attitudes Flashcards
definitions:
prejudice
interpersonal attraction
self-esteem
prejudice = negative attitude towards outgroups
interpersonal attraction = attitudes towards specific others
self-esteem = attitude towards oneself
attitude object
the person, place, issue, thing towards which we hold an attitude
attitudes definitions:
single component (unidimensional)
tri-component/tripartite
single:
- generally focussed on affect
- refers to general, enduring positive or negative feeling about some person, object or issue
tri:
- ABC
- affective - pos and neg feelings toward object
- behavioural - tendencies to act toward object
- cognitive - beliefs and thoughts about object
measuring attitudes - self-report measures
self-report:
- interviews, focus groups
- attitude scales - likert scales, semantic differentials (rate between two opposite words e.g. good to bad, pleasant to unpleasant - on a point scale)
measuring attitudes - covert measures (2)
behavioural:
- based on observation e.g. eye contact, posture, approach, avoidance measures, seating distance (ask to put out 2 chairs for self and someone else and see how close together they put the chairs depending on who the other is)
affective:
- implicit association test (IAT) - faster to classify things related in memory than unrelated
- have positive on one key and negative on the other
- have to categorise whether the image shown is a cat or dog, or whether word is positive or negative
- if you like cats and cats are on the same button as for a positive word, you will react faster to it than if it is on the same button for the negative word
measuring attitudes - physiological measures
pupillary response (dilation and constriction) - small = don’t like, large = like
facial electromyography (facial EMG)
facial EMG
facial electromyography
electrodes measure facial muscle activity
activation of zygomatic major muscle (cheeks) when smiling
activation of corrugator supercilli muscle when frowning
these indicate positive or negative emotions
implicit vs explicit attitude
implicit = do not initially have conscious access and activation cannot be controlled
explicit = aware of these, can report them and control the expression of them
approaches to how attitudes are formed (3)
behavioural:
- mere-exposure
- evaluative conditioning
cognitive:
- self-perception
mere-exposure effect
Zajonc (1968)
tendency to develop more positive feelings toward more familiar objects
e.g. in 1967 a small town in Ecuador elected a foot powder for mayor - leaflets distributed
mere exposure effect - advertising study
Fang et al (2007)
participants read through web articles
some had a banner advert at the top of the screen - participants exposed different numbers of times
rated their reaction more positively when they saw it 20 times vs 5 times vs 0 times
increased positivity when they see it more
mere-exposure effect - interpersonal attraction study
Moreland and Beach (1992)
students rated women who had attended their class as more attractive when they had attended more
15 classes vs 10 vs 5 attended
evaluative conditioning
exposure to neutral stimulus that appears close in time with an affective stimulus makes attitude to the neutral stimulus more similar to affective stimulus
e.g. pair neutral with negative makes neutral think about more negatively
e.g. specific food is neutral, throwing up is negative, if you eat the food and throw up you’ll view it negatively
similar to classical conditioning
the basis behind cigarette packaging
use of evaluative conditioning in marketing/advertising
pairing a celebrity with positive associations with the product (neutral) makes the product seem more positive
Biegler and Vargas (2016)
participants rated a fictitious anti-flu drug as more effective, safe, and beneficial when paired with positive than negative images
use of evaluative conditioning with promoting healthy eating
Hollands et al (2011)
participants showed more negative implicit attitudes to energy-dense snack foods after images of snack food were paired with images of potential health consequences
self-perception theory
Bem (1965)
form attitudes by observing our behaviour and the circumstances in which it occurs and making inferences (attributions)
self-perception study examples (2) + facial feedback hypothesis
Strack et al (1998)
participants evaluated cartoons with a pen in their teeth (more smiling face shape) or lips
said it was funnier when holding pen in teeth
- facial feedback hypothesis = facial activity can influence affective responses
Ito et al (2006)
holding pen in teeth when looking at photos of black men showed significantly less implicit bias on the IAT (implicit associations test) than those who did the same looking at pics of white men
Katz functional approach to attitudes - why we have attitudes
Katz (1960)
understand formation in terms of the needs they serve
different motivations underlie different attitudes - unlikely to be any single cause of a specific type of attitude
Katz - 4 key functions of attitudes
utilitarian/instrumental
ego-defensive
value-expressive
knowledge/cognitive economy
katz - utilitarian / instrumental function of attitudes
attitudes exist as they are useful
motivated to get rewards and avoid punishment
therefore develop attitudes to reach goals
positive attitude to political party that will put your own best interest first - e.g. high earners want to be taxed less, low earners want higher tax that’ll be spent on them
negative attitudes to things that get in the way of goals e.g. negative attitude towards peanuts if you are allergic
katz - ego-defensive function of attitudes
protect our self-image
protect from unacceptable internal and external threats
katz - ego-defensive function of attitudes - study
students received info suggesting that their self-image as a ‘serious student’ was incorrect or correct
students asked to rate the message they got
self-image inconsistent info (threatening message) rated it more negatively than self-image consistent info
more negative evaluation = greater message discounting (think it isn’t important) = source derogation (think the source isn’t credible)
this protects own view/image of the self by coming up with reasons why the message is irrelevant and not true or important
functional purpose of attitudes which change to protect view of self
katz - value-expressive function of attitudes
helps express values that are integral to self-concept
help communicate who we are
e.g. positive attitude towards LGBT because you value equality
katz - knowledge/cognitive economy function of attitudes
attitudes act as schemas
help organise into an give sense of predictability in complex social world
frame of reference for new info to streamline processing
attitude change - definition
modification of individuals general evaluative perception of a stimulus or set of stimuli
persuasion - definition
active attempt to change a person’s attitude through information
models of persuasion and persuasion techniques - 2 ways to change attitudes
those that model/try to change attitudes through:
- communication
- changing behaviour
changing attitudes through communication - examples (4)
examples of persuasive communications:
- adverts
- arguments
- debates
- informational messages
yale approach to persuasion - 3 elements of communication to consider to change attitudes
who says what to whom and with what effect
3 elements:
- source - who is trying to persuade
- message - what is the content of the message and how it is expressed
- audience - who is the message targeted to
yale approach: source characteristics (2)
attractiveness:
more attractive sources are more persuasive than less
credibility:
high credibility sources are more persuasive
e.g. toothpaste adverts use young, attractive dentists for both attractiveness and credibility
yale approach: message characteristics - fear appeals
fear appeals - persuasive messages that arouse fear - commonly used in public health campaigns
used on cigarette packaging:
* some people don’t agree and say it infantilises people and wont actually help
however this was wrong and they are actually effective in changing attitudes and behaviours
however in some cases fear appeals backfire when people feel manipulated or like their freedom is being inflicted upon - too controlling, brings feelings of anger - therefore reduced persuasion
therefore nuanced use and language of fear appeals
yale approach: audience characteristics (3)
individual differences
need for cognition:
tendency to engage in effortful cognition
e.g., Cacioppo et al. (1983) found that argument quality had a larger effect on persuasion in individuals high in need for cognition)
self-monitoring:
DeBono, Leavitt, & Backus (2003)
high self-monitors (often introspective) were more positively influenced by attractive product packaging than low self-monitors
regulatory focus/fit:
people have a ‘promotion’ or ‘prevention’ focus
promotion = motivated by gaining positives
prevention = motivated by avoiding negatives
therefore message needs to fit with the regulatory orientation of the message
e.g., Cesario et al. (2004) found enhanced persuasion when there was high regulatory fit
women are more prevention focused in general (e.g. beauty ads for wrinkle prevention)
flaws with changing attitudes with communication
lots of differing results by different studies
different on different variables - inconsistent
need to shift focus from whether things increased persuasion, instead look at process of persuasion
elaboration-likelihood model
petty and cacioppo (1986)
persuasion occurs by 2 routes, depends on person and situation as to which they go through
route depends on elaboration likelihood
central route:
- more effortful processing - high elaboration likelihood
- persuaded by central cues - e.g. scientific evidence, customer reviews - relating to argument strength
- strong argument = persuasion
- weak argument = no persuasion
peripheral route:
- less effortful, more automatic
- peripheral cues - e.g. heurstics - ways to quickly form judgements, rule of thumb
- cues present = persuasion
- cues absent = no persuasion
motivation and ability to engage in central route of elaboration-likelihood model
more likely to take central (effortful) route:
motivation:
negative mood
high personal involvement
high need for cognition
ability:
sufficient time to process message
sufficient cognitive resources
not distracted
