Attitude change

Question 1

Three characteristics of persuasion

Answer 1

Communicator - people are most likely to believe attractive/popular people, or experts (expertise is a function of credibility).

Message - repetition works well for increasing credibility and fear has biggest impact on attitudes.

Whom - people with high or low self-esteem are easiest to persuade.

Question 2

Dual-process models of persuasion

Answer 2

These models focus on two routes. High effort means deliberative; low-effort means implicit

Question 3

Elaboration likelihood model

Answer 3

Deliberative (elaborating) = central; low effort = peripheral. People generally use peripheral route to make decisions due to lack of time, effort or cognitive resources.

Peripheral cues, message argument, argument quality and need for cognition can all affect which route is used.

Question 4

Heuristic-Systematic model

Answer 4

HSM also has high and low-effort routes. Heuristics (cognitive shortcuts) are used in the low-effort route. HSM’s sufficiency principle is determined by actual confidence (evaluation of how convincing communication was) and and sufficiency threshold (point at which argument is convincing enough)

Question 5

Cognitive dissonance

Answer 5

The psychological tension generation when a person has cognitions which are inconsistent/do not fit.

Question 6

Self-perception theory vs cognitive dissonance

Answer 6

An alternative explanation is that people use their behaviour to infer their attitudes - behaviour provides info rather than attitudes.