce maximum opinion change with moderate discrepancy.
persuaded
Stimulating thinking makes strong messages more _________________ and (because of counterarguing) weak messages less persuasive
persuasive
Geoffrey Cohen and his colleagues found that people who have recently received self- esteem affirming feedback (such as learning they are well liked) are also more receptive to _____________________
persuasive arguments.
In a study of people who were wired up to fMRIs while they were try- ing to process dissonant or consonant information, Drew Westen and his colleagues77 found that the reasoning areas of the brain virtually shut down when a person is confronted with dissonant information (suggesting that people don't want to contemplate information at odds with their cherished beliefs). But when subjects began to reduce cognitive dissonance, the emotional centers of their brains lit up—the same regions that get activated during any __________________, like eating ice cream or acing an exam.
pleasurable experience
example of modeling
ports heroes, celebrity politicians and pop icons are often paid enormous sums of money to simply use the product in a 30 second television commercial. When they use the product, others buy the product. Modeling works
_______________behavior fosters liking for the person. Doing a favor for an experimenter or another participant, or tutoring a student, usually increases liking of the person helped
positive
Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM)
postulates that we process information through either the central route or the peripheral route.
A___________________ effect was obtained when there was a small interval between the first and second arguments and a large interval between the second argument and the verdict.
primacy
Inhibition (interference) is greatest if very little time elapses between the two communications; here, the first communication produces maximum interference with the learning of the second communication, and a ______________ will occur—the first speaker will have the advantage.
primacy effect
where trivial opinions and behaviors are concerned, if we like a person, we tend to be influenced even if it is clear that he or she is trying to influence us and stands to _____________ by doing so.
profit
Aspirin commercials are obvious attempts to sell something at a high price by intentionally misleading the audience. They can be considered _____________________
propaganda.
Well-educated or analytical people are responsive to _________________ appeals (Cacioppo & others, 1983, 1996; Hovland & others, 1949). Thoughtful, involved audiences often travel the central route; they are more responsive to reasoned arguments.
rational
A __________________ effect was obtained when there was a large interval between the first and second arguments and a small interval between the second argument and the verdict.
recency
from our knowledge of the phenomena of retention, on the other hand, it would appear that, all other things being equal, the last argument will be more effective; this is called the__________________
recency effect.
self-monitoring
refers to a tendency to seek out social cues concerning the impressions the individual is making on others and then adjusting behavior to create desired impressions
example of Similarity
salespeople are sometimes taught to "mimic and mirror": If the customer's arms or legs are crossed, cross yours; if she smiles, smile back Another example: Theodore Dembroski, Thomas Lasater, and Albert Ramirez (1978) gave African American junior high students an audiotaped appeal for proper dental care. When a dentist assessed the cleanliness of their teeth the next day, those who heard the appeal from an African American dentist (whose face they were shown) had cleaner teeth. As a general rule, people respond better to a message that comes from someone in their group
One way people minimize dissonance, Festinger believed, is through ______________ to agreeable information. Studies have asked people about their views on various topics, and then invited them to choose whether they wanted to view information supporting or opposing their viewpoint. By about a two to one ratio, people (less secure and openminded people, especially) preferred supporting rather than challenging information
selective exposure
The one personality variable most consistently related to persuasibility is _____________________
self-esteem
A communicator's trustworthiness (and effectiveness) can be increased if he or she argues a position apparently opposed to his or her________________.
self-interest
People in sales or politics are often high _____________. In general, these people tend to have higher social skills than low self-monitors
self-monitors
Cognitive dissonance theory assumes that our need to maintain a consistent and positive self-image motivates us to adopt attitudes that justify our actions. Assuming no such motive, ______________ says simply that when our attitudes are unclear to us, we observe our behaviors and then infer our attitudes from them.
self-perception theory
In a sense, dissonance theory describes the ways people have of making their _________________—of trying to live with unpleasant outcomes.
skeletons dance
This delayed persuasion, after people forget the source or its connection with the message, is called the __________________
sleeper effect
The person who is easiest to brainwash is the person whose beliefs are based on ___________________ that have never been seriously challenged.
slogans
most of the early business marketing professors (those who got their doctorates in the 1970's and early 1980's) came out of _____________________
social psychology programs.
Playing on fear works best if a message leads people not only to fear the severity and likelihood of a threatened event but also to perceive a _________________ and feel capable of implementing it
solution
The fear level induced must be sufficiently high and credible _______________ must be offered to reduce the fear.
solutions
the more _____________ the attitude is to the behavior, the greater the predictability.
specific
Michael Pfau and his colleagues20 have shown that _______________ television commercials are by far the most effective determinants of how people vote.
spot
The "________________" tactic was an effective application of the foot-in-the-door technique, and it continues to be so today in the socialization of terrorists and torturers.
start small and build
The "mere exposure effect" (Zajonc, 1968)
states that we tend to like stimuli better that we have been repeatedly exposed to. For example, if you show a person two images of the self, one a standard photographic image and the other a mirror image of the same standard photographic image, the person will prefer (like best) the mirror image
spot commercials on TV are especially effective when the campaign centers on a highly charged issue that arouses _______________ in voters. for example, willie horton released on furlough and raped woman
strong emotions
Thus, from our knowledge of the phenomena of learning, it would appear that, all other things being equal, the first argument will be more effective; this is called _________________
the primacy effect.
Most models of attitudes have as their foundation the so called ______________
tricomponent model.
At least where _______________and behaviors are concerned, if we like and can identify with a person, his or her opinions and behaviors will influence us more than their content would ordinarily warrant
trivial opinions
The answer is that the process of reducing disso- nance is largely ___________________.
unconscious
the more ____________the examples are, the greater their persuasive power.
vivid
we evolved to respond to stone-age threats
—clear and present dangers (like tigers, snakes, or cavemen with clubs), not grad- ual ones (like droughts or more frequent hurricanes). We are also programmed to respond to human threats (like terrorism)
If you were to help organize an appeal to get people to vote for school taxes or to stop smoking or to give money to world hunger relief, you might wonder how best to promote central route persuasion. Common sense could lead you to either side of these questions:
• Is a logical message more persuasive—or one that arouses emotion? • Will you get more opinion change by advocating a position only slightly discrepant from the listeners' existing opinions or by advocating an extreme point of view? Should the message express your side only, or should it acknowledge and refute the opposing views? • If people are to present both sides—say, in successive talks at a community meeting or in a political debate—is there an advantage to going fi rst or last?
Many experiments have explored ways to stimulate people's thinking
• by using rhetorical questions. • by presenting multiple speakers (for example, having each of three speakers give one argument instead of one speaker giving three). •by making people feel responsible for evaluating or passing along the message • by repeating the message. • by getting people's undistracted attention
