Attitudes and Persuasion - L2

Question 1

Learning Objectives

Answer 1

Understand what an ‘attitude’ is.

Compare and contrast different theories of attitudes.

Understand how attitudes are formed and changed

Consider the use and utility of methods available to measure attitudes.

Evaluate the use and utility of attitudes for understanding and predicting behaviour.

The most effective methods of persuasion in different contexts.

Question 2

What is an attitude?

Answer 2

The affect for or against a psychological object”

(Thurstone, 1931, p261)

“Attitudes are a mental and neural state of readiness, organised through experience, exerting a directive or dynamic influence upon the individual’s response to all objects and situations with which it is related”

Question 3

How is an attitude represented in memory by?

Answer 3

An evaluative summary of that object.

An object label and rules for applying that label.

A knowledge structure supporting that evaluation.

Question 4

What are the beavioural theories of attitudes?

Answer 4

Mere exposure (Montoya, Horton, Vevea, Citkowicz & Lauber, 2017):
Familiarity breeds contempt!

Classical conditioning (Staats & Staats, 1958):
Neutral stimuli paired with a + or – stimulus takes on that valence.

Instrumental conditioning (Dickinson, 1994):
Attitudes shaped by a reinforcement system of reward and punishment.

Observational learning (Kanekar, 1973):
Modeling in vicarious experiences

Question 5

What are the cognitive theories of attitudes?

Answer 5

Information integration theory (Anderson, 1971):
Formed by ‘averaging’ available information on object.

Mood-as-information hypothesis (Schwarz, & Clore, 2003):
Emotion (mood) provides basis of evaluation of objects.

Heuristic / Associative processing (Bohner, Moskowitz & Chaiken, 1995):
Decision ‘rules of thumb’ are used to make judgments and form ‘mental shortcuts’ in memory.

Question 6

How is an attitude formed?

Answer 6

Self-perception theory:

Infer attitudes from own behaviour (Bem, 1960)

e.g.Heterosexual anxiety (Haemmerlie & Montgomery, 1982; 1984)

Question 7

What are the sources of attitude formation?

Answer 7

Parents:
Infer attitudes from those closest to you.
Strength of association ranges from:
Strong for broad issues e.g. politics, religion (Jennings & Niemi, 1968),
Very weak for specific attitudes (Connell, 1972).

Mass media:
Particularly television is an important influence of attitude formation especially in children.
links between television advertisements and children’s attitude (Atkin, 1982).

Question 8

What is the range of attitude measures?

Answer 8

Range of attitude measures:

Attitude scales (e.g. Likert [Willits, Theodori & Luloff, 2016]).

Physiological measures (focus on intensity [Ito & Cacioppo, 2007]).

Unobtrusive, indirect measures (e.g. behavioural observation).

Implicit measures of attitudes (Petty, Fazio & Brinol, 2008).

Question 9

What are explicit measures?

Answer 9

Questionnaires.

Focus groups.

Interviews.

Measured directly.

Good construct validity.

Prone to self-presentation bias.

Predictive of deliberate behaviours.

Question 10

What are implicit measures?

Answer 10

Implicit associations task.

Non-verbal behaviour.

Examining behaviour.

Evaluative priming.

Difficult to fake.

Measured indirectly.

Prone to reliability problems.

Predictive of automatic behaviours.

Question 11

What is evaluative priming?

Answer 11

Categorise target words as fast as you can!

Precede by a +/- prime.

Positive words with positive prime were better remembered, more quickly categorised.

Examins evaluations at the individual level

Results are the average of the chosen stimuli.

Question 12

What is a criticism of evaluative priming?

Answer 12

Internal consistency low.

Test-retest reliability low.

Predictive variability low.

Convergeant reliability low.

Not just evaluative priming problems.

Question 13

What is the implicit association task?

Answer 13

dunno luv google it

Question 14

What are the underlying processes of the IAT?

Answer 14

Spreading activation account:

Get priming stimulus.
Activation of prime spreads to other stimuli (including other targets).
Prime: Delightful activates related terms (e.g. chocolate, holiday, hobbies).
Secondary prime chocolate presented, but already partially activated.
Response conflict account:

Get priming stimulus.

Produces response.

Target stimulus is incongruent with prime. Slows response rate.

Question 15

What were the results of a Meta-analysis of predictive validity of implicit and explicit measures of attitude?

Answer 15

Included 184 samples.
Implicit measures average r = 0.27.
Explicit measures average r = 0.36 (with greater variability).
Predictive validity is higher when correlated.
Across dominans, both valuable as both predict variables independent of the other.

Question 16

How does social sensitivity effect predicting behaviour?

Answer 16

Social sensitivity moderates predictive value of explicit measures of attitude.

Much weaker for implicit measures.

Question 17

How do Implicit and explicit correspondence effect predicting behaviour?

Answer 17

Implicit and Explicit correspondence increases predictive validity of both measures.

• Response factors reduce correspondence: demand characteristics; evaluation apprehension; role playing.
• Controllability of behaviour did not implact predictive validity.
• Correspondence between attitude and behavioural measures.
• Complementarity of response categories for IATs.
• Introspective limits.

Question 18

Are implicit measures of attitude affective?

Answer 18

Sometimes characterised as more affective than explicitly measured attitudes.

Actually found to correlate best with cognitive attitude component.

Question 19

Are implicit measures of attitude more predictive of spontaneous behaviour?

Answer 19

Dual process theories predict:

Explicit measures of attitude -> Deliberate Behaviour.

Implicit measures of attitude -> Spontaneous Behaviour.

Alternatively: both measures comprise deliberative and spontaneous components.

Mixed evidence.

Question 20

How has predictive validity been studied?

Answer 20

Predicting shy behaviour.

139 heterosexual young adults.

Videotaped in a shyness inducing situation.

Question 21

What were the results of predicting shy behaviour?

Answer 21

Likely to be shy because of:

Unfamiliarity of other, opposite sex, attractiveness, evaluation by the confederate, and the video recording.

Coded behaviour for ‘shyness’.

Speech, body movements, gaze aversion, tenseness of body posture.

Question 22

What does the IAT and Explicit self rating predict about predicting shyness?

Answer 22

IAT predicted spontaneous (but not controlled) behavour.

Explicit self ratings predicted controlled (but not spontaneous) behaviour.

Question 23

What is the single attitudes model?

Answer 23

Single attitude model:

Joint function of deliberative and spontaneous processes (dual process theories).

Explicit and implicit different ways or measuring the same thing.

Question 24

What is the dual attitudes model?

Answer 24

Can hold two (or more) attitudes towards the same thing at the same time.

Which is endorsed will depend on the situation (motivation and cognitive capacity).

Question 25

What is the Elaboration Likelihood model - (a dual process theory)?

Answer 25

How motivated and able you are will determine information processing route.

Central route: When message is followed closely, considerable cognitive effort expended.

Peripheral route: Superficial processing of peripheral cues, attraction rather than information.

Question 26

What are the Persuasive factors that can influence attitudes (dual process theory)?

Answer 26

Persuasive factors can influence attitudes in 4 different ways:

As a cue.

As an argument.

Determining cognitive elaboration.

Biasing processing of available information.

Question 27

What does the Elaboration lieklyhood model look like?

Answer 27

attitudes lec 2 slide 30
(Petty & Cacioppa, 1986)

Question 28

What is the Heuristic – systematic model (dual process model of persuasion)?

Answer 28

Systematic processing - careful, deliberative scanning and processing of available information.

Heuristic processing - people use ‘cognitive heuristics’ (‘shortcuts’) to make judgements:

Question 29

What are some examples of heuristic processing?

Answer 29

‘longer arguments are always convincing.’

‘he looks knowledgeable.’

‘you can’t trust a lawyer.’

‘statistics don’t lie.’

Question 30

What is the Bias hypothesis (dual process model of persuasion)?

Answer 30

Bias hypothesis – heuristic cues may bias effects of systematic processing.

Question 31

What else halts systematic processing - Bias hypothesis?

Answer 31

Use of systematic processing also halted by:

Mood (people in good moods tend to use heuristics).

Emotion (high-fear messages tend to be processed peripherally while low-fear more centrally).

Question 32

What are the differences between the Elaboration Likelyhood model and Heuristic- Systematic model?

Answer 32

Differences:

ELM: Inverse relationship between central and peripheral processing

HSM: Heuristic and systematic processing can occur simultaneously

ELM Flexible in accounting for effects / difficult to predict outcomes.

Conflates message characteristics with processes.

Variety of phenomena specific dual process models – unclear how they are similar/different.

Question 33

What is the Reflective impulse model (generalised dual process theory)?

Answer 33

Reflective Impulsive model:

Reflective (RS) – propositional relations between stimuli, tagged with truth values (e.g. true/false).

Impulsive systems (IS) – simple associations activated according to similarity and contiguity.

Operate simultaneously but IS has priority as RS only operates when cognitive capacity.

Question 34

What are some applications of the Reflective impulse model?

Answer 34

Model has generated range of testable predictions.

IS cannot process negations or representations of the future.

Motivation key role and can operate within IS in activating related actions, and schemata to meet needs.

Question 35

How do we use persuasive communication?

Answer 35

Source or communicator:
Experts more persuasive.
Popular / attractive people more effective.
People speaking more quickly conveys expertise.

Message:
More effective if perceived as not trying to influence.
Repetition increases familiarity, belief, and liking.

Audience:
People with low self-esteem more susceptible to influence.

Question 36

What features does the Source/Communicator need to be effective?

Answer 36

Experts more persuasive / credible than non-experts (Hovland & Weiss, 1951):

Popular and attractive communicators more effective (Joseph, 1982).

Fast talking more effective (Miller, Maruyama, Beaber & Valone, 1976).

Question 37

What features does the message need to be effective?

Answer 37

Messages masquerading as non-presuasion are more persuasive.

Persuasion increased if messages match audience attitudes.

Repetition increases: Belief; familiarity; liking

Question 38

How persuasive is fear?

Answer 38

Early research suggested low-fear was optimal (e.g., dental hygiene [Janis & Feshbach, 1953]).

High-fear message promoted greater willingness to stop smoking (Leventhal et al. 1967).

Question 39

What is the inverted U hypothesis (persuasiveness of fear)?

Answer 39

The ‘inverted-U’ hypothesis (McGuire, 1969):

Messages with too little fear may not highlight the potential harm of the targeted act.

Very disturbing images may distract people from the message itself or may evoke an ‘avoidance’ reaction (Block & Keller, 1995).

(if youre really scared or really not scared you wont have a lot of atitude change, but if youre middle scared you ill)

Question 40

What did a meta analysis of Fear appeals show?

Answer 40

• Strong fear appeals produce high levels of perceived severity and susceptibility, and are most persuasive.
• Strong fear appeals and high-efficacy messages produce the greatest behaviour change.
• Strong fear appeals with low-efficacy messages produce the greatest levels of defensive responses. Ignore message, discredit source.
• Fear can motivate adaptive actions e.g. message acceptance and maladaptive actions e.g. defensive avoidance.

(Witte & Allen, 2000)

Question 41

How has fear been used to communicate climate change?

Answer 41

Messages that provoked fear:
Were more memorable.
Increased perceived severity of the problem.

Overall messages that focused on positives:
Increased positive attitudes towards climate change mitigation.

Question 42

What is outcome framing?

Answer 42

Health psychology suggests that focusing on gains or losses is differentially useful for different behaviour.

Question 43

What are gains and losses in outcome framing?

Answer 43

Gains – useful for behaviours perceived as low in risk.

Often preventative behaviours, e.g. applying sunscreen.
Mitigating climate change fits here.

Losses – useful for behaviours perceived as higher in risk.

Sometimes detection behaviours, e.g. cancer screening, (short term risk of detecting negative outcome) – but evidence mixed here.

Question 44

How does audience self esteem effect attitude change?

Answer 44

People with low self-esteem were more susceptible to persuasion and attitude change.

Follows an inverted-U relationship:

Low self esteem – less attentive, more anxious.

High self esteem – less susceptible to influence, more self assured.

Question 45

How does audience gender effect attitude change? - women

Answer 45

Women more easily persuaded than men:
Socialisation into cooperative roles.
Women less familiar with male orientated topics?
Meta-analysis indicates that across studies and topics, women more easily persuaded.
May be due to predominance of male researchers.

Women more persuasive in traditional ‘female’ domains (e.g., nursing)

Tempered when women also display warmth and communality

Question 46

How does the audience gender effect attitude change? - men

Answer 46

Men particularly resistant to influence by women – especially when communication has a highly competent, powerful style.

Question 47

What is cognitive dissonance theory?

Answer 47

How attitudes, behaviour and self-esteem (self-image) are linked.

(Can drive) behaviour driving change in attitudes.

Cognitive dissonance – unpleasant state of psychological tension when inconsistency occurs.

Any inconsistency may motivate change.

Part of family of balance theory models – people try to be consistent in thought and action.

Question 48

What is the first premise of cognitive dissonance?

Answer 48

Premise 1: If a person behaves OR is presented with information that is counter attitudinal an internal conflict arises – ‘dissonance’.

Question 49

What is the second premise of cognitive dissonance?

Answer 49

Premise 2: Dissonance motivates people to make alterations to their behavioural or internal states to restore equilibrium.

Question 50

What is the third premise of cognitive dissonance?

Answer 50

Premise 3: Dissonance can be attenuated (reduced) using 3 means.

Reducing the importance of one of the dissonant elements (attitude change).

Adding a ‘consonant’ element (cognitive re-appraisal).

Changing one of the dissonant elements (behaviour).

Question 51

What are the stages of cognitive dissonance?

Answer 51

Example: Student.

Cognition: “I’m intelligent.”

Event: Scoring poorly in exams / assessments.

Discrepancy: Intelligence should read to good results.

Outcomes: “I don’t care about intelligence”; “I don’t have time to study’; “My lecturer is rubbish”; “This module is too difficult”.

Question 52

How can you increase/decrease cognitive dissonance?

Answer 52

Engaging in socially undesirable action (e.g. not wearing mask) raises risk of cognitive dissonance.

Cannot alter the past – cannot have worn a mask.

Only solution to resolve dissonance therefore is to alter attitude.

Consequently, alter future behaviours too in order to maintain coherence.

Question 53

research this

Answer 53

induced cognitive dissonance

(Festinger, 1957, 1959; Harmon-Jones & Mills, 2019)

(Festinger & Carlsmith, 1959)

Question 54

What does cognitive dissonance describe?

Answer 54

the tension caused by the discrepancy between individuals beliefs and their current behaviour.

As dissonance is unpleasant, we’re motivated to change either our actions, or our attitudes.

Cognitive dissonance can be induced.

Question 55

What are the paradigms discussed within cognitive dissonance?

Answer 55

Belief disconfirmation (Festinger, Riecken, &Schachter, 1956).

Induced compliance (Festinger & Carlsmith, 1959).

Effort justification (Aronson & Mills, 1959).

Free choice (Brehm, 1956).

Hypocrisy (Aronson, Fried, & Stone, 1991).

Question 56

What promotes behaviour change in cognitive dissonance?

Answer 56

Hypocrisy seems most effective dissonance for promoting behaviour change.

Publicly advocate a given opinion.

Privately remember recent personal failures.

Public reminders can produce feelings of shame, humiliation, and a ‘backlash effect’.

Question 57

Conclusion

Answer 57

Attitudes: The preparedness we have for a psychological evaluation of a given psychological object.

Usefulness of attitudes is in predicting behaviour.

Changing attitudes can promote desired behaviours.

And can be achieved through a variety of routes, including exploiting cognitive dissonance!

Nuance required! Not all attitudes are vulnerable to the same forms of influence.

Question 58

Readings

Answer 58

Aronson, Fried, & Stone (1991).

Festinger (1957).

Harmon-Jones & Mills (2019).

Hogg & Vaughan, Chapters 5 & 6