Attitudes and behaviour Flashcards
What is an atttude?
Relatively stable representation, containing a value and a strength, a state of readiness of preferences, influenced by experience, that influences current appraisal and via that way, behaviour.
What is the iterative reprocessing model of attitudes? (Cunningham and Zelazo, 2007)
Interactionist model of automatic and controlled. Automatic is processing with just a few iterations and few processes involved, whereas the controlled end of the continuum is characterized by having had more iterations. Hierarchical, the first iterations are continued to be used later on. Evaluation is updated all the time by more iterations. Number of iterations depend on: motivation, need for cognition, time constraints,
What brain areas have what role in the IR model of attitudes?
- perceptual info processed by thalamus -> AMY/vstriatum
- AMY + vstriatum respond to innately relevant stimuli by activating physical responses via hypothalamus+internal states insula. general tendencyapproach/avoidance generated
- OFC, valued outcomes bhvr in specific learned context represented to guide response.
- if more reprocessing allowed by situation/ACC signals conflict, more controlled proc regions recruited in later iterations
- VLPFC, DLPFC, RLPFC: conditional rules, goal in WM, focusing on /inhibiting certain aspects
What early results in racial attitude research were used as support for the dual processing model
- IAT bias was correlated with more AMY to black vs white faces
- when faces subliminal, more AMY to black, but no difference when explicit, accompanied by ACC, lateral pfc
Which study result by Phelps (2000) offers support for the idea that negative implicit attitudes towards Blacks are learned stereotypes rather than general outgroup bias or familiarity with own race?
- blacks show the same bias on an IAT
- the bias on the IAT disappears when faces are used of familiar, positively evaluated Blacks and Whites.
- the result reverses when instructed to see the person as an individual (i.e., an individual that may deviate from a stereotype) Method: ‘does this person like veggies” instead of ‘which race’
Which factors influence whether or not a race bias is found?
- task: verbal labelling requires more controlled processing than matching, which makes raise in AMY disappear
- ego depletion: regulation takes resoures, after socializing with Black person, people are less able to regulate
- timing: regulation on AMY via DLPFC is done after 500ms, but not yet after 30ms
How did Richeson 2003 propose to test the role of ego depletion in the regulation of race bias?
- people interact with a Black person
- the people with more implicit bias would have more dlpfc activation in order to succesfully regulate the interaction, which depletes resources
- these ppl would show more interference on a Stroop task
How did they show that implicit processing is always happening?
- instructions to judge good/bad or abstract/concrete
2. AMY, insula, OFC activation found in both the evaluative as the nonevaluative judgement task
Which evidence shows that controlled processing areas are only used when there is a clear intention to evaluate?
- ACC, VLPFC, DLPFC, RLPFC was correlated with a “tendency to control response” rating only during good-bad judgement but not abstract-concrete judgement
- these were also activated when judging good/bad (but NOT past/present) in stimuli that were ambiguous (Bill Clinton but not Hitler) and needed some form of conflict resolution
What is the role of the vmpfc in the Pepsi Paradox
Both vmpfc lesioned patients and controls show pepsi preference in blind taste test, but healthy pps conform to public opinion which is favorable towards Coca Cola when measured in open taste test. VMPFC lesioned ppl do not show this conformity to demand characteristics.
Why does the Stereotype Content Model predict that groups scoring low warmth and low competence are dehumanized but the others are not?
- this combo elicits disgust, a social emotion that is unique bc it can be elicited by both objects and humans
- the attitudes are most extreme bc while the others are positive or mixed, this group is appraised with both negative ends
What were the findings of the study investigating the prediction that low warmth low competence groups are dehumanized? Harris and FIske 2006
- all the other quadrant pictures were associated with an increase of vmpfc activaiton compared to baseline (fixation cross) but not the low warmth and low competence group. Instead, it showed AI and AMY increase, associated with feelings of disgust
- > looking at pictures of this group resembles more looking at objects than looking at humans
Decety, Echels 2009 did a study on empathy for pain to see if there is a difference in empathy/resonance towards HIV (drug) , HIV (transfusion) or healthy people. What was the method
- shown video clips of people in different groups in pain (tinnitus)
- questionnaires: explicit HIV attidudes, blame towards HIV drug, blame towards HIV transfusion, drug use attitude,
- amount of empathy experienced (adjectives)
- amount of pain of target, amount of distress participant
- aids IAT
What were the findings of the Decety study on empathy for pain (HIV vs healthy)
- HIV transfusion targets were rated as experiencing more pain and pps felt more empathy towards them
- HIV drug targets had lower atrbutions of pain in case IF higher blame for HIV drug or more bias on AIDS IAT
- more MCC and AI activation to HIV transfusion vs HIV drug, but not for HIV general vs healthy
What are implications of the Decety study on empathy for pain (HIV drug vs HIV transfusion vs healthy)
empathy, pain resonance are not solely dependent on bottom up processes, but also modified by attitudes about HIV and blame. The blame attribution matters more for empathy than being part of the stigmatized HIV group.
