Chapter 7

Question 1

Attitude

Answer 1

Evaluation of an object in a positive or negative light

Question 2

3 components of attitude

Answer 2

• Affect (like / dislike)
• Cognition (Thoughts that reinforce feelings)
• Behavior (Approach / Avoid)

Question 3

____ responses tend to be stronger than ____ responses due to evolutionary history.

Answer 3

Negative; Positive

Question 4

Likert scale

Answer 4

Numerical scale used to assess people’s attitudes (like used in MBTI testing)

Question 5

What are some issues with the Likert scale?

Answer 5

• Consistency: Different interpretations of the questions may lead to different results
• Measurement (scaling issue) — how far away are each of the options?
• Score interpretation

Question 6

Response latency

Answer 6

Amount of time it takes to respond to a stimulus
*Strong attitudes = Faster response

Question 7

Implicit attitude measure

Answer 7

An indirect measure of attitudes that doesn’t involve self-report
*Used most often for things people are motivated not to answer honestly

Question 8

What does the Lapiere Chinese Case Study illustrate?

Answer 8

That even though there are negative attitudes toward something, people tend to behave in opposite ways when it conflicts with other factors.

Question 9

____ makes attitude LESS accurate in predicting behaviors because…

Answer 9

Introspection - We come up with a reason for our attitudes, even when we don’t know what our reasons really are. We may even mislead ourselves about our true attitudes due to faulty introspection

Question 10

____ changes and shape the way we feel and believe.

Answer 10

Behavior

Question 11

Cognitive dissonance theory

Answer 11

Inconsistency between a person’s thoughts, sentiments, and actions creates an aversive emotional state (dissonance) that leads to efforts to restore consistency

Question 12

What do we do about dissonance?

Answer 12

1. Change attitude
2. Change behavior
3. Rationalize behavior

Question 13

Post-decision dissonance

Answer 13

After we make a hard decision, we will retroactively justify why our choice was better than the alternative

Question 14

What does the racetrack study illustrate?

Answer 14

• Post-decision dissonance
• People interviewed after placing bets gave their horses a better chance of winning than people who’d placed before
• Once you’ve chosen, your attitude about it changes to support your choice

Question 15

Effort justification

Answer 15

The tendency to reduce dissonance by justifying time, effort, or money devoted to something unpleasant or disappointing

Question 16

What does the sexual discussion group study illustrate?

Answer 16

• Cognitive dissonance: Effort justification
• In order to enter a group with very boring discussions, three groups of participants were asked to read aloud embarrassing/ obscene/ random words.
• The participants who read aloud obscene words rated the group the highest, followed by group 1 and group 3

Question 17

Induced (forced) compliance

Answer 17

Chancing people’s values/beliefs/attitudes by subtly compelling them to behave contrary to their values/beliefs/attitudes

Question 18

What does the $1 vs. $20 study illustrate?

Answer 18

When the reward of a task can’t compensate for dissonance, people tend to adjust their attitude in order to justify their behavior

Question 19

What does the Forbidden toy experiment illustrate?

Answer 19

That children adjust their attitude toward the toy depending on the threat level — If there is enough justification for them to not play with the toy, they would still rate the toy as desirable, but if the justification is not enough, they would change their attitude toward the toy to play less with it.

Question 20

When does dissonance occur?

Answer 20

• Free choice: If the behavior is out of personal will
• Insufficient justification: If the behavior have no other reasons than personal will
• Negative consequences: If the behavior hurt you or those you care about
• Foreseeability: If the behavior is predictable, there is more dissonance
• Core values: If the behavior go against an attitude central to self-concept

Question 21

Westerners show more dissonance when making choices for ____, while easterners show more dissonance when they feel they are being observed by ____.

Answer 21

Themselves; others

Question 22

Self-perception theory

Answer 22

People come to know their own attitudes by looking at their behavior and context and inferring attitudes
- Happens when our prior attitudes are weak, ambiguous and uninterpretable

Question 23

Self-perception occur when attitudes are ____, while cognitive dissonance occur when attitudes are ____.

Answer 23

Weak; Strong

Question 24

How is self-perception different from cognitive dissonance?

Answer 24

In self-perception, there is no dissonance and no prior attitude.

Question 25

Overjustification effect

Answer 25

External incentives decrease internal motivation

Question 26

Embodied cognition

Answer 26

Our physical behavior itself changes the attitude of ourselves

Question 27

What does the Global Warming Experiment illustrate?

Answer 27

That people in the warmer room are more likely to rate climate change as a pressing issue because it is easier for them to imagine a hotter world through embodied cognition

Question 28

Things that can cause uneasiness/discomfort besides dissonance

Answer 28

• Thought of death
• Injustice and unfairness
• Being the outlier

Question 29

System justification theory

Answer 29

People are motivated to see the existing system as desirable, fair and legitimate
- Helps reduce unease

Question 30

Terror Management Theory

Answer 30

People deal with potentially crippling anxiety associated with inevitability of death by striving for symbolic immortality through preserving valued cultural worldviews and believing they have lived up to the culture’s standards

Question 31

What happens when we are reminded of our mortality?

Answer 31

• Ppl more committed to their in group and hostile to out group
• More eager to punish criminals
• More reluctant to use cultural artifacts for mundane purpose