4 - Attitudes II

Question 1

attitudes and behaviour: consistency

Answer 1

• People are motivated to be consistent in their attitudes and behavior
• Uncomfortable when there is inconsistency
• Motivated to reduce it

Festinger

Question 2

Leon Festinger

(When Prophecy Fails, 1956)

Answer 2

created theory of cognitive dissonance after observing his grad students whom he asked to join a cult

• cult would avoid a flood which would cause the end of the world
• they remained committed to the belief up until the last minute, until they realized that the flood never came
• the cult became even more committed to the cult and its prophecy

Question 3

cognitive dissonance

Answer 3

Festinger

Cognitive dissonance is an unpleasant state caused by people’s awareness of inconsistency among important beliefs/attitudes and actions/behaviours…..

• Causes drive to reduce this dissonance, which can lead to attitude change….. esp. when tension between behaviour and attitudes, attitudes will change

magnitude of dissonance = # of dissonant elements x importance / # of consonant elements x importance

1. people must perceive inconsistency
2. take personal responsibility for the action
3. experience uncomfortable physiological arousal
4. attribute arousal to inconsistency between attitude and behaviour

Question 4

Festinger & Carlsmith (1959)

Answer 4

Participants engage in boring tasks

asked to lie, tell others how much they enjoyed the task, being paid either** 0, $1, $20**

then actual ratings of boringness taken:

no compensation - very boring

$1 - very enjoyable

$20 - boring

cognitive dissonance overcome with 20$, but with $1 attitude shifted instead

Question 5

Smith (1961)

Answer 5

army reservists asked to eat grasshoppers by either positive communicators or negative ones

people said they liked the grasshoper after a negative communicator, since those with positive communicators just justified by saying they did it cause they liked the person who asked (reduced dissonance)

Question 6

Aronson and Mills (1959)

Answer 6

female students joined a discussion about sex

had to read either super embarrasing or mildly embarrasing sex passages to join

the actual sex discussion was really boring, but those who did the most effort (most embarrasing) rated it as very enjoyable

the more effort put in to something, the more they will say they like it (dissolving cognitive dissonance)

Question 7

Brehm (1956)

Answer 7

Spreading of alternatives

given two options, your attitudes toward them are relatively the same…… but after you choose one, your attitude towards it increases and your attitude towards the other decreases

Question 8

Reducing dissonance

1.

2.

3.

Answer 8

1. justify behavior (Festinger and Carlsmith, Smith)
2. justify effort (aronson & mills)
3. justify decisions (spreading of alternatives, Brehm)

Question 9

self-perception theory

Answer 9

people infer their own attitudes by observing their own behaviours within situations

Zanna & Cooper “pill” study

Question 10

Zanna & Cooper (1974)

experiment setup

results

Answer 10

participants asked to write counter-attitudinal essay pro/con banning controversial speakers from campus

1. manipulated the illusion to the amount of choice (high/low) the participant had
2. gave them a pill (actually a placebo) that either made you feel tense, relaxed, or no effects

DV - their agreement/disagreement with the idea of banning controversial speakers (to assess the attitde change from negative to ?)

tense pill - there was no change in attitude in both the high and low choice contidions

no side-effects pill - high choice was big change in attitude…… low choice was easy to justify behaviour, so less attitude change

relaxed pill - high choice agreed very much…… low choice agreed same level as no-side effect group (low)

e.g. the Magnitude of dissonance is greater when there is a greater amount of dissonant elements

Question 11

LaPiere (1934)

Answer 11

toured CA with chinese couple

only one place rejected couple for being Chinese

Later reponses to letters asking about refusing service to Chinese showed that 90% said they would reject

showed the gap between attitudes and behaviours

Question 12

spceficicity in attitudes matters

Answer 12

- general attitudes don’t predict specific behaviours very well

• mismatches between attitude object and targets of behaviour leads to poor attitude-behaviour correspondence
• implicit and explicit attitudes can be different

Question 13

Accessibility matters in attitudes

1

2

3

Answer 13

attitudes must be accessible to influence behaviour

• strong, pronounced, clear
• situational reminders
• self-awareness…. don’t always know what attitudes are because aren’t thinking about it all the time

Question 14

motivation matters in attitude

Answer 14

Sivacek & Crano

student’s attitudes towards law that would raise drinkng age

almost all were against it, but younger students more willing to work against the passage of the law

Question 15

intentions matter in attitude

and theory of reasoned action

Answer 15

Theory of Reasoned action - attitudes combine with social/behavioural norms, which lead to intentions…..

….. intentions - motivation to comply with attitude or norm, behaviours thought to achieve a goal…..

which leads to behaviour

e.g. the goal-oriented attitude can guide behaviour

Question 16

perceived control matters

and theory of planned behaviour

Answer 16

Theory of planned behaviour (azjen)

attitudes + social norms + perceived control lead to intentions and then behaviour….

perceived control - control over how we act

Question 17

McGregor & Cavallo (2011)

Answer 17

1. manipulated perceived control over life through biased questionnaires
2. assessed intentions to join a campus dating service

men - control didn’t matter due to social norms

women - control mattered tremendously…. high control = greater intentions to join site

Question 18

Influences on whether our attitudes accurately predict specific behaviours

1.

2.

3.

4.

Answer 18

1. accessibility
2. motivation
3. intentions
4. perceived control