Affective Influences Flashcards
What are the two types of affect?
Integral and Incidental
What is integral affect?
Feelings associated with an attitude
What is incidental affect?
affective state not linked to an attitude but can influence judgement (e.g mood)
What three techniques can cause affect to impact our attitudes
Mere exposure, conditioning & mood
What is mere exposure in relation to attitude change
Repeated presentation to object can induce positive affect e.g close proximity with a person encourages positive interactions
What real-life consequence did Festinger’s research on proximity and attitudes have?
Expansion of uni halls and increase in people attending halls and building them in a way that would influence friendships to form
What two types of distance/proxmity did festinger investigate in their study?
Functional and physical
What was the result of Festinger’s propinquity (proximity) study?
People that were 1 door away were more likely to close friends than those that were 4 days away. The doors by the stairs had more friends upstairs due to functional proximity
They are interacting more so having more positive affect experiences
How did Zajonc investigate mere exposure without interaction?
Presented diff stimuli a diff number of times
Then shown each stimuli and asked to rate how much they like them
Found positive affect related to number of times shown
How did Moreland and Beach investigate Mere Exposure with female confederates in a uni?
Had diff female confederates attend different amount of lectures. Had to come in and sit where everyone could see them
Liking of the confederate was correlated with how often they attended lectures
What is the effect of mere exposure for disliked objects?
No strong effect
What is the effect of mere exposure when the participant has an initial attitude as demonstrated by Brickman et al?
Ptps rated several paintings then varied presentation of paintings for ones they liked, disliked or felt neutral about.
More +ve rating for frequent exposure to those they liked or felt neutral
Less +ve for those they disliked after high exposure but not low
Effect is weaker
What are the four ‘whens’ of mere exposure
- ME greatest for complex stimuli and presented limited amount of times
- ME found in explicit and implicit measures
- ME found across cultures, species and diverse range of stimuli
- More impact on visual than audio stimuli
- Ceiling effect
What is the effect of ME on persuasive messaging as shown by Weisbuch et al?
ME to the source of the message elicits agreement BUT only when not made aware of initial exposure (asking if the participants had seen the authors photos in another task)
Why does mere exposure cause positive affect?
Explicit recognition reduces uncertaintly
Easier to process the stimuli
What are the two factors in the Two-Factor Model to explain mere exposure
Boredom and Habituation
How does habituation decrease negative affect towards an attitude object?
Instinctively percieve new stimuli as threatening -> creates negative affect -> get used to stimuli so becomes less threatening and creates positive affect
How does boredom increase negative affect towards an attitude object
Repeated exposure for a long term can create boredom -> creates negative affect
What evidence supports the idea that boredom increases negative affect
Those that score high in ‘boredom proneness’ less likely to show ME effect
BUT
Only evident in those low in tolerance for ambiguity
What are the limitations of the Two Factor Model on ME?
Doesn’t support Weisbach’s subliminal messaging experiment where participants were or were not aware of the ME of the author
Doesn’t account for consistent patterns shown in a variety of stimuli and methods
What relationship was shown between repeated exposure and generalized mood (not toward object) by Monahan et al?
Participant shown 5 images 5 times were in a more positive mood than those shown 25 different images
What did Monahan et al find about ME and affect towards similar stimuli
Stimuli similar to the stimuli repeatedly also had the same positive affect
What examples does the result of Monahan et al’s study provide evidence for?
Familiarity with faces we’ve seen before influences perceived attractiveness and happiness
Thinking we’ve seen something before predicts liking, even if we haven’t
How does generalized ME explain prejudice as demonstrated by Smith et al?
Repeated exposure to people in your own ethnic group (white) elicits more positive affect towards your own ethnic group and can increase negativity toward another ethnic group (Black). These effects were shown both explicitly and implicitly
What is emotional learning
The automatic tagging/linking of a positive emotion to an att object
What are the 3 forms of emotional learning?
Evaluative, Behaviour and Observational conditioning
How does emotional learning differ to ME?
A consequence of ME is positive affect whereas positive affect is LINKED to the object
What is evaluative conditioning
Repeated pairing of an attitude object to a particular valence
Linked with Pavlovian conditioning
How did Razran demonstrate evaluative conditioning with political slogans
Different slogans such ‘Americans for Americans’ or ‘Workers for the World Unite!’
For some of them the ptps given a free lunch or exposed to unpleasant odor then rated approval of slogans.
Results as expected and also could not remember the slogans they saw suggesting unconscious effect
How did Krosnick demonstrate evaluative conditioning?
Presented photos of different people. Each shown briefly with affect-arousing stimulus
Positive affect stim liked more across attitude, traits and attractiveness
How did Olsen and Fazio show the link with EC and prejudice?
Exposed ptps to black faces and positive words and white faces with negative words
Did an evaluative priming task
Experimental ptps showed more +ve implicit racial attitudes than controls
What is a limitation of Olsen and Fazio’s study on EC and prejudice?
Demonstrates attitude change but not attitude formation
How did Donnelly et al show health implications for EC?
Tried to link negative affect to unhealthy foods
Added one of two types of labels near sugary drinks; factual (tooth decay/obesity) or emotive (photos)
Negative affect link decreased consumption by 15%
What are attitudes formed from EC resistant to?
Extinction procedure
What is behaviour conditioning?
Pairing an emotion with a behaviour that has been performed
A.k.a positive or negative reinforcement
How did Insko and Cialdini demonstrate behavioural conditioning?
Called students and asked opinions about pay TV.
+ve reinforcement if gave supportive opinions
Later reported more favourable attitude
Showed effects persisted over time
What is the over adjustment effect?
Offering strong blatant rewards (to children) causes better performance whilst reward given but worse behaviour when reward removed
Why does the over adjustment effect happen?
Decreases the inherent attractiveness of the task - becomes less pleasing on its own merits (doing it just for the reward not for the benefits of the behaviour itself)
How does over adjustment link to attitude structure?
High reward induces ambivalence as people become suspicious if the behaviour is worth it
What made the effect stronger in Inkso and Cialdini’s study?
If the experimenter built a rapport
What is Observational conditioning
Seeing and experiencing or empathising with an emotional response to what happens from the behaviour
How did Gerull and Rapee demonstrate observational conditioning
Children shown two stimuli (rubber snake or spider), each paired with an emotion modelled by the mother; scary, fun or emotionless
Showed greater avoidance to stimuli paired with fear by mother
How did Berger demonstrate observational conditioning?
People reacted painfully to a neutral tone when they saw other people react painfully.
What is mood?
A globalised, generalised, affective state not directed against a particular target
How do moods differ from emotions
Emotions are more specific, short lived and have clear targets
Which variable can moods be?
Both the IV (Does mood impact X) and the DV (How does X impact mood)
How can you induce mood?
Autobiographical recall, music, film/tv clips, facial expressions, self-statements
What is mood congruence
People report moods that match their attitudes
How did Isen et al demonstrate mood congruence in a mall?
People given free gift (notebook or nail clippers). 50m later asked to do a survey rating their tv sets and cars.
Rated more positively for those that were given a gift
When does mood congruence disappear?
When people misattribute their mood
How did Schwarz and Clore use weather as a mood manipulator?
Called participants on a sunny day or a rainy day
Some asked about the weather, some not (misattribution manipulation)
Asked to rate happiness
What were the results of Schwarz and Clore on the use of weather as a mood manipulator
Weather not mentioned = mood on sunny say > mood on rainy day
Weather mention = Mood same for both rainy and sunny day
When else are mood congruence effects likely to occur
When circumstances can allow people to select the information that matches their mood. These circumstances are:
Perception; able to shift attention across diff pieces of info
Encode; study info closely
Recall; remember some info better than others
interpret; construe info in different ways
When does mood have a more powerful effect?
When judgements are made on the spot rather than retrieved from memory = unfamiliar object
When dealing with weak attitudes
Depend on the person
How did Haddock demonstrate the effect of individual differences on mood congruence effect?
Manipulated mood of ptps and asked to evaluate a target group
measures individual affect intensity
Those high in affect intensity showed greater mood congruence affect and therefore greater prejudice towards the target group
What model does the basis of the impact on mood have on persuasion?
Elaboration Likelihood Model
In the Elaboration Likelihood model, what does the effect of mood depend on?
If you are motivated and able to scrutinize information
How did Sinclair et al demonstrate the effect of mood on persuasiveness of arguments? (weather)
Ptps read arguments in favour of comprehensive exams either on a sunny or rainy day. Manipulated strength of argument
More influenced by argument strength on bad weather days BUT only if weather not made salient
How did Petty et al test the different roles of mood on persuasion depending on motivation?
Watch a TV programme containing an ad for a pen
Involvement Manipulation: giving a free pen (high elaboration) or coffee (low elaboration)
Mood manipulation; Funny vs control programme
Assess att toward pen and thoughts whilst watching ad on pen
What type of cue does mood become in the low elaboration condition (coffee) in petty et al’s study?
Peripheral - is not mediated by thoughts as not thinking about contents of message
What was the result in the Low elaboration condition in Petty et al’s study?
Mood had an effect on attitude toward pen (positive mood = positive attitude)
It was NOT mediated by positivity of thoughts
What was the result of the Low elaboration condition in Petty et al’s study?
Mood had an effect on attitude toward pen (positive mood = positive attitude)
DIRECTLY effected it but was NOT mediated by positivity of thoughts
What was the result of the high elaboration in Petty et al’s study?
Mood impacted attitude toward pen
BUT
Mood had an INDIRECT effect, influencing the positivity of thoughts so influenced how they scrutinised the advert
What is the Hedonic Contingency Model according to Wegener and Petty?
Effect of mood on message processing depends on content of the message
Good mood = devote more attention to persuasive appeals that maintain positive mood hedonistic consequenceS)
What is the mood-congruent expectancies approach ?
The cognitive mechanism that influences messaging in both positive and negative moods.
When mood expectancies are disconfirmed = process more deeply
What can mood function as according to Raghunathan and Trop?
A resource
Positive mood = more openmindedness of contradicting info/ more unbiased
Negative mood = focus on supporting views
What can mood act as? What does it depend on?
A cue, resource of bias, motivator for info processing, Resource
Motivation, ability and prior attitude
What is the relation between certainty and scrutiny of a message according to Tiedens and Linton?
Certainty-related emotions = read less carefully
Uncertainty-related emotions = read more carefully
