Chapter 3 - Influence of Attitudes on Info Processing / Behaviour Flashcards
Information Processing
how our minds deal with info encountered in social world
When does selective exposure increase (3)? when do they decrease (3)?
Increase: value-relevant, high prior commitment, stronger attitudes
Decrease: dissonant info seems useful, high quality arguments, non-refutable
Political Article Reading study
Ps sought out articles congruent w/ political beliefs had expressed earlier
Spent more time reading attitude consistent articles (but still read incongruent ones)
Selection of counter-attitudinal articles ^ w/ accessibility and importance of attitudes (personal relevance)
Study: Ps not required to actively search for objects in array
Results: drawn toward objects which we have highly accessible attitude
Selective exposure expilict vs. implicit
Explicit - selective exposure when feel decided on an issue
Implicit - selective exposure when undecided (spontaneous/highly accessible attitudes became guide for more processing)
Mediator of selective exposure and value-expressive function
Low self-esteem (as ego-defensive motivation)
Effect of familiar information and ambivalence
Lower levels of ambivalence predict preference for pro-attitudinal information
Attitudes and changed interpretation of reality (3 studies)
- Pro-israel and pro-Palestine attitudes viewed stories as biased against their view
- Ps w/ prejudice against black people more against health reform attributed to Obama
- “the refs are biased against our team”
Accessibility of attitude and object-appriasal
Strong attitudes (more accessible) led to biased ratings of articles about death penalty
Racial group attitudes and judgment orientation RT (study)
- +ve attitudes led to faster RT at judging orientation of face from member of that group
- People w/ more prejudice more likely to interpret face as belonging to group when displaying -ve stereotype traits (compared to +ve ones)
Reverse Correlation Data Reduction Study
- Ps look at scrambled photos of Romney’s face and asked to choose most accurate -> average face
- New Ps rated face as trustworthy/+ve
Results: Faces rated more positively made by initial Ps who liked candidate
Congeniality Effect
bias to remember information that is consistent with attitude (small memory advantage)
Study explaining whether brushing teeth is good x bad
People report brushing teeth less often if attitude changed to believe brushing everyday is bad (people want to believe behaviour reflects attitude and will reconstruct memory)
Why do selective effects occur?
Motivational Perspective - helps people defend their attitudes (avoid cognitive dissonance) and feel good about attitude (self-serving bias)
Why has correlation in attitude predicting behaviour increased (3)?
- Better measures
- Better Experimental Paradigms
- Uncovering highly predictive contexts
Ajzen and Fishbein’s theory of attitude predicting behaviour - TACT correspondence
T: Target (of behaviour) A: Action (behaviour) C: Context T: Time As they correspond, attitude better predicts behaviour
Aggregate Attitude Strength
Better predicts behaviour and selective exposure than any one facet of attitude strength
Ex. Recycling during week 1,2, 3 vs. just recycling in week 1
Theoretical Model of Attitude-Behaviour Relation (Reflective-Impulse Model, RIM) (Strack and Deutsch)
Behaviour controlled by (1) reflective system and (2) impulsive system
- relates to explicit measures and deliberative behaviour
- relates to implicit measures and spontaneous behaviour
Study: Prejudice against people w/ AIDS. Finding of explicit and implicit measures
- Explicit measures predicted reflective behaviour (would you share a house w/ someone with AIDs)
- Implicit measures predicted spontaneous behaviour (approach/avoidance tendencies of moving mouse after pic of person w/ AIDs)
7 indicators of attitude strength. Which one is not moderator of attitude-behaviour relation?
- Accessibility
- Temporal Stability
- Direct Experience
- Involvement**
- Certainty
- Ambivalence
- Affective-Cognitive Consistency
Do ___ show consistent attitude-behaviours?
a) High self-monitors
b) Defensive self-esteem
c) University students
d) Belief in attitude stability
a) No
b) Yes
c) No
d) Yes
Need for Cognition
Stable differences in desire to engage in and enjoy effortful cognitive activity
High in nCOG more likely to show attitude-behaviour correspondence
How is (a) private self consciousness and (b) public self-consciousness induced? What effects do saliency of these different standards have?
a) Mirror, internal standards behaviour-attitudinal correspondence in pro-/anti-punishment study
b) Presence of audience, external standards, focused on audience’s beliefs
Greenpeace study of attitudes and donations
Strong attitudes at T1 predicted behaviour at T2 (donation) while weak attitudes at T1 followed behaviour at T2 in T3 attitudinal check
