Chapter 7 Flashcards
Attitude
Evaluation of an object in a positive or negative light
3 components of attitude
- Affect (like / dislike)
- Cognition (Thoughts that reinforce feelings)
- Behavior (Approach / Avoid)
____ responses tend to be stronger than ____ responses due to evolutionary history.
Negative; Positive
Likert scale
Numerical scale used to assess people’s attitudes (like used in MBTI testing)
What are some issues with the Likert scale?
- Consistency: Different interpretations of the questions may lead to different results
- Measurement (scaling issue) — how far away are each of the options?
- Score interpretation
Response latency
Amount of time it takes to respond to a stimulus
*Strong attitudes = Faster response
Implicit attitude measure
An indirect measure of attitudes that doesn’t involve self-report
*Used most often for things people are motivated not to answer honestly
What does the Lapiere Chinese Case Study illustrate?
That even though there are negative attitudes toward something, people tend to behave in opposite ways when it conflicts with other factors.
____ makes attitude LESS accurate in predicting behaviors because…
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
____ changes and shape the way we feel and believe.
Behavior
Cognitive dissonance theory
Inconsistency between a person’s thoughts, sentiments, and actions creates an aversive emotional state (dissonance) that leads to efforts to restore consistency
What do we do about dissonance?
- Change attitude
- Change behavior
- Rationalize behavior
Post-decision dissonance
After we make a hard decision, we will retroactively justify why our choice was better than the alternative
What does the racetrack study illustrate?
- 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
Effort justification
The tendency to reduce dissonance by justifying time, effort, or money devoted to something unpleasant or disappointing
What does the sexual discussion group study illustrate?
- 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
Induced (forced) compliance
Chancing people’s values/beliefs/attitudes by subtly compelling them to behave contrary to their values/beliefs/attitudes
What does the $1 vs. $20 study illustrate?
When the reward of a task can’t compensate for dissonance, people tend to adjust their attitude in order to justify their behavior
What does the Forbidden toy experiment illustrate?
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.
When does dissonance occur?
- 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
Westerners show more dissonance when making choices for ____, while easterners show more dissonance when they feel they are being observed by ____.
Themselves; others
Self-perception theory
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
Self-perception occur when attitudes are ____, while cognitive dissonance occur when attitudes are ____.
Weak; Strong
How is self-perception different from cognitive dissonance?
In self-perception, there is no dissonance and no prior attitude.
Overjustification effect
External incentives decrease internal motivation
Embodied cognition
Our physical behavior itself changes the attitude of ourselves
What does the Global Warming Experiment illustrate?
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
Things that can cause uneasiness/discomfort besides dissonance
- Thought of death
- Injustice and unfairness
- Being the outlier
System justification theory
People are motivated to see the existing system as desirable, fair and legitimate
- Helps reduce unease
Terror Management Theory
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
What happens when we are reminded of our mortality?
- 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
