Chapter 3 - Influence of Attitudes on Info Processing / Behaviour

Question 1

Information Processing

Answer 1

how our minds deal with info encountered in social world

Question 2

When does selective exposure increase (3)? when do they decrease (3)?

Answer 2

Increase: value-relevant, high prior commitment, stronger attitudes
Decrease: dissonant info seems useful, high quality arguments, non-refutable

Question 3

Political Article Reading study

Answer 3

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)

Question 4

Study: Ps not required to actively search for objects in array

Answer 4

Results: drawn toward objects which we have highly accessible attitude

Question 5

Selective exposure expilict vs. implicit

Answer 5

Explicit - selective exposure when feel decided on an issue

Implicit - selective exposure when undecided (spontaneous/highly accessible attitudes became guide for more processing)

Question 6

Mediator of selective exposure and value-expressive function

Answer 6

Low self-esteem (as ego-defensive motivation)

Question 7

Effect of familiar information and ambivalence

Answer 7

Lower levels of ambivalence predict preference for pro-attitudinal information

Question 8

Attitudes and changed interpretation of reality (3 studies)

Answer 8

1. Pro-israel and pro-Palestine attitudes viewed stories as biased against their view
2. Ps w/ prejudice against black people more against health reform attributed to Obama
3. “the refs are biased against our team”

Question 9

Accessibility of attitude and object-appriasal

Answer 9

Strong attitudes (more accessible) led to biased ratings of articles about death penalty

Question 10

Racial group attitudes and judgment orientation RT (study)

Answer 10

1. +ve attitudes led to faster RT at judging orientation of face from member of that group
2. People w/ more prejudice more likely to interpret face as belonging to group when displaying -ve stereotype traits (compared to +ve ones)

Question 11

Reverse Correlation Data Reduction Study

Answer 11

1. Ps look at scrambled photos of Romney’s face and asked to choose most accurate -> average face
2. New Ps rated face as trustworthy/+ve
   Results: Faces rated more positively made by initial Ps who liked candidate

Question 12

Congeniality Effect

Answer 12

bias to remember information that is consistent with attitude (small memory advantage)

Question 13

Study explaining whether brushing teeth is good x bad

Answer 13

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)

Question 14

Why do selective effects occur?

Answer 14

Motivational Perspective - helps people defend their attitudes (avoid cognitive dissonance) and feel good about attitude (self-serving bias)

Question 15

Why has correlation in attitude predicting behaviour increased (3)?

Answer 15

1. Better measures
2. Better Experimental Paradigms
3. Uncovering highly predictive contexts

Question 16

Ajzen and Fishbein’s theory of attitude predicting behaviour - TACT correspondence

Answer 16

T: Target (of behaviour)
A: Action (behaviour)
C: Context
T: Time
As they correspond, attitude better predicts behaviour

Question 17

Aggregate Attitude Strength

Answer 17

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

Question 18

Theoretical Model of Attitude-Behaviour Relation (Reflective-Impulse Model, RIM) (Strack and Deutsch)

Answer 18

Behaviour controlled by (1) reflective system and (2) impulsive system

1. relates to explicit measures and deliberative behaviour
2. relates to implicit measures and spontaneous behaviour

Question 19

Study: Prejudice against people w/ AIDS. Finding of explicit and implicit measures

Answer 19

1. Explicit measures predicted reflective behaviour (would you share a house w/ someone with AIDs)
2. Implicit measures predicted spontaneous behaviour (approach/avoidance tendencies of moving mouse after pic of person w/ AIDs)

Question 20

7 indicators of attitude strength. Which one is not moderator of attitude-behaviour relation?

Answer 20

1. Accessibility
2. Temporal Stability
3. Direct Experience
4. Involvement**
5. Certainty
6. Ambivalence
7. Affective-Cognitive Consistency

Question 21

Do ___ show consistent attitude-behaviours?

a) High self-monitors
b) Defensive self-esteem
c) University students
d) Belief in attitude stability

Answer 21

a) No
b) Yes
c) No
d) Yes

Question 22

Need for Cognition

Answer 22

Stable differences in desire to engage in and enjoy effortful cognitive activity

High in nCOG more likely to show attitude-behaviour correspondence

Question 23

How is (a) private self consciousness and (b) public self-consciousness induced? What effects do saliency of these different standards have?

Answer 23

a) Mirror, internal standards behaviour-attitudinal correspondence in pro-/anti-punishment study
b) Presence of audience, external standards, focused on audience’s beliefs

Question 24

Greenpeace study of attitudes and donations

Answer 24

Strong attitudes at T1 predicted behaviour at T2 (donation) while weak attitudes at T1 followed behaviour at T2 in T3 attitudinal check