Attitudes and persuasion Flashcards
Attitude
Evaluation of how we feel about certain things
Mastery function of attitudes
Help us organize knowledge and guides behavior
Connectedness function of attitudes
Express identity, impression management
Affective based attitudes
Emotional reaction to attitude object guides feelings
Behavioral based attitudes
How we engage with object/behave influences our feelings
Cognitive based attitudes
Using knowledge to determine our feelings (weighing pros and cons)
2 key aspects of attitudes
Direction (positive/negative/ambivalent) and intensity (how important attitude is to you)
Classical conditioning
Stimulus that elicits an emotional response is accompanied by a neutral, nonemotional stimulus and eventually, the neutral stimulus elicits the emotional response by itself
Familiarity heuristic
We like things we’re familiar with
Attractiveness heuristic
We like things associated with attractive/likeable people
Expertise heuristic
More likely to form an attitude based around what an expert says
Study on minimal groups paradigms
White people categorize people who are racially ambiguous as Black when they are angry - randomly assigned either red or blue, told who is in-group vs out-group; more likely to categorize angry faces as out-group members
Familiarity heuristic study
Presented non-Mandarin speaking Chinese participants with Chinese characters; liked the characters that were familiar even if they didn’t have specific memories about them
Message length heuristic
Longer messages are more important/persuasive (even if argument is poor)
Forming an attitude based on systematic processing
Attending to info, comprehend it, reaction, accept/reject a specific position, persistent attitudes will hold up better
Central route to persuasion
Using facts and content of argument; leads to longer lasting and resistant attitudes
Peripheral route to persuasion
Based on qualities of messenger; using attractiveness, rewards, etc
Elaboration Likelihood Model
Persuaded by central route when we are motivated and able to pay attention, persuaded by peripheral route when we are lacking motivation and unable to pay attention
Study on Elaboration Likelihood Model
Three manipulations - strong vs weak argument (rep. central route), written by high school student vs Princeton professor (rep. peripheral route), implemented that year vs in 10 years (rep. motivation to pay attention); when personal relevance was high, argument quality mattered more vs when personal relevance was low, expertise mattered more
Study on how mood effects persuasion
Had participants reflect on either happy or sad life events then had them listen to an announcement on student fees and told them to focus on either argument quality or the language used; bad mood condition was more critical of the argument regardless of whether or not they were told to focus on it
Attitude inoculation
Build immunity to persuasion by coming up with counterarguments to smaller persuasion
Study on attitude inoculation (weed/peer pressure)
The best predictor of teens smoking weed is whether or not they have a friend who does, previous inoculation (DARE programs, health class) helps to resist peer pressure
Study on attitude inoculation (college student credit card debt)
Inoculated group had better counterarguments than control; control group was more likely to apply for a credit card later
Psychological reactance
When people feel their freedom to perform a certain behavior is threatened, an unpleasant state of resistance is aroused, which they can reduce by performing the prohibited behavior
Study on reactance (text vs graphic warnings on cigarette boxes)
Reactance to graphic warnings was greater than that of text warnings
Study on reactance (scary smoking film vs instructions on how to stop smoking)
Participants shown the scary film and instructions on how to stop smoking were more likely to stop compared to those just shown the film or just given the instructions
Attitude-behavior link study (refusing service to Asian customers)
Chinese-American couple were only rejected from one establishment; 6 months later when a questionnaire was sent asking if they would refuse service to Asian customers, 92% of the establishments said yes; way we think we would behave doesn’t always align with actual behavior
Spontaneous behaviors
We think very little about, attitude accessibility matters
Deliberative behaviors
We think a lot about
Theory of Planned Behavior
When people have to contemplate how they’re going to behave, the best predictor of behavior is their intention; determined by attitudes toward specific behavior, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control
Study on Theory of Planned Behavior
Specific attitudes had the highest correlation with intention to use condoms for AIDS prevention, then subjective norms, then perceived control; opposite for pregnancy prevention; intention predicts behavior
Operant conditioning
Behaviors we freely choose to perform become more or less frequent, depending on whether they are followed by a reward or punishment
Explicit attitudes
Attitudes we consciously endorse and can easily report
Implicit attitudes
Involuntary, uncontrollable, and at times unconscious
Attitude toward specific behavior
The more specific the attitude, the better it can be expected to predict the behavior
Subjective norms
Beliefs about how others we care about will view the behavior influence our behavior
Perceived behavioral control
Intentions are influenced by the ease with which we believe we can perform the behavior
Persuasive communication
Message advocating a particular side of an issue
