Attitudes and Persuasion

Question 1

What is an attitude?

Answer 1

An evaluation (positive or negative) of a person, object, or idea

Question 2

What is an explicit attitude?

Answer 2

A conscious evaluation using system 2 processing

Question 3

What is an implicit attitude?

Answer 3

An unconscious association generated by system 1 processing

Question 4

Are explicit and implicit attitudes always consistent?

Answer 4

No! (cats and dogs preference study)

Question 5

How are explicit attitudes measured?

Answer 5

Likert scales and similar approaches

Question 6

How are implicit attitudes measured?

Answer 6

Implicit Association Test (IAT) - measure of implicit attitudes that uses reaction time as the metric

Question 7

What is cognitive dissonance theory (Festinger)?

Answer 7

People dislike inconsistency among their beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors (ex. “I’m X kind of person” but “I do/did Y thing”)

Question 8

What are the 3 ways cognitive dissonance is reduced?

Answer 8

Change something (belief, attitude, or behavior)
Downplay the importance of something
Add something that resolves inconsistency

Question 9

What is insufficient justification?

Answer 9

Dissonance arises following a behavior that is unjustifiably inconsistent with beliefs or attitudes (resolved by bringing the attitude in line with the behavior - Festinger and Carlsmith (1959) peg turning study)

Question 10

What is post-decisional dissonance?

Answer 10

Finalizing a difficult decision often leads to dissonance (i.e. after buying a car, thinking other options could have suited needs better)

Question 11

What is effort justification?

Answer 11

Reducing dissonance by convincing ourselves that suffering was valuable (i.e. hazing)

Question 12

What is persuasion?

Answer 12

Intentional efforts to change someone’s attitude, usually in hopes of changing their behavior

Question 13

What is central route processing?

Answer 13

Thinking systematically and evaluating the arguments; effortful thinking; system 2

Question 14

What are the pros and cons of central route processing?

Answer 14

Pros: Good for long-lasting attitude change, resistant to counterarguments
Cons: Must have motivation and ability to focus on argument

Question 15

What is peripheral route processing?

Answer 15

Being influenced by incidental or irrelevant characteristics

Question 16

What are the pros and cons of peripheral route processing?

Answer 16

Pros: Effective for unmotivated, tired, or distracted audience, also useful when arguments are weak
Cons: Easier to combat when audience is educated

Question 17

What is the Yale approach to attitude change?

Answer 17

“Who says what to whom?”
Who → speaker effects
What → message effects
To whom → audience effects

Question 18

Speaker effects: What makes a speaker more persuasive?

Answer 18

Credibility - a combination of expertise and trustworthiness
Attractiveness - often physical attractiveness, but also being likeable, well-dressed, etc.
Certainty - confidence is persuasive
Similarity - we trust people who are similar to us

Question 19

What is the exception to speaker effects?

Answer 19

The sleeper effect (also called source forgetting) - delayed impact of a message that occurs when we remember the message but forget the reason for discounting it (the source)
ex. getting information from a tabloid

Question 20

What are the message effects?

Answer 20

Speak against your own self-interest - lowers guard
Explicitly refute the other side - two-sided argument (especially if the audience is well-informed)
Vividness - statistics and facts are often less persuasive than a compelling story (identifiable victim effect - i.e. sad dog commercials)
Fear appeals - can increase or decrease persuasion (reception-yielding model - be scary enough to be convincing but not so scary people tune out)

Question 21

What are the best ways to use fear appeals?

Answer 21

Moderate amount of fear (not too much, not too little)
Include a solution

Question 22

What are the audience effects?

Answer 22

Some people are more persuadable than others (mood - good mood is generally better, but could also match the message, i.e. Pepsi and peanuts essay study)

Question 23

How can we resist persuasion?

Answer 23

Be forewarned/prepared
Be informed (harder to be persuaded with more info)
Make a public commitment to your position

Question 24

What is reactance?

Answer 24

A reaction to rules or regulations that inhibit behavioral freedoms - occurs when we feel someone is trying to limit choices/decisions