Ch 6: Attitudes Flashcards
Attitude
A positive, negative, or mixed reaction to a person, object, or idea.
Self-esteem: attitude about ourselves. Attraction/prejudice: attitudes about others.
an object toward which you hold one attitude can invoke different reactions because you are aware of one feeling but not the other (being open to racial equality while still having unconscious bias)
Dispositional attitude
A generally publicly shared attitude
Evolutionary rationale for attitudes
Attitudes allow us to make quick judgments, avoid bad situations. However, they make us closed-minded, biased, and resistant to change.
Self-report (the problem with it)
Self-report polls are problematic because the wording or context can change answers drastically
Attitude scale
A multiple-item questionnaire designed to measure a person’s attitude toward some object. (answers are often dishonest)
Bogus pipeline
A phony lie-detector device that is sometimes used to get respondents to give truthful answers to sensitive questions.
Covert measures
Discrete questioning to guage public attitudes (e.g. face to face, spread out questions in random places)
Facial electromyograph (EMG)
An electronic instrument that records facial muscle activity associated with emotions and attitudes.
Implicit attitude
An attitude, such as prejudice, that one is not aware of having.
Implicit association test (IAT)
A covert measure of unconscious attitudes derived from the speed at which people respond to pairings of concepts—such as black or white with good or bad. (mostly effective for topics not too sensitive to the subject)
Richard LaPiere (1934) on attitudes and behavior
Proved that attitudes and behavior don’t always align. Called businesses during great depression asking if they would turn away Asians. They confirmed they would, but did not act on this promise.
How are attitudes formed?
- Can be genetically inspired (twins are more likely to share opinions even growing up in different households)
- Can be picked up thru exposure in society, household, school
Evaluative conditioning
The process by which we form an attitude toward a neutral stimulus because of its association with a positive or negative person, place, or thing.
Correspondence
Similarity between attitude measures and behavior.
Theory of planned behavior
The theory that attitudes toward a specific behavior combine with subjective norms and perceived control to influence a person’s actions.
Subjective norms
Our beliefs about what others think we should do. (We are socially pressured to act in ways we don’t agree with)
When do we act on our attitudes?
- When we are socially allowed to
- When we are well informed on our attitudes (climate change experts help the planet)
Central persuasion
Persuasion using facts, in-depth information, explanation (works when people feel strongly about something)
Peripheral persuasion
Make cues and associations between positive stimuli and argument (people voted for kamala harris after taylor swift voted for kamala harris)
When does subliminal messaging work?
When the messages fuel a preexisting motivation (message saying “drink water” will only be convincing if someone is already thirsty)
Mere exposure effect
The more we see something, the more we tend to like it
Study on mere exposure effect with quiet girl in class
She never talked at all, never interacted with anyone, but she was always visible to everyone in the class. If she went to a class more often in a semester, she was more liked by the students.
Difference between subliminal messaging and unconscious priming
Subliminal persuasion cannot be long term if exposure to stimulus is so short term. Unconscious priming is exposure to an unnoticed stimulus over time.
3 factors of persuasion
The source giving the argument must have expertise (researcher, doctor) credibility (never lies, hasn’t been bribed) and attactiveness (hot, likeable, or reminds you of you)
The message must be emotionally convincing (fear works especially well) and have small discrepancy (easy to do habitually)
The audience could be given a one-sided appeal (only pros) if we are already on board, or a two-sided appeal (pros / cons) to convince experts
Need for cognition (NC)
A personality variable that distinguishes people on the basis of how much they enjoy effortful cognitive activities. (High NC people like central persuasion, low NC people like peripheral persuasion)
Persuasion & self-monitoring
High self-monitors like imagery in product names (winter winds), low self-monitors like self-descriptive products (minty fresh candy)
Regulatory Fit
People are more convinced by people that resemble them. Goal-seeking people like enthusiastic persuaders, protective people like laid-back persuaders.
Resistance to challenges of attitudes
Attitude bolstering “here’s why I believe what I do” (most frequent)
Source derogation “here’s where you’re wrong and also just bad” (less frequent)
If people know someone is trying to convince them….
They become harder to convince, especially if they have time to think of a counterargument (around ten minutes ahead of time)
Inoculation hypothesis
The idea that exposure to weak versions of a persuasive argument increases later resistance to that argument.
Psychological reactance
The theory that people react against threats to their freedom by asserting themselves and perceiving the threatened freedom as more attractive. (If an argument is too fierce, our opinions will shift further away from it)
Advertising in different cultures
Advertisements in the west are more individual-oriented. In the east are more group-oriented
Persuasion thru behavior
If we engage in a behavior (dress up in red white and blue on american independence day) we become more convinced of the argument than if someone else tries to persuade us (become patriotic)
Who is the best persuader
We are better at persuading ourselves of things we don’t believe. Other people are better at convincing us of things we want to believe.
Cognitive dissonance theory
Theory holding that inconsistent cognitions arouses psychological tension that people become motivated to reduce (Festinger)
Ways we reduce cognitive dissonance
Change an attitude (I don’t want to abide by this rule)
Change perception of behavior (this behavior was not enough to break my rule)
Add consonant cognitions (this behavior abides by my rules)
Minimize conflict important (who gaf about my rule)
Reduce perceived choice (it’s a special circumstance so I have to break the rule)
Insufficient justification
A condition in which people freely perform an attitude-discrepant behavior without receiving a large reward
Study about boring task and one dollar rewards also applies to hazing
