Attitudes Flashcards
What are attitudes
Single component- generally focused on the affect (feeling)- ‘the term attitude should be used to refer to a general, enduring, positive or negative feeling about some person, object or issue’
Tripartite definition:
Affective- positive or negative feelings about object
Behavioural- tendencies to act towards object
Cognitive- beliefs and thoughts about object
How do we measure attitudes
Self-report measures- interviews focus groups, attitude scales e.g. likert scale
Covert measures:
Behavioural measures- based on behavioural observation e.g. seating distance, eye contact
Affective measures- the implicit association test
In the IAT, we are faster to classify things that are related in memory than things that are unrelated e.g. positive attitude to cats = faster response to pictures of cats paired with positive words vs negative words
Physiological measures- pupillary response (dilation and constriction)
Implicit vs explicit attitudes
Explicit- attitudes that people can report and whose expression can be consciously controlled
Implicit- attitudes to which people do not initially have conscious access and whose activation cannot be controlled
How are attitudes formed- mere-exposure
Tendency to develop more positive feelings towards more familiar objects
Advertising example- participants exposed to banner ads at the top of a website rated their reaction to the banner a more positive when they saw it 20 times vs 5 times vs 0 times
Evaluative conditioning
When people are repeatedly exposed to a neutral stimulus that in appears in temporal proximity to an affective stimulus, their subsequent evaluation of the neutral stimulus often becomes more similar to the valence of the affective stimulus
For example- liking the lindt master chocolatier- so you automatically like lindt chocolate
Participants rated a fictitious anti-flu drug as more effective when it was paired with positive vs negative images
Cognitive approach- self-perception
We form attitudes by observing our behaviour and the circumstances in which it occurs and making inferences (attributions)
Participants that evaluated cartoons while holding a pen in their teeth thought the cartoons were funnier than those who held the pen in their lips
Why do we have attitudes- Utilitarian/instrumental
Because they are useful
We are motivated to obtain rewards and avoid punishment
So we develop positive attitudes to objects that help us obtain rewards and reach goals
e.g. positive attitude towards a political party that will advance their economic lot
And negative attitudes to objects that bring punishment or prevent us achieving our goals
e.g. negative attitude towards peanuts if you are allergic
Ego-defensive function
attitudes help protect our self-image i.e. protect us from unacceptable internal and external threat
Students received information suggesting that their self-image as a ‘serious student’ was incorrect or correct
students who received self-image inconsistent information rated it more negatively
Value-expressive function
Attitudes help us express values that are integral to our self-concept
they help communicate what the type of person we are (having a positive attitude towards LGBTQ+ solidarity because you value equality)
Knowledge/cognitive economy function
Attitudes act as schemas
Organise information and give a sense of predictability
act as a frame of reference for sorting new information
e.g. I like fruit, apples are a fruit, so ill probs like them
Attitude change and persuasion
Attitude change is modification of an individuals general evaluative perceptions of a stimulus or set stimuli
Attitude persuasion is an active attempt to change a person’s attitude through information
Changing attitudes through communication
The Yale approach to persuasion- Who says what to whom and with what effect
Source- who is trying to do the persuading
Message- what is the content of the message
Audience- to whom is the message targeted
Source characteristics
Attractiveness- more attractive sources are more persuasive
Credibility- High credibility sources are more persuasive
Message characteristics
Fear appeals- messages that arouse fear are more persuasive
However research has also found that fear appeals are less persuasive or may backfire
Reactance is the motivation to restore behavioural freedoms when they are threatened
Audience characteristics
Need for cognition- an individuals tendency to engage in effortful cognition- found that argument quality had a larger effect on persuasion in individuals high in need for cognition
Self-monitoring- high self-monitors were more positively influenced by an attractive product packaging than low-self monitors
Regulatory focus/fit- whether individuals have a ‘promotion’ (focused on how you can gain something) or ‘prevention’ (focussed on how you can prevent something) focus and how that fits with the regulatory orientation of the message
