Lecture 6: Chapter 8: Attitudes and Behavior

Question 1

Why are attitudes and behaviors related? Give 2 reasons

Answer 1

1. Actions influence attitudes: attitudes are made on the basis of behavioral info
2. Attitudes influence actions: attitudes dictate how we look at things and determines how we act on them

Question 2

When does behavior have the largest influence on attitudes?

Answer 2

When we don’t have the motivation or capacity to really notice changes or think about them

Question 3

What do we mean with associations with movements? What is the name of the concept for this?

Answer 3

Embodied cognition = Attitudes are automatically associated with movements

If positive: laughing, nod, bring object closer
If negative: avoid, shake head etc.

Question 4

What is the self-perception theory (Bem)? What is the main condition for this theory to apply?

Answer 4

People sometimes look at own behavior to learn more about the opinion they hold towards a certain object

People have to voluntarily show a certain behavior

Question 5

Why does behavior influence attitude? (Give 2 reasons)

Answer 5

Observing own behavior to get to know ourselves

Reduce dissonance cognition and behavior

Question 6

What are 2 examples of self-perception on attitudes?

Answer 6

1. Body movement: attitudes have corresponding movements (head shake)
2. Foot in the door

Question 7

What is the facial feedback hypothesis? What were the results?

Answer 7

Facial expressions provide feedback to the brain concerning the emotion being expressed, which causes the emotion to intensify

No support for this hypothesis

Question 8

What is the classic facial feedback study?

Answer 8

Holding pen between teeth (happy) or between lips (sad) creates different muscle tensions that report back to your brain

Question 9

What is meta-analysis?

Answer 9

Statistical technique to combine large number of effects from different studies to find out the average effect

Question 10

What is the foot-in-the-door technique?

Answer 10

Initial request = petition for driving safely
Subsequent request = billboard in frontyard

–> You’re more will to grant big request after having granted a smaller request

Question 11

When does a foot in the door work? Give 4 aspects

Answer 11

1. Initial request is meaningful and requires some effort to grant
2. Initial behavior is voluntary
3. Target is processing superficially
4. Personal need for consistency

Question 12

When does self-perception inform attitudes?

Answer 12

When internal cues are weak, ambiguous or uninterpretable

Question 13

What are 2 applications of self-perception?

Answer 13

1. Writing slogans
2. Free samples

Question 14

What is the cognitive dissonance theory (Festinger)?

Answer 14

Cognitive dissonance = unpleasant feeling caused by inconsistency between cognitions that we are motivated to alleviate

We have a drive to have consonance in our thoughts

Question 15

What are 3 effects of cognitive dissonance?

Answer 15

1. Insufficient justification effect
2. Effort justification effect
3. Post-decisional regret effect

Question 16

What is the insufficient justification effect? How was this assessed?

Answer 16

A change in attitude that occurs to reduce cognitive dissonance caused by attitude-discrepant behavior that can’t be attributed to external reward or punishment

Experiment: boring peg task, then asked to tell the truth or lie about how enjoyable it was. The liars received either 1 or 20 dollars

Those who received 1 dollar showed this effect

Question 17

What is attitude-discrepant behavior?

Answer 17

E.g. lying about something you didn’t like, but you say you like

Question 18

What is the effort justification effect? Give an example

Answer 18

Attitude change that occurs to reduce the dissonance caused by freely choosing to put a lot of effort into reaching a goal

E.g. Ontgroening at student associations

Question 19

What is the post-decisional regret effect?

Answer 19

Attitude change to reduce dissonance caused by freely making a choice or decision

After a decision, the chosen option is evaluated more positively and the choice that hasn’t been chosen is evaluated more negatively

Question 20

What are the 4 steps that produce cognitive dissonance and in turn attitude change?

Answer 20

Attitude discrepant behavior leads to:
1. Individual perceives action as consistent
2. Individual perceives action as freely chosen
3. Individual experiences uncomfortable physiological arousal
4. Individual attributes arousal to inconsistency between attitude and action

–> Dissonance reduction –> Attitude changed

Question 21

Which effects belong to the following statements:

• I have my reasons
• I suffered for it, so I like it
• Ofcourse I was right

Answer 21

• Insufficient justification effect
• Effort justification effect
• Post-decisional regret effect

Question 22

What is the consequence of justifying inconsistent actions?

Answer 22

Creating persistent attitudes, because attitudes that have been processed longer (e.g. through justification), are more persistent

Extensive processing for reduction of dissonance makes attitudes more long-lasting

Question 23

Next to attitude change, what are 6 other alternatives to deal with cognitive dissonance?

Answer 23

1. Re-interpretation: behavior is irrelevant/not dissonant
2. Deny of personal responsibility
3. Substance abuse
4. Self-affirmation: confirming own values and beliefs
5. Changing behavior in the future
6. Hypocrisy effect

Question 24

What is the hypocrisy effect?

Answer 24

Promoting a certain behavior and not acting upon it oneself

Question 25

How do people decide how to reduce cognitive dissonance?

Answer 25

Depends on opportunity and motivation Dissonance is unpleasant, so people use the first reduction opportunity that is presented

Question 26

Study figure 8.4 p292 book

Answer 26

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Question 27

How does self-affirmation help with cognitive dissonance? When does it work best?

Answer 27

It protects an image of self-integrity. By restoring self-integrity, you have less stress Works best if domain is unrelated to the dissonant problem

Question 28

Describe the research of La Piere. What were the results? Name 3 criticisms

Answer 28

La Piere travelled with Chinese couple to hotels. Afterwards he asked the hotels they visited if they accepted Chinese customers. --> Most said they wouldn't serve Chinese customers Criticism: 1. Time between attitude/behavior 2. Attitude measure about Chinese people, behavioral measure about caucasian man with 2 Chinese people 3. Were the guest receivers the same people that answered the letters?

Question 29

Why was La Piere's research on the difference between attitudes and behavior influential?

Answer 29

Because there is little evidence to support the existence of stable attitudes within individuals

Question 30

In what 2 ways do attitudes influence behavior?

Answer 30

Superficially and systematically

Question 31

How do attitudes influence behavior superficially?

Answer 31

Automatically: accessible attitudes predict behavior and reduce alertness E.g. craving snickers

Question 32

How do attitudes influence behavior systematically?

Answer 32

Deliberated: cost-benefit trade-off, intentions E.g. Donating blood, setting implemation intentions such as losing weight in 2025

Question 33

What is an intention according to the theory of reasoned action?

Answer 33

Attitudes + social norms This intention is the best predictor of behavior and involves more systematic processing than superficial processing when attitudes guide behaviors directly

Question 34

What is an intention? What is the difference with an implementation intention?

Answer 34

A commitment to reach a desired outcome or desired behavior Implementation intention = plan to carry out a specific goal-directed behavior in a specific situation --> if-then plans that link a critical situational or environmental cue to the goal

Question 35

What would be an implementation intention for a procrastinating author?

Answer 35

At 9 pm I will write for 2 hours

Question 36

Why are implementation intentions more likely than general intentions to produce desired behavior?

Answer 36

Implementation intentions are simple, specific and associated with cues that typically disrupt goal-directed behavior

Question 37

When do attitudes influence action? Give 4 ways

Answer 37

1. When attitudes are automatically accessible 2. When attitudes correspond with the particular object / behavior conformance 3. Deliberate thought 4. Self-awareness

Question 38

Why does accessibility of attitudes influence action?

Answer 38

It can be automatic (implicit) or we form intentions with them (explicit) And we can deliberately bring attitudes to mind before taking action (think about action before you do it)

Question 39

Why does behavior conformance of attitude influence behavior?

Answer 39

Only an attitude that is in line with a certain behavior is going to impact that behavior strongly The more specific the attitude, the better the attitude predicts behavior

Question 40

What is the correspondence principle? Give an example how it guides our actions

Answer 40

Correspondence of attitudes: Our attitudes dictate perceptions of and intentions toward a particular attitude object E.g. if you think recycling is good, this attitude won't impact your behavior when you see a solar car, but it does when you see 1 can of all kinds of trash

Question 41

What does correspondence of attitudes and activity levels predict? (2)

Answer 41

1. Influence attitude on behavior 2. Attitude-behavior consistency

Question 42

Sometimes an attitude alone is not predictive of behavior. Name 2 additional predictors. What theory belongs with this idea?

Answer 42

1. Social norms : what others think we should do 2. Personal control: we need control over the behavior Theory of planned behavior

Question 43

What is the theory of planned behavior?

Answer 43

The theory that attitudes, social norms and perceived control combine to influence intentions and thus behavior

Question 44

What is a habit and how does it control our behavior?

Answer 44

Habit = repeated behavior automatically triggered in a particular situation The associations are so strong that habits often are automatically acted upon, despite contradicting attitudes or circumstances Habits are resistant against attitudes and intentions

Question 45

What kind of attitudes predict behavior better?

Answer 45

Explicit generally better than implicit, but not always