Attitudes

Question 1

cognitive dissonance

Answer 1

• feeling of discomfort caused by holding two conflicting cognitions
• Motivates change in cognition or behaviour to reduce conflict
• Ex. You could start recycling (changing behaviour), or decide that it’s not that important (changing cognition)
• Some element of choice is necessary to create dissonance (importance of external justification) - ex. Lisa’s forced choice doesn’t create dissonance

Question 2

Festinger study: cognitive dissonance and lying

Answer 2

• publicly stating someone you don’t privately believe creates dissonance -> can be reduced by retracting statement or changing private opinion
• Study: Boring task, people were paid either $20 or $1 to lie to others and tell them it was exciting
• People in the $1 condition felt dissonance (they had less justification for lying), causing them to convince themselves it was a fun task
• People in the $20 condition did not feel dissonance because they had enough justification for lying

Question 3

Elaboration Likelihood Model

Answer 3

• 2 routes to change attitudes through persuasion: central route and peripheral route

Question 4

central route

Answer 4

compelling arguments about why a product, etc. is good

Question 5

peripheral route

Answer 5

focuses on communicator attributes (ex. Attractive, expert, famous, etc.) and surface attributes of message (lots of long arguments – ie. Like bs-ing your way through a paper and hoping to convince your teacher)

Question 6

central and peripheral routes: when is each one effective?

Answer 6

• Key: motivation and ability to pay attention
• • Ability: level of distraction
• • Motivation: level of personal relevance, knowledge, and accountability
• High motivation and ability = central route
• Low motivation and ability = peripheral route

Question 7

long-term consequences of 2 routes

Answer 7

• central route (vs. peripheral):
• • more enduring
• • more resistant to later influence
• • more predictive of behaviour

Question 8

Festinger dissonance study: what did they find?

Answer 8

• cognitive dissonance plays a role in:
• • making a decision
• • lying
• • temptation

Question 9

Festinger study: cognitive dissonance and making a decision

Answer 9

• Once someone makes a choice, the attractive features of the thing they did not choose (or the unattractive features of the thing they chose) produce dissonance
• To reduce dissonance, must persuade themselves that attractive features of rejected alternative aren’t attractive (or vice versa)
• Ex. teen girl record study – rated record they chose higher than other record on the re-rating than the pre-rating (to reduce dissonance)

Question 10

Festinger study: cognitive dissonance and temptation

Answer 10

• Wanting something you cannot have creates dissonance – ex. Attractive aspects of a fun activity are dissonant with the knowledge that you can’t engage in it
• Ex. Kid’s toy study: kids play with all toys, then told they can’t play with one -> kids threatened with mild punishment showed dissonance and reduction (weak external justification), as shown in comparison of pre- vs. Post-ratings of toys)