attitudes Flashcards
what are attitudes
an attitude toward any concept is simply a person’s general feeling of favorableness or unfavorableness for that concept” (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980, p. 54)
what are the 3 components of attitudes
- affect
- behaviour
- cognition
affect
3 components of attitudes
how we feel about the attitude object
how we behave towards an attitude object
3 components of attitudes
cognition
3 components of attitudes
what we know and believe about the attitude object
where do attitudes come from
4
- experince
- social roles & norms
- classical & operant conditioning
- observing people in enviroment
measuring attitudes
- Attitudes are often measured through explicit measures, in which participants are directly asked about their attitudes towards objects, people, or issues (e.g., a survey).
- However, sometimes people may not be willing or able to report their attitudes,especially about sensitive topics.
- ## We can also try and figure out what people’s attitudes are without asking directly. For example, we might try to infer a person’s attitude through the speed of their reaction times.These are known as implicit measures.
- Individuals’ implicit attitudes are sometimes inconsistent with their explicitly held attitudes!
are attitudes useful for predicting behavior ?
- Undergraduate students (N=137) completed various measures about binge drinking (including attitudes) and reported frequency of binge drinking one month later (N=109).
- These measures predicted 75% of the variance in binge drinking intentions, and 35% of the variance in behaviour [Norman, 2011]
People often behave according to their attitudes (often enough that they’re a useful predictor), but not always.
when do attitudes best predict behaviour?
- When attitudes are strong or have been held for a long time
- When social influences on attitudes are minimized (i.e. people report more honestly)
- When the measure of attitudes is specific to the behaviour
- When explicit measures are used to predict deliberate behaviours, and implicit measures to predict automatic behaviours
Examples of attitude-behaviour inconsistency
studies
people generally report positive attitudes to pro-environmental behaviours, but most people do not behave in ways consistent with their attitudes [Gupta & Ogden, 2009]
young people’s attitude toward texting and driving had no correlation with whether they actually texted while driving [Atchley et al., 2011]
the theory of reasoned action [e.g. Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980]
The Theory of Reasoned Action, by Ajzen and Fishbein (1980), posits that behavior is driven by intentions influenced by:
- Attitude: An individual’s positive or negative evaluation of the behavior.
- Subjective Norms: Perceived social pressures regarding the behavior.
If a person has a positive attitude and believes significant others support the behavior, they are more likely to intend to act, leading to actual behavior. The theory emphasizes rational decision-making based on evaluations.
subjective norms
- ‘a person’s . . . perception that most people who are important to him think he should or should not perform the behavior in question’ (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980, p. 57)
- ‘a person’s perception of the social pressures put on him to perform or not perform the behavior in question’ (p. 6).
the theory of planned behaviour
The Theory of Planned Behavior, developed by Ajzen in 1985, posits that behavior is influenced by three components:
- Attitude: Evaluation of the behavior.
- Subjective Norms: Perceived social pressures regarding the behavior.
- Perceived Behavioral Control: Belief in one’s ability to perform the behavior.
These factors together shape intentions, which predict actual behavior, highlighting that perceived control can impact the likelihood of acting on intentions.
perceived behavioural control
- ‘people’s perceptions of the degree to which they are capable of, or have control over, performing a given behaviour’ (Fishbein & Ajzen, 2010, p. 64)
- “the person’s belief as to how easy or difficult performance of the behavior is likely to be” (Ajzen & Madden, 1986, p. 457)
Using the TPB to predict binge drinking in students
- Undergraduate students (N=137) completed various measures about binge drinking (attitude, subjective norm, perceived control, self-efficacy, intention, habit strength) and reported frequency of binge drinking one month later (N=109)
- Attitude and self-efficacy (but not norms) predicted intentions, and both intentions and habits predicted behaviour
[Norman, 2011]
how well does the theory of planned behaviour predict behaviour?
- Some good evidence for this has come from meta-analyses, which combine the results of many similar studies together
- e.g., all published studies which included measures of attitudes / norms / perceived behavioural control at Time 1, and then measured behaviour at Time 2
- One meta-analysis of 237 studies on health behaviours found that the TPB explained 19.3% of variability in behaviour
[McEachan et al., 2011]
limitations of the theory of planned behaviour
- Better at predicting some behaviours than others
- e.g., better at predicting rational, deliberative behaviours than spontaneous, unintentional, or habitual behaviour
-
More useful for predicting behaviour than changing it
- e.g., it might tell us perceived behavioural control is an important predictor of a behaviour, but that doesn’t tell us how to change this factor (or whether it can even be changed)
Fishbein & Ajzen, 2010; Ajzen, 2014
- Predicting intentions isn’t the same thing as predicting behaviour
- The correlation between intentions and behaviour is around .45 to .62
Ajzen & Fishbein, 2006
the intention-behaviour gap
- Even strong intentions are translated into behaviour only about half the time
Webb & Sheeran, 2006
- People might fail to act on intentions for multiple reasons(e.g. they forget to act, they don’t know how to act, they encounter obstacles)
- This means that psychologists can predict intentions quite well with the TPB but are less good at predicting behaviourWebb & Sheeran, 2006
Since the TPB, the role of NORMS has been further developed
- The Reasoned Action Approach is an even more complicated model building on the TRA and TPB
- One interesting change is the replacement of ‘subjective norm’ with ‘perceived norm’, which is a combination of:
- injunctive norm: perceptions concerning what should or ought to be done with respect to performing a given behaviour
- descriptive norm: perceptions that others are or are not performing the behaviour
how well do attitudes predict behaviour ?
Attitudes tend to correspond to behaviour, but don’t explain everything, and their ability to predict behaviour depends upon how accurately attitudes and behaviour are measured
which other factors are important ?
Perceived behavioural control and subjective norms are also factors which improve our ability to predict behaviour
cognitive consistency
- Beliefs, attitudes, values, behaviour, and mentalrepresentations ‘are mutually interdependent parts of a systemthat tends toward a state of harmony, balance, or consonance’(Eagly & Chaiken, 1993, p. 455)
Maintaining consistency is an important human motive, especially when inconsistencies threaten our self-view
when prophecy fails [Festinger, Riecken, & Schachter, 1956]
- Marion Keech claimed that aliens from the planet Clarion revealed to her the world would end in a great flood on December 21st 1956.
- Festinger and colleagues infiltrated her cult, whose members believed they would be picked up by a flying saucer before the world was destroyed.
- When the flying saucer did not turn up, the believers were stunned, but did not doubt Mrs Keech. At 4am she received a message from the aliens to say the believers of the cult had saved the world because of their great faith.
cognitive dissonance
a state of emotional discomfort that people experience when they hold inconsistent attitudes or engage in behaviour that is inconsistent with their attitudes or beliefs
cognitive dissonance theory [Festinger, 1957]
- Based on the idea that we are sensitive to inconsistencies between our attitudes, beliefs, and behaviours (the principle of cognitive consistency)
- If there is an inconsistency (i.e. a dissonance), we experience this as aversive
- This aversive experience motivates us to reduce or eliminate the dissonance/inconsistency
classic study on cognitive dissonance [Festinger & Carlsmith, 1959]
£1
- 71 college student volunteers spent an hour performingboring and repetitive tasks.
- Half of them were offered $20 (large external justification) to tell the next volunteer it was very interesting while the others were offered only $1 (small external justification) for lying.
- Later, the participants were asked how much they really liked the task. Those who were paid only $1 rated the task as significantly more enjoyable than those who were paid $20.
another classic study on cognitive dissonance
options
- Once we make a decision, we tend to rate our chosen option as more desirable than the ones we didn’t choose, even if we rated them similarly before the decision
Brehm, 1956
- Focusing on the positive aspects of our chosen optionand the negative aspects of rejected options could be seen as a strategy for reducing dissonance
AND another classic study on cognitive dissonance
outcome
- When people have to do something more effortful and embarrassing to join a group, they rate the group as more interesting
Aronson & Mills, 1959
- If you put in a lot of effort to achieve something and the outcome is not as good as you hoped, this creates dissonance. Changing your attitudes is one way to reduce this dissonance.
When do we experience greater dissonance ?
- The more important our beliefs or decisions are to us, the greater the dissonance.
- Dissonance is most powerful and most upsetting when it threatens our self-image.
- Decisions cause greater dissonance when they have significant consequences and when they are not easily undone.
Sometimes we reduce dissonance by changing our behaviour
- The studies in the previous section show sometimes people change their attitude or behaviour to reduce dissonance
- This means that creating dissonance can be used as a strategy to influence behaviour (e.g., by health psychologists or advertisers)
How else might we try to reduce dissonance?
- Changing attitudes or behaviour can be difficult, especially if these are long- held beliefs or long-standing patterns of behaviour
- Festinger suggested there are two other strategies people might use to reduce the perception of conflict between two dissonant cognitions or behaviours:
- Add extra information that decreases the inconsistency
- Decrease the importance of one of the conflicting cognitions
Dealing with dissonance: Adding new information
- Acquire new information that outweighs the dissonant beliefs, or that makes the conflicting behaviour or belief seem more logical or justifiable
- Seek out information that contradicts the dissonant belief, e.g.that eating meat does not contribute to global warming
- Add cognitions or behaviours consistent with your attitude(attitude bolstering; Sherman and Gorkin, 1980)
- Self-affirmation, or thinking about your other positive qualities
confirmation bias
Confirmation bias is our tendency to actively seek out information that confirms our pre-existing beliefs, and ignore information that contradicts them
- As well as being a strategy for reducing any dissonance we do experience, confirmation bias often prevents us experiencing dissonance in the first place
dealing with dissonance: reducing importance
- Rationalize, e.g. “it’s okay if I only do it occasionally”
- Devalue conflicting knowledge (“fake news!”)
- Deny responsibility for the dissonant behaviour (Gosling et al., 2006)
How do students deal with dissonance about drinking?
about the study from the key reading
- Qualitative study on 19 students who hadexperienced memory loss from drinking in thepast year
- Students experienced dissonance becausethey viewed blackout drinking as a negativehealth behaviour, but continued to engage in it
- Students tended to add new cognitions as away of reducing the cognitive dissonance, e.g.“other students do this more than I do”, “it’s out of my control” Wombacher et al, 2019
cognitive dissonance: what is it ?
An unpleasant state that we experience when our attitudes, beliefs, or behaviours are inconsistent with one another, and which motivates us to reduce this inconsistency
when and why do people experience dissonance ?
We might experience dissonance in situations when we behave in ways that don’t match how we’d like to see ourselves, put effort into something that doesn’t pay off, or have to make a difficult decision
what do people do to reduce cognitive dissoance ?
We can either change one of the things causing the inconsistency, or we can decrease our perception of conflict by adding consistent information or devaluing inconsistent information
