Module 4.2 Flashcards
Attitude Formation and Attitude Change
Stereotype
a generalized concept about a group; these can help reduce cognitive load when making decisions or judgments; they can be the cause and/or result of biased perceptions and experiences and are frequently the basis of prejudiced attitudes and discriminatory
Implicit attitudes
a relatively enduring and general evaluative response of which a person has little or no conscious awareness
Just-world phenomenon
the idea that the world is a fair and orderly place where what happens to people generally is what they deserve. In other words, bad things happen to bad people, and good things happen to good people. This view enables an individual to confront their physical and social environments as though they were stable and predictable but may, for example, result in the belief that the innocent victim of an accident or attack must somehow be responsible for or deserve it
Out-group homogeneity bias
the tendency to assume that the members of other groups are very similar to each other, particularly in contrast to the assumed diversity of the membership of one’s own group
Ingroup bias
the tendency to favor one’s own group, its members, its characteristics, and its products, particularly in reference to other groups
Ethnocentrism
the tendency, often unintentional, to base perceptions and understandings of other groups or cultures on one’s own
Belief perseverance
the tendency to maintain a belief even after the information that originally gave rise to it has been refuted or otherwise shown to be inaccurate
Cognitive dissonance
an unpleasant psychological state resulting from inconsistency between two or more elements in a cognitive system. It is presumed to involve a state of heightened arousal and to have characteristics similar to physiological drives (hunger). Thus, cognitive dissonance creates a motivational drive in an individual to reduce the dissonance
