3 Consumer Choices and Autonomy Flashcards
Art 1
Self-persuasion
- indirect
- self-persuasion strategies produce more powerful and more long-lasting effects than do direct techniques of persuasion
- people are convinced that the motivation for change comes from within
- problem with direct persuasion attempts: they are direct
- with self-persuasion: individual comes to belive that they do really want to
Art 1
Self-persuasion and cog dissonance
Leon Festinger’s theory of cognitive dissonance:
-that dissonance (an unpleasant feeling) is aroused when an individual says or does something that runs counter to his or her own beliefs, especially
if this action threatens the individual’s self-concept of
being a decent or rational person
-to reduce dissonance,
people will try to bring those disparate cognitions into
greater harmony
-self-persuasion has a long-term impact
-counter attitudinal advocacy: people are induced to try to convince
others of the lightness of a position that differs from their own privately held belief
-could justify their actions only by persuading themselves
Art 1
Hypocrisy and Condom Use
-people tend to either underestimate their vulnerability or overestimate
how much they actually use condoms
-distortions are not easy to counteract, because simply
presenting people with actuarial data “proving” vulnerability does not dispel this fallacious thinking
-Strategy: making you mindful of the fact that you are not practicing what you preach, People have a need to see themselves as people of integrity, Your self-concept as a person of integrity is threatened by your own behavior
-> resolving to change their behavior to bring it
into line with their own preaching, has long term effects
Art 1
Self-persuasion and Interpersonal Attraction
participants convinced themselves that these evaluators were sincere and grew to like (or dislike)
them, depending on how these sincere people felt about them
Art 1
Self-Persuasion and Prejudice Reduction
-the attitudes and behavior most difficult to change
through rational argument are those having to do with ethnic and racial prejudice, because there is a strong emotional component to the attitude -> information
campaigns are relatively ineffective
-contact in a highly competitive environment will tend to produce hostile attitudes and behavior even among members of the same ethnic and racial groups
-Jigsaw Classroom: forced to cooperate rather than compete -> first: competitiveness, then gradual cooperation
-how desegregation,
when coupled with a competitive process, can produce unequal-status contact and can result in even greater enmity between ethnic groups and a loss of self-esteem for members
of disadvantaged ethnic minorities
RESULTS OF JIGSAW
- less prejudice
- greater enjoyment of school
- greater self-esteem
Art 1
Jigsaw and Empathy
-jigsaw: improves student´s general ability to emphasize with others, reduces prejudice, and builds empathy, children able to let go of their stereotypical expectations
Art 1
Reasons Underlying the Success of Jigsaw
-jigsaw structure places people in a situation
where they must pay attention to another person to learn
-> greater empathy
-> inclined to see more positive things
-favor-doing situation: offering help -> think that the person is worthy of our help
-cooperation lowers barriers between ethnic groups by changing the cognitive categories people use ->
from “those people” to “us people”
-cooperation increases tendency for individuals to
make the same kinds of attributions for success and failure to their partners as they do to themselves
Art 1
Conclusion
- self-persuasion = always a more powerful form of persuasion (deeper, longer) than more traditional persuasion
- initial motivator = self-interest
Art 2
The Tyranny of Choice
- cooperation increases the tendency for individuals to make the same kinds of attributions for success and failure to their partners as they do to themselves
- distinction between 1.“maximizers” (those who always aim to make the best possible choice)
2. “satisficers” (those who aim for “good enough,” whether or not better selections might be out there) - Maximization Scale: set of statements to diagnose people´s propensity to maximize
Art 2
More on Maximizers and Sarisficers
-When satisficers find an item that meets their standards, they stop looking
-maximizers exert enormous effort reading labels, checking out consumer magazines, and trying new products
-maximizers strive toward that goal, and so making a decision becomes increasingly daunting as the number of choices rises
-nagged by the alternatives
they have not had time to investigate-> more likely to make better objective choices than satisficers but
get less satisfaction from them
-greatest maximizers are the least happy with the fruits of their efforts
-more prone to experiencing regret after a purchase
-individuals with high maximization scores
experienced less satisfaction with life and were less happy, less optimistic and more depressed than people with low maximization scores
Art 2
Opportunity costs
-“opportunity costs.” = quality of any given option
cannot be assessed in isolation from its alternatives, One of the
“costs” =losing opportunities
-opportunity costs can create enough conflict to produce paralysis
-The problem of opportunity costs will be worse for a maximizer
-the “good enough” standard leads to much less searching and inspection of alternatives than the maximizer’s “best” standard
Art 2
Feelings evoked by even more choices
-people respond much more strongly to losses than gains
-feelings of well-being initially rise as choice increases but then level off quickly
-zero choice evokes virtually infinite unhappiness,
bad feelings escalate as we go from having few choices to many
=> added choice only decreases happiness
Art 2
Regret Adds to Costs
-people with high sensitivity
to regret are less happy, less satisfied with life, less optimistic and more depressed than those with low sensitivity
-high regret sensitivity tend to be maximizes
-Regret may be one reason for our aversion to losses
-power of sunken costs
-two of the factors affecting
regret are how much one feels personal responsibility for the result and how easy it is to imagine a better alternative.
Art 2
Adaption Dulls Joy
Adaption:
-contributes to the fallout we face from too many choices
-we get used
to things, and as a result, very little in life turns out quite as good
as we expect it to be
-Because of adaptation, enthusiasm about positive experiences does not sustain itself
-people consistently mispredict how long good experiences will make them feel good and how long bad experiences will make them feel bad
-The more we invest in a decision, the more satisfaction we expect
to realize from our investment
Art 2
The Curse of High Expectations
-all our evaluations of the things we do and buy depend on comparison
-So high expectations
almost guarantee that experiences will fall short, especially for maximizers
