ch8: attitudes and behavior Flashcards
how are attitudes and behavior connected
o Actions influence attitudes
o Given the right conditions, attitudes influence actions
male factory workers experiment
careers of male factory workers – those promoted to foremen soon showed increased sympathy for management’s viewpoint, those elected to union offices adopted more hard-line union positions
o Careers can dictate conduct
playing the role of US advisers experiment
students playing the role of US advisers in international negotiation games often develop hard-line pro-US positions
attitudes based on associations with actions
o Some actions are associated with agreement, pleasure, approach (even ambivalence – people standing on a Wii balance board moved from side to side rather than leaning forward or backwards when they had mixed reactions)
pull up or down on a bar experiment
participants told to pull up or won on a bar while evaluating “foreign” words
o Those who pulled up on the bar liked the words more than those who were pushing down – associated positivity or negativity of the muscle movement
o Cultural rituals of hugs or shaking hands
“riding a bike or jogging” experiment
participants told to either nod or move their heads from side to side – simulate riding a bike or jogging while listening to a broadcast that advocated for increases or decreases in college tuition
o Head nodders – more supportive of the position advocated in the broadcast
moving a mouse toward an object or away from it experiment
students moved a computer mouse toward an object or away from it – some students’ hands moved by another person
o Only those who controlled their movement came to like what they approach and dislike what they avoided
head nodders vs head shakers
- Head nodders – more confident that the evaluative reactions they have are correct while head shakers have more doubts
o People who write evaluations with their dominant hand – more likely to adopt theose evaluations
self-perception theory
the impact of actions on attitudes – people infer their attitudes by observing their own behaviors and the situations in which they occur
describing a man to someone who liked or disliked him experiment
said more good things when they believed the other person likes him
o Positive descriptions – end up liking the man better
were able to choose task experiment
actively choosing a particular course of action over the alternative of doing nothing – increases people’s persistence with the chosen option – some allowed to choose between 2 topics, some also given the choice of not doing them
o Could choose not to – longer on the word-search puzzle than did those in the other condition
colonoscopy experiment
people receive instruction to call and schedule an appointment for colonoscopy – more likely to do it compared to those who were told that an appointment has been scheduled for them
foot-in-the-door technique
increasing compliance with a large request by first asking people to go along with a smaller request, engaging self-perception process
og foot in the door experiment
- Ex: asked women to sign a petition supporting safe driving, 2 weeks later asked if they want an ugly sign of “drive safely” – three times more likely than those who didn’t hear about the petition
o Also possible through email, and by ana avatar in a virtual world
asking for a date foot in the door
man approached women and asked them for a date
o More said yes when first asked for directions
how does foot in the door work
- Performance of initial behavior triggers self-perception processes, and the presence of an action-consistent attitude is inferred
o This new attitude then makes agreement with the second request more likely but only if all the conditions for self-perception are met
Behavior must be freely chosen, the initial action must be significant or distinctive enough for people to draw inferences about themselves and their attitudes
donated to charity experiment
: when people who donated to charity after a first request were told “you’re the kind of person who supports charitable causes” – more likely to give a second donations
teen smokers experiment
teen smokers approached in malls and some asked a few questions or to watch a short video
o 12% signup rate – higher than the rate of teens who had not been approached
o Similar for HIV vaccination + being an organ donor
action-to-attitude associations
– more likely to occur when people don’t have capacity or motivation to take much notice of or think very much about these changes
o When people’s cognitive resources have been exhausted (less likely when given time to think about the situation)
o When attitudes are unformed or unimportant – yes for nonsense words, but not for real words
donating to environment experiment
measured students’ environmental attitudes, given them the opportunity to donate money to an environmental organization + measured attitudes
o Those who didn’t have a clear attitudes changed their attitudes in the direction of behavior
o Behavior didn’t change the opinions of students with well-established attitudes
actions sometimes contradict important attitudes experiment
students are firmly opposed to cheating when they enter uni, but many of them end up cheating
o Europeans – 40% stated a preference for an electric car, but most of them buy a traditional one
o 99% of people in the US have a negative attitude towards smoking, but 20% are smokers
cognitive dissonance
– an unpleasant state caused by people’s awareness of inconsistency among important beliefs, attitudes, or actions
o People’s motivation to reduce the unpleasant side effects of inconsistency often produce change
four steps of cognitive dissonance
o The individual perceives the action as inconsistent
Dissonance most likely to be provoked when actions are inconsistent with positive and important images of ourselves – actions that violate our sense of self-integrity or value-laden attitudes or personal standard
o The individual perceives the action as freely chosen
When we’re coerced we can attribute the action to an external cause
Ex: participants freely choosing one item when they really like another to agreeing to write an essay inconsistent with their beliefs experience dissonance, those who were forced don’t
o The individual experiences uncomfortable physiological arousal
Ex: Electrodes to fingers while they wrote an essay
* Those who freely choose a topic that’s inconsistent with their beliefs – increased arousal
Guilt?
o The individual attributes the arousal to inconsistency between attitude and action
Ex: people tricked into believing that the discomfort they felt was due to something else – discomfort has no implications for the inconsistencies between attitudes and actions
how does cognitive dissonance happen
- Attitude-discrepant behavior realization of negative consequences attribution of personal responsibility experience of physiological arousal attribution of arousal to inconsistency attitude change (no dissonance)
very boring task experiment
: participants did a very boring task, when leaving given 1 or 20 euros to lie to the next one and say that it was interesting
o Insufficient justification effect – attitude change that occurs to reduce dissonance caused by attitude-discrepant behavior that can’t be attributed to external reward or punishment
o Most students didn’t see themselves as people who lied for a dollar – dissonance (but didn’t change an important attitude – belief that they’re now immoral)
effort justification effect
attitude change that occurs to reduce the dissonance caused by freely choosing to exert considerable effort or suffering to achieve a goal
o Support the current group hierarchy – the practice of making new members experience difficult, humiliating, dangerous experiences
effort justification examples
o People prefer difficult tasks they perform for rude instructors over those they perform for personable ones
o Workers whose jobs require challenging situations prefer them
o Students prefer candy bars more after having to rate them by combining 12 attributes vs 4
o The more salient the cost of having kids, the more parents say they enjoy it
o People lose more weight if their program involves more effort (even when unrelated)
which animals value rewards for which they had to work harder
- Pigeons and rats
post-decisional regret effect
attitude change that occurs to reduce the dissonance caused by freely making a choice or decision
post-decisional regret experiment
asked women to evaluate small appliances, allowed to choose one product as payment – some had to choose between 2 products they found equally desirable
o When rating later – strong support for dissonance theory – evaluated the chosen product much more positively
o Problem: people treated differently depending on what they choose – making initial preferences even more salient, new studies didn’t have this but still evidence
voting experiment
US presidential election – voters are more positive about their preferred candidate and more negative about the other after voting than before
what does trying to justify inconsistent behavior lead to
people to consider arguments they might otherwise have ignored, generate new evidence, interpret their behavior in new ways, evaluate the consequences of their actions, think about why they feel the way they do
vacation destination experiment
- Ex: business students made hypothetical decisions between vacation destinations and then rated the alternatives
o Chosen destination rated much more positively – same result 2.5 to 3 years later
weight treatment experiment
girls with body image concerns assigned to control or one of three treatments (healthy-weight treatment group, expressive writing, dissonance (participated in role plays that countered the thin-body ideal))
o Healthy-weight treatment and dissonance – effective over time
2 ways of reducing dissonance
o Minimize the inconsistency by trivializing the attitude-discrepant behavior or adding cognitions to make it consonant
o Minimize perception of free choice
skateboard experiment
students had to propel themselves up a hill sitting on a skateboard – underestimated the steepness of the hill if they freely chose the activity
alcohol dissonance experiment
- People may reduce dissonance by using alcohol
o Ex: students to write an essay favoring a big tuition increase – some participated in a taste-test where they drank beer or vodka
That group – no dissonance, didn’t change their attitude
rating music experiment
asked students (some science majors) to rate 10 musical recordings and then choose to keep either 5th or 6th ranked one
o Half asked to wear lab coats – asked to rate all recordings again – evaluated more positively the one that they have chosen
o But science majors in lab coats – no dissonance-induced attitude change – reaffirmed themselves
hypocrisy effect
change in behavior that occurs to reduce the dissonance caused by freely choosing to publicly advocate a behavior that one doesn’t actually perform oneself
2 animals experiment
meat-eaters shown two animals – descriptions that they’re going to get killed or that they’re sitting on the grass
o When descriptions of death – less “mind” features
misattribution of negative feelings to another cause
o When attributed to the inconsistency – trivialization of the behavior is a popular tension-reducing strategy especially if a change in attitude would conflict social norms
o Preferred over indirect ways such as self-affirmation
individualist vs collectivist cultures dissonance
members of individualist cultures and members of collectivist cultures asked to rate a number of alternatives and then choose among fairly equally rated alternatives individualists resolve dissonance, but collectivists don’t
o Japanese students only did so when the social implication of their decision had been made obvious – what others would think of the choice
o Members of collectivist cultures who’re chronically individualist justify their individual choices, those who’re subtly primed with relationships justify only choices that have significance for others
self-perception vs dissonance
- Both self-perception and dissonance – correct explanation for the changes that followed attitude-inconsistent behavior
o When freely chosen actions are trivial – changed attitudes are inferred with little or no effort – self-perception
o Freely chosen actions that run counter to well-established and important attitudes trigger emotional arousal and cause extensive thinking – dissonance
Chinese couple
despite treating a Chinese couple who visited their hotel and restaurant nicely, a large majority of managers later expressed negative attitudes toward serving Chinese customers
how do attitudes impact behaviors
o To trigger consistent behaviors quite directly with little thinking – attitude sets in motion certain processes that make an attitude-consistent course of action more likely than any other
o Also influence behaviors after extensive and deliberate consideration – focuses on the formation of intentions to perform the behavior and plans for how to do so
snacks as payment experiment
participants had the opportunity to choose 5 small snacks as payment for participation
o Earlier they indicated if they liked products, including those snacks
o Those who held highly-accessible attitudes about the snacks (speedy response) were much more likely to make choices consistent with their attitudes
how can attitudes bias perception
changing what people see in ways that make attitude-consistent behavior more likely
o Attitudes orient people to the object, so they’re ready to act on it
o Attitudes focus attention on some characteristics of the stimulus and away from others, changing the object that people perceive
Ex: thirsty people see water as being closer
rehearsed attitudes experiment
- Ex: some students repeatedly rehearsed their attitudes toward photos of people and others saw the photos an equal number of times but didn’t rehearse
o Rehearsed – less likely to notice small differences in photos, took longer to accurately identify what was different, convinced that the differences were smaller
o Having an accessible attitude made the objects look a certain way
matt Romney Experiment
450 pairs of photos, ask to choose with one looked more like Mitt Romney – masked or degraded by a different pattern of noise
o Averaged their choices out – the more an individual supported him, the more trustworthy their constructed face was judged to be
intention
a commitment to reach a desired outcome or desired behavior
theory of reasoned action
the theory that attitudes and social norms combine to produce behavioral intentions, which in turn influence behavior
o Intentions to act have been found to be a good predictor of behavior
general vs specific intention
o Very general intention – various options by which it could be carried out – more flexibility
o More specific – activate more specific goal-focused behaviors – better achieves the goal
implementation intention
a plan to carry out a specific goal-directed behavior in a specific situation
o “if-then” plans – link critical situational or environmental cue to a specific goal-directed behavior – simple, specific, associated with the kinds of cues that typically disrupt goal-directed behavior
o Participants who formed implementation intentions – more successful with long-term dieting and performed better in tennis matches
spider fear experiment
compared people’s ability to achieve the goal of controlling their typical emotional reaction to frightening or disgusting stimuli
o Told either I believe you won’t be frightened or “when i see a spider, I will stay calm and relaxed”
o Reach their goal much better when the second one
exercise intention experiment
implementation intentions were particularly successful in getting people to engage in physical activity when exercise was difficult rather than easy
smoking intention experiment
adolescents smokers trained to form implementation intentions had reduced rates of smoking even 24 months later
sex-discrimination trial experiment
undergraduate men served as jurors in mock sex-discrimination trials
o Some given a couple of minutes in the beginning – reached verdicts consistent with their attitudes
analyzing posters experiment
one group of students asked to spend time analyzing their thoughts about various posters before choosing one to take
o Those who weren’t required to do so – less likely to take a poster they originally had not liked, less likely to regret their choice
o When the relevant attitude is not uppermost in the actor’s mind at the time action is called for, tis impact on behavior is reduced
which attitudes are more likely to predict behavior
o Attitudes built up by direct interaction and practice with attitude objects – more likely to direct consistent behavior than more abstract attitudes
o Those formed on the basis of systematic processing – come to mind more readily + more likely to be followed by attitude-consistent behavior
o Those that are personally important
o Strong attitudes, intense attitudes that we hold with great confidence and certainty
birth control experiment
whether women will use birth control during a 2-year-period – specific attitudes about birth-control pills were better predictors than their attitudes in general
gay transfer student experiment
male students whether they would be willing to show a hypothetical transferring student the campus (he’s gay)
o Had to read a description of John that largely matched or disconfirmed the gay stereotype
o If he seemed to be a typical gay man – those who disliked gay ppl didn’t want to, those who did yes + if not – didn’t predict
list of behaviors toward gay men experiment
people shown a list of positive or negative behaviors they could perform relevant to the social group of gay men
o Circle what they would do – 2 weeks later, they learned about a gay transfer student and were given a list of behaviors they might be asked to perform with this student over the semester, rated willingness to engage int those
o Those who had considered active behaviors earlier – more likely to have attitudes that later predicted active behaviors
physical actions bringing corresponding attitude to mind experiment
o Ex: watch an exercise demonstration video, some imagined doing the same, some imagined + walked
Those who walked – exercised more, reported intentions to exercise predicted subsequent exercise behavior more – made their exercise-related attitudes more accessible
IAT coke vs pepsi
IAT and explicit questionnaire about their attitudes towards Coke and Pepsi
o Asked how they would act if offered a free Pepsi or Coke
o Explicit attitudes – much better predictor
- Ex: implicit and explicit towards Coke and Pepsi, but behavioral preference measured in a blind taste-test
o Responses better predicted by implicit attitudes – less controllable and deliberate
are implicit attitudes good at predicting behaviors
- Ex: implicit attitudes equally good at predicting controllable behaviors and less controllable behaviors
o Another – implicit attitudes are fairly weak predictors of all behaviors
theory of planned behavior
the theory that attitudes, social norms, and perceived control combine to influence intentions and thus behavior
o When people think they can control their behavior – attitudes become highly effective in mobilizing and sustaining action
a sense of control
facilitate effective weight loss, reduce binge drinking in college females, increase the expectation and achievement of success at stopping smoking
o External locus of control – no reason to follow through
habit
– a repeated behavior automatically triggered in a particular situation
o Preformed quite independently of attitudes, norms, motives or goals – little conscious input of any kind
