Chapter 6 Flashcards
A positive, negative, or mixed reaction to a person, object, or idea.
Attitude.
A multiple item questionnaire designed to measure a persons attitude toward some object.
Attitude scales.
A phony lie detector device that is sometimes used to get respondents to give truthful answers to sensitive questions.
Bogus pipeline.
The process by whicha person thinks carefully about a communication and is influenced by the strength of its arguments.
Central route to persuasion.
Theory holding that inconsistent cognitions arouses psychological tension that people become motivated to reduce.
Cognitive dissonance theory.
The process of thinking about and scrutinizing the arguments contained in a persuasive communication.
Elaboration.
The process by which we form an attitude toward a neutral stimulus because of its association with a positive or negative person, place, or thing.
Evaluative conditioning.
An electronic instrument that records facial muscle activity associated with emotions and attitudes.
Facial electromyograph (EMG)
A covert measure of unconcious attitudes derived from the speed at which people respond to pairings of concepts - such as black or white with good or bad.
Implicit association tests (IAT) .
An attitude, such as prejudice, that one is not aware of having.
Implicit attitudes.
The idea that exposure to weak versions of a persuasive argument increases later resistance to that argument.
Inoculation hypothesis.
A condition in which people refrain from engaging in a desirable activity, even when only mild punishment is threatened.
Insufficient deterrence.
A condition in which people freely perform an attitude-discrepant behavior without receiving a large reward.
Insufficient justification.
A personality variable that distinguished people on the basis of how much they enjoy effortful cogntivie activities.
Need for cognition (NC)
The process by which a person does not think carefully about a communication and is influenced instead by superficial cues.
Peripheral route to persuasion.
The process by which attitudes are changed.
Persuasion.
The theory that people react against threats to their freedom by asserting themselves and perceiving the threatened freedom as more attractive.
Psychological reactance.
A delated increase in persuaive impact of a non credible source.
Sleeper effect.
The theory that attitudes toward a specfiic behavior combine with subjective norms and perceived control to influence a persons actions.
Theory of planned behavior.
A positive, negative, or mixed reaction to a person, object or idea.
Attitudes.
True/ false: We can react to something with positive affect, negative affect, ambivalence, or apathy and indifference.
True.
The tendency in general to like or dislike things.
Dispositional attitudes.
A multiple item questionnaire designed to measure a persons attitude toward some object.
Attitude scales.
A phony lie detector device that is sometimes used to get respondents to give truthful answers to sensistive questions.
Bogus pipeline.
What are some examples of covert measures of information we can collect?
Facial expression, tone of voice, and body language.
An electronic instrument that records facial muscle activity associated with emotions and attitudes.
Facial electromyograph (EMG).
Agreeable messages spark arousal in this part of the face. Disagreeable messages spark activity in this part of the face. What are they?
Agreeable - Cheek muscles.
Disagreeable - Forehead and brow area.
An electroencephelograph measures what in the brain?
Brain waves.
True/ False: Researchers can tell if someone has a positive or negative attitude by measuring physiological arousal.
False.
An attitude such as prejudice, that one is not aware of having.
Implicit attitude.
A covert measure of unconscious attitudes derived from the speed at which people respond to pairings of concepts - such as black or white with good or bad.
Impliciat association test. (IAT)
Are attitudes inherited? Who first put forth evidence for these claims?
Abraham tesser.
He discovered that on some issues the attitudes of identical twins are more similar than those of fraternal twins and that twins raised apart are as similiar to each other as those who are raised in the same home.
The process by which we form an attitude toward a neutral stimulus because of its association with a positive or negative person, place, or thing.
Evaluative conditioning.
Are attitudes and behavior correlated?
Weakly, if at all.
The theory that attitudes toward a specific behavior combine with subjective norms and perceived control to influence a persons actions.
Theory of planned behavior.
Our beliefs about what other think we should do.
Subjective norms.
Behavior is influenced less by _________________ ______________ than by attitudes toward a specific behavior.
General attitudes.
Attitudes give rise to behavior only when we perceive the behavior to be within our _____________.
Control
Although attitudes contribute to an _________________ to behave in a particular manner, people often do not or cannot follow through on their intentions.
Intention .
David Boninger and other identified three psychological factors that consistently seem to distinguish between our strongest and weakest attitudes. What are they?
- Direcyl affected their own self interests.
- Related to deeply held philosophical, politica, and religious values.
- Were of concern to their close friends, family, and social in groups.
The strength of an attitude is indicated not only by the ________________ fo information on which it is based but also by __________ that information was acquired.
Amount. How.
True/ False: Researhc shows that attitudes are more stable and more predictive of behavior when they are born of direct personal experience than when based on indirect, secondhand information.
True.
True/ False: An attitude can be weakened, by an attack against it from a persuasive message.
False.
The process by which attitudes are changed.
Persuasion.
If you wanted to change someones attitude on an issue, you’d probably try to do it by making a persuasive __________________.
Communication.
The process by which a person thinks carefully about a communication and is influenced by the strength of its arguments.
Central route to persuasion.
which a person does not think carefully about a communication and is influence instead by superficial cues.
Peripheral route to persuasion.
The process by
William McGuire reiterated the information processing steps necessary for persuasion. Like the Yale group before him, he distinguished between the learning, or __________________, of a message, a necessary first step, and its later ________________.
Reception, Acceptance.
Anthon y Greenwald and other argued that persuasion requires a third, intermediate step. What is it?
Elaboration.
The process of thinking about and scrutinizigin the argument contained in a persuasive communication.
Elaboration.
Petty and his cooleagues proposed the ___________________ ______________ that people not only “elaborate” on a persuasive communication with positive or negative attitude-relevant thoughts but also seek to assess the validity of these thoughts.
Self-validation hypothesis .
True/ false: In some cases, people will change their attitudes simply because they know that an argument has majority support.
True.
On the mindless peripheral route, people are also influence by factors that are not relevant to attitudes - such as cues from their own body movements. These are called?
Attitude embodiment effects.
True/ False: In reacting to persuasive communications, people are influenced more by superficial images than by logical arguments.
False.
To understand the conditions that lead people to process information on one route or the other, it’s helpful to view persuasive communication as the outcome of three factors - what are they?
- Source (Who)
- Message (Says what and in what context)
- Audience (To whom).
What make some communicators in general more effective than others?
Credibility and likeability.
True/ False: Recent research confirms that high-credibility sources are more persuasive than low-credibility sources.
True.
Refers to the speakers ability.
Competence.
Those who are seen as willing to report their knowledge truthfully and without comprimise.
Trustworthines.
Two factors can spark attraction - what are they?
Similarity and physical attractiveness.
A delated increase in the persuasive impact of a non credible source.
Sleeper effect.
According to this hypothesis, people immediately discount the arguments made by non credible communicators, but over time, the dissociate what was said from who said it.
Discounting cue hypothesis.
More recent research showed that the sleeper effect is reliable provided that participants do not learn who the source is until _____________ they have received the original message.
After.
If you believe that the information presented first has more impact, you’d predict a ____________ _______________ .
Primacy effect.
If you believe that the information presented last has the edge, you’d predict a ________________ _____________.
Recency effect.
True/ False: People are harder to influence when they’re in a good mood.
False, they’re easier to influence.
What is it about feelings good that leads us to take shortcuts to persuasion rather than the more effortful centrla route? (Long answer, read only).
- Positive emotional state is cogntively distracting, causing the mind to wander and impairing our ability to think critically about the persuasive argument.
- When people are in a good mood, they assume that all is well, let their guard down and become somewhat lazy processors of information.
- When people are happy, they become motivated to savor the moment and maintain their happy mood rather than spoiling it by thinking critically about new information.
Perhaps people _____________ subliminal cues but are not _______________ into action unless they are motivated to do so.
Perceive, persuaded.
For subliminal message to influence behavior, it has to strike…..
“While the iron is hot”.
True/ False: People are most easily persuaded by commercial messages that are presented without their awareness.
False.
True/ False: Very few individuals are consistently easy or difficult to peruade.
True.
A personality variable that distinguished people on the basis of how much they enjoy effortful cognitive activities.
Need for cognition. (NC)
Consider the trait of __________________ ______________. High ____________ _____________ regulate their behavior from one situation to another out of concern for public presentation. Low _____________ ______________ are less image conscious and behave according to their own beliefs, values, and preference.
Self moniters.
Name some of the strategies for resisting persuasion?
Attitude bolstering, counterarguing, social validation, negative affect, assertions of confiedence, selective exposure, source derogation.
“I reassure myself of facts that support the validity of my belief.” is what example of resisting persuasion?
Attitude bolstering.
“I would talk to myself and play devils advocate.” Is what example of resisting persuasion?
Counterarguing.
“I also rely on others with the same opinion to be there for me.” is what example of resisting persuasion?
Social validation.
“I tend to get angry when someones tries to change my beliefs.” Is what example of resisting persuasion?
Social validation.
I doubt anybody could change my viewpoint. Is what example of resisting persuasion?
Assertions of confidence.
“Most of the time I just ignore them” is what example of resisting persuasion?
Selective exposure.
“I look for faults in the person presenting the challenging belief.” is what example of resisting persuasion?
Source derogation.
The idea that exposure to weak versions of a persuasive argument increases later resisitance to that argument.
Inoculation hypothesis.
Simply knowing that someone is trying to persuade us also sparks a ___________________________ reaction as we brace ourselve regardless of what position is taken.
Motivational .
The theory that people react against threats to their freedom by asserting themselves and perceiving the threatened freedom as more attractive.
Psychological reactance.
Reactance theory predicts that if a communicator comes on too strongly, we may react with ______________ ______________ _____________ by moving in the oppisite direction of the position being advocated - even, ironically, when the speakers position agrees with our own .
Negative attitude change.
Theory holding that inconsistent cognitions arouses psychological tension that people become motivated to reduce.
Cognitive dissonance theory.
What are some ways to reduce dissonance?
Change your attitude, change your perception of the behavior, add consonant cognitions, minimize the importance of the conflict, reduce perceived choice.
“I don’t really need to be on a diet” is an example of what way to reduce dissonance?
Change your attitude.
“I hardly at any ice cream.” is an example of what way to reduce dissonance?
Change your perception of the behavior.
“Chocolate ice cream is very nutritious” is an example of what way to reduce dissonance?
Add consonant cognitions.
“I don’t care if I’m overweight - life is short.” is an example of what way to reduce dissonance?
Minimize the importance of the conflict.
“I had no choice, the ice cream was served for this special occassion.” Is an example of what way to reduce dissonance?
Reduce perceived choice.
A condition in which people freely perform an attitude-discrepant behavior without receiving a large reward.
Insufficient justification.
Just a small reward provides insufficient justification for attitude discrepant behavior, mild punishment is ______________ ____________ for attitude discrepant non behaviour.
Insufficient detterence.
A condition in which people refrain from engaging in a desirable activity, even when only mild punishment is threatened.
Insufficient deterrance.
True/ False: The more money you pay people to tell a lie, the more they will come to believe it.
False.
True/ False: People often come to like what they suffer for.
True.
There are four steps necessary for both the arousal and reduction of dissonance - what are they?
- The attitude discrepant behavior must produce unwanted negative consequences.
- A feeling of personal responsibility for the unpleasant outcomes of behavior.
- The process of physiological arousal. Right from teh start, festinger viewed cognitive dissonance as a state of discomfort and tension that people seek to reduce - much like hunger, thirst, and other basic drives.
- It isn’t enough to feel generally aroused. A person must also make an attribution for that arousal to his or her own behavior.
Bem proposed that we infer how we feel by observing ourselves and the circumstances of our own behavior.What is this theory known as?
Self perception theory.
This theory stats that what matters is not a motive to be consistent but rather a motive to appear consistent.
Impression management theory.
Claude Steele took this notion on dissonance two steps further. First, he suggested that a dissonance producing situation - engaging in attitude discrepant behavior, exerting wasted effort, or make a tough decision - sets in motion a process of _________________________ that serves to revalidate the integrity of the self concept. Second, this revalidation can be achieved in many ways, not just by resolving dissonance.
Self affirmation.
This theory says that change is motivated by threats to the self concept.
Self affirmation theory.
Behaving in ways that violate our own moral code thus threatens our self esteem and arouses an inner state of turmoil that Rachel Barkan and her colleagues have called ____________ _____________ .
Ethical dissonance.
Once tempted, ________________ _______________ excuse what we are about to do. Afterward, _______________ __________________ compensate for what we did. In these ways people manage to behave immorally yet maintain a moral self concept.
Pre-violation justifications, post violation justifications.
True/False: Cogntivie dissonance is both universal and dependent on culture. At times everyone feels and tries to reduce dissonance, but cultures influence the conditions under which these processes occur.
True.
