Chapter 5 Flashcards
Attitudes
Favorable or unfavorable evaluations of a particular person, object, event, or idea
Balance theory
Heider’s theory that people prefer harmony and consistency in their views of the world
Central route to persuasion
The way people are persuaded when they focus on the quality of the arguments in a message
Cognitive dissonance
The unpleasant state of psychological arousal resulting from an inconsistency within one’s important attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors
Cognitive response model
A theory that locates the most direct cause of persuasion in the self-talk of the persuasion target
Consistency principle
The principle that people will change their attitudes, beliefs, perceptions, and actions to make them consistent with each other
Counterargument
An argument that challenges and opposes other arguments
Counterattitudinal action
A behavior that is inconsistent with an existing attitude
Dual process model of persuasion
A model that accounts for the two basic ways that attitude change occurs - with and without much thought
Elaboration likelihood model
A model of persuasive communication that holds that there are two routes to attitude change - the central route and the peripheral route
Impression motivation
The motivation to achieve approval by making a good impression on others
Inoculation procedure
A technique for increasing an individuals’ resistance to a strong argument by first giving them weak, easily defeated versions of it
Need for cognition
The tendency to enjoy and engage in deliberative thought
Nonreactive measurement
Measurement that does not change a subject’s responses while recording them
Peripheral route to persuasion
The way people are persuaded when they focus on factors other than the quality of the arguments in the message, such as the number of arguments
