Chapter 4 - Behaviour and Attitudes Flashcards
attitude
A favourable or unfavourable
evaluative reaction toward something
or someone, exhibited in one’s beliefs, feelings, or intended behaviour.
Implicit Association Test (IAT)
A computer-driven assessment of
implicit attitudes that uses reaction
times to measure people’s automatic
associations between attitude objects
and evaluative words, where easier
pairings (and faster responses)
are taken to indicate stronger
unconscious associations.
- Implicit biases are pervasive. For example, 80 percent of people show
more implicit negativity toward the elderly compared with the young. - People differ in implicit bias. Depending on their group memberships, their conscious attitudes, and the bias in their immediate environment, some people exhibit more implicit bias than others.
- People are often unaware of their implicit biases. Despite thinking themselves unprejudiced, even the researchers exhibit some implicit biases (negative associa-
tions with various social groups). - Implicit biases can harm. Implicit biases toward Indigenous people in Canada can lead to their not receiving necessary life-saving health care (Wylie & McConkey, 2019).
When attitudes specific to behaviour are examined
reported Fishbein and Ajzen, in 26 out of 27 such research studies, attitudes did not predict behaviour. But attitudes did predict behaviour
in all 26 studies they could find in which the measured attitude was directly pertinent to the situation. Thus, attitudes toward the general concept of “health fitness” poorly predict specific exercise and dietary practices, but an individual’s attitudes about the costs and benefits of jogging are a fairly strong predictor of whether that person jogs regularly.
Theory of Reasoned Reaction
knowing people’s intended behaviours and subjective norms (in other words, what we think other people think about our behaviour). Later Ajzen added the concept of
perceived self-efficacy and control (Figure 4–1) which further validated the theory (and changed the name to the Theory of Planned Behaviour). Moreover, four dozen experimental
tests confirm that inducing new intentions induces new behaviour (Webb & Sheeran, 2006). Even simply asking people about their intentions to engage in a behaviour increases its likelihood (Levav & Fitzsimons, 2006). Ask people if they intend to floss their teeth in the next two weeks or to vote in an upcoming election, and they will become more likely to do so.
Forging strong attitudes through experience
When attitudes are forged by experience, not just by hearsay, they are more accessible, more enduring, and more likely to guide actions (Fazio & Zanna, 1981; Glasman & Albarracin, 2006). In one study, university students all expressed negative attitudes about their school’s response to a housing shortage. But, given opportunities to act (to sign a petition, solicit signatures, join a committee, or write a letter), only those whose attitudes
grew from direct experience acted (Regan & Fazio, 1977).
role
A set of norms that define how
people in a given social position
ought to behave.
norms
Rules for accepted and expected behaviour that prescribe
“proper” behaviour.
Prison experiment
Recreated prison, some people were prisoners and some were guards by chance. The guards began to disparage the prisoners, and some devised cruel and degrading routines. The prisoners broke down, rebelled, or became apathetic. There developed, reported Zimbardo (1972), a “growing confusion between reality and illusion, between
role-playing and self-identity . . . This prison which we had created . . . was absorbing us as creatures of its own reality.”
gender roles
Behaviour expectations
(norms) for males and females.
In an experiment with undergraduate women, Mark Zanna and Susan
Pack (1975) showed the impact of gender role expectations. The women
answered a questionnaire on which they described themselves to a man
they expected to meet—a man they were told was tall, unattached, and
a fourth-year student. Those led to believe that the man’s ideal woman
was home-oriented and deferential to her husband presented themselves as more traditionally feminine than did women expecting to meet a man who liked strong, ambitious women. Moreover, given a problem-solving test, those expecting to meet the nonsexist man behaved more intelligently: They solved
18 percent more problems than those expecting to meet the man with the traditional views. This adapting of themselves to fit the man’s image was much less pronounced if the man was less desirable—a short, already attached first-year student. In a companion
experiment by Dean Morier and Cara Seroy (1994), men similarly adapted their self-presentations to meet desirable women’s gender role expectations. Clearly, our gender roles can shape our actions.
When saying becomes believing
People often adapt what they say to please their listeners. They are quicker to tell people good news than bad, and they adjust their message toward the listener’s position
foot-in-the-door phenomenon
The tendency for people who have
first agreed to a small request to
comply later with a larger request.
low-ball technique
A tactic for getting people to agree to something. People who agree to an initial request will often still comply when the requester ups the ante. People who receive only the costly request are less likely to comply with it.
Cialdini and his collaborators found that this technique indeed works.
When they invited introductory psychology students to participate in an experiment at 7:00 a.m., only 24 percent showed up. But if the students first agreed to participate without knowing the time and only then were asked to participate at 7:00 a.m., 53 percent came.
door-in-the-face technique
A strategy for gaining a concession.
After someone first turns down a
large request (the door in the face),
the same requester counteroffers with a more reasonable request.
The door-in-the-face technique works through
the principle of reciprocity. The basic idea is that an initial large request is presented—one that is so large that people will almost all say no (e.g., “Can you donate $100 for cancer research?”). The requester acquiesces and then makes a smaller request (“Well, if you can’t donate $100, how about $10?”). We feel bad about saying no at first so we say yes to the second request to “be nice.” Cialdini and his colleagues (1975) have shown that this “request then moderation” procedure is very effective at gaining compliance.
immoral and moral acts
The attitudes-follow-behaviour principle works with more immoral acts as well. Such acts sometimes result from gradually escalating commitments. An early (seemingly innocuous) negative behaviour can make it easier for us to perform a worse act later. But these acts
gnaw at the actor’s moral sensitivity.
toy robot experiment - moral actions
Researchers have tested character by
giving children temptations when it seems no one is watching. Consider what happens when children resist the temptation. They internalize the conscientious act if the deter-
rent is strong enough to elicit the desired behaviour yet mild enough to leave them with a sense of choice. In a dramatic experiment, Jonathan Freedman (1965) introduced elementary-school children to an enticing battery-controlled robot, instructing them not to play with it while he was out of the room. Freedman used a severe threat
with half the children and a mild threat with the others. Both were sufficient to deter the children.
Several weeks later, a different researcher, with no apparent relation to the earlier events, left each child to play in the same room with the same toys. Of the 18 children who had been given the severe threat, 14 now freely played with the robot, but two-thirds of those who had been given the mild deterrent still resisted playing with it. Having earlier made a conscious choice not to play with the toy, the mildly deterred children
apparently had internalized their decision. This new attitude controlled their subsequent action. Thus, moral action, especially when chosen rather than coerced, affects moral thinking.
