3 - Attitude Flashcards
What are attitudes?
- Study of how people influence others’ behaviour, belief and attitudes
- Focus on the situation, and it’s power
- Are people in a library introverted? Are people in a concert extroverted?
- Social psychology and personality psychology linked
How were attitudes formed?
Mere Exposure (frequent exposure) - Zajonc, 1968. Presented chinese characters to participants. Presented either twice or 10 times. Couldn’t explicitly tell if had been seen before. Participants rated the characters seen 10 times as more good. Classing conditioning Operant conditioning Imitation
What is Bem’s self-perception theory?
We infer our attitudes from our behaviours
E.g. Do you like ice cream? - Have I had ice cream recently?
Attributing behaviour to external (situation) or internal (attitudes) sources
Attitude inferences if behavior is freely chosen
What are unobtrusive influences on attitudes?
Facial expression
Testing the quality of headphones
Pushing up vs pushing down
What is congitive consistency?
People try to maintain internal consistency, order and agreement between their beliefs.
Don’t want to be seen as hypocrites
What is balance theory?
P: Person
O: Other
X: Attitude object
What are the elements of balance theory?
Seeking balance through an odd number of positive relationships
Situation 1: All positive
S2: Both person and others don’t like the attitude object.
S3: Don’t like each other, but both like the same thing. Tension, how can this other like what I like as well?
S4: Like person, don’t like attitude object. Other likes object. Tension, how can they like that?
What is the balance theory?
Unbalanced triads create tension, and there is motivation to restore balance, through least effort
Support: Newcomb, 1961. Male students in student housing. Assessing for attitudes and values. Predicting who would become friends
Changing attitude towards attitude object e.g. teacher or subject
Prediction of who you hang around and who became friends with whom.
What are implicit attitudes?
Implicit attitudes: Well learned, similar to habits, tend to instilled at a young age
Automatic, non-conscious, difficult to change, may be unknown
Can reside within you
What are explicit attitudes?
What you think of immediately
Easy to fake, consciously controlled, easier to change (social desirability)
What is the attitude behaviour link?
Assumption of attitudes predicting behaviour
Election polls getting it wrong?: Brexit 2016; US presidential election
LaPiere, 1934.
Chinese couple visiting 250 restaurants and hotels in US
Only one refused Chinese people at the scene
6 months later, asking would Chinese people be accepted? ~120 restaurants said no
Do our private attitudes determine our public behaviour?
No link between attitude and behaviour, then what’s the point of trying to change attitudes? Teaching, counselling, etc.
Link between attitudes and behaviour?
0.3 correlation between attitudes and behaviour
9% variability in behaviour accounted for by attitudes
Wicker 1969 and Mischel 1968. Weak link for personality measures and behaviour
How do we improve the attitude-behaviour relationship?
(Minimise) Social influences on expressed attitudes
E.g. Job interview
Measuring attitudes specific to the observed behaviour
E.g. Recycling? Ask about recycling specifically, not environment.
Attitude strength: Personal involvement and knowledge
Strong attitudes have a greater link
What is the theory of planned behaviour?
Ajzen and Fishbein 1980
Attitude behaviour link is stronger once the influences are taken into account
Forming attitudes and performing a particular behaviour is a fairly rational process
Sometimes, still irrational
What is the cognitive dissonance theory?
Leon Festinger 1957.
Well known approach.
Based on cognitive consistency
Cognitive dissonance is a feeling of discomfort caused by performing an action inconsistent with attitudes
Strive to reduce dissonance and the easiest way is to change the attitude
Rationalisation shapes attitudes
What is the Ben Franklin effect?
Describing a strong political opponent. Opponent has a rare book that he wants to read. Letter back of thanks. Became friends.
Not reciprocity, where there is an obligation to return.
Behaviour was a book. Changed attitude.
Experimenter asked participants to donate money back to the experimenter.
Rated experimenter better
What is the justification of effort and dissonacne?
Aronson and MIlls, 1989.
Psychology of sex discussion group to women. Was attractive group
Needed to pass embarrassment test before joining.
Severe initiation. Reading obscene words and a sexual scene.
Mild initiation. Reading mild words.
No initiation.
What is the link of amnesics to dissonance?
Are dissonance effects due to conscious decisions?
What is cognitive dissonance?
Restinger et al, 1956.
A cult belief that, on a date, that the world will end. Believed that aliens would come and save them. Realised this wouldn’t occur on the day.
Belief: Given more time to recruit more members.
What is post-decision dissonance?
We like the thing more that we picked.
Tend to be happier with purchases without a returns policy
Components of attitudes
hree components Affective (emotional) Behavioural tendency Cognitive E.g. A: Don’t like snakes; B: Stay away from snakes; C: Might feel smooth, kill rodents
