Social - Lecture 7: Attitudes, attributions and persuasion Flashcards
- Define attitude and strengths of attitude.
Attitude - ‘a positive, negative, or mixed reaction to a person, object or idea’ (Kassin, Fein & Markus, 2011)
Attitudes can vary in strength along dimensions of positivity and negativity.
(positive attitude, negative attitude, ambivalence, indifference)
Ajzen & Fishbein (1977): attitudes ONLY correlate with behaviour when attitude measures closely match the behaviour in question Theory of Planned Behaviour.
- Attitudes can vary in strength along dimensions of positivity and negativity – liking something, detesting something.
(positive attitude, negative attitude, ambivalence, indifference) Indifference – don’t have strong enough sets of attitudes to establish an opinion – not really bothered
Attitudes & behaviour
- No direct link between attitude and behaviour – do people’s attitudes correspond with their behaviour? – LaPiere (1934) – ‘Racism road trip’ – was friends with a couple who were recent immigrants from China to the US – accompanied him on a road trip – went into diners on the road trip – nobody stopped the Chinese couple entering – LaPiere 6 months later – sent a questionnaire to all the places – ‘If you had a person of Asian/Chinese heritage come into your restaurant, would you serve them?’ – most of them said no
More recent thinking: Link is subject to a number of conditions – LaPiere is right, there are links
http://psychology.iresearchnet.com/social-psychology/attitudes/attitude-strength/: These include knowledge, the amount of information people have stored in memory about the attitude object; importance, the degree to which people care about and attach psychological significance to an attitude object; certainty, the degree to which people are sure that their attitudes are valid and correct; elaboration, the amount of thought that has been devoted to the attitude object; extremity, how far from the midpoint the attitude is on a negative-positive continuum; accessibility, how quickly and easily the attitude comes to mind when the attitude object is encountered; ambivalence, the degree to which people simultaneously experience both positive and negative reactions to an attitude object; and a handful of other features. In separate programs of research, each of these attitude features has been shown to relate to one or more of the four defining properties of strong attitudes.
For example, attitudes that a person considers personally important predict his or her behavior much more accurately than do less-important attitudes. Important attitudes are also more resistant to change when a person is confronted by a counterattitudinal persuasive message, and they are more stable over long periods of time. In addition, important attitudes influence information processing in ways that unimportant attitudes do not: They influence how much people like other people, how they evaluate political candidates, and many other cognitive processes.
- Describe the Theory of Planned Behaviour.
The theory of planned behaviour: Ajzen & Fishbein (1977): attitudes ONLY correlate with behaviour when attitude measures closely match the behaviour in question. Some attitudes/behaviours are more likely to have that link than others.
If those attitudes/behaviours fit to the behaviour in question you are more likely to get the behaviour
Theory of Reasoned Action in 1980 to predict an individual’s intention to engage in a behavior at a specific time and place. The theory was intended to explain all behaviors over which people have the ability to exert self-control. The key component to this model is behavioral intent; behavioral intentions are influenced by the attitude about the likelihood that the behavior will have the expected outcome and the subjective evaluation of the risks and benefits of that outcome.
The TPB has been used successfully to predict and explain a wide range of health behaviors and intentions including smoking, drinking, health services utilization, breastfeeding, and substance use, among others. The TPB states that behavioral achievement depends on both motivation (intention) and ability (behavioral control). It distinguishes between three types of beliefs - behavioral, normative, and control. The TPB is comprised of six constructs that collectively represent a person’s actual control over the behavior.
The TPB is comprised of six constructs that collectively represent a person’s actual control over the behavior.
- Attitudes - This refers to the degree to which a person has a favorable or unfavorable evaluation of the behavior of interest. It entails a consideration of the outcomes of performing the behavior.
- Behavioral intention - This refers to the motivational factors that influence a given behavior where the stronger the intention to perform the behavior, the more likely the behavior will be performed.
- Subjective norms - This refers to the belief about whether most people approve or disapprove of the behavior. It relates to a person’s beliefs about whether peers and people of importance to the person think he or she should engage in the behavior.
- Social norms - This refers to the customary codes of behavior in a group or people or larger cultural context. Social norms are considered normative, or standard, in a group of people.
- Perceived power - This refers to the perceived presence of factors that may facilitate or impede performance of a behavior. Perceived power contributes to a person’s perceived behavioral control over each of those factors.
- Perceived behavioral control - This refers to a person’s perception of the ease or difficulty of performing the behavior of interest. Perceived behavioral control varies across situations and actions, which results in a person having varying perceptions of behavioral control depending on the situation. This construct of the theory was added later, and created the shift from the Theory of Reasoned Action to the Theory of Planned Behavior. (https://sphweb.bumc.bu.edu/otlt/mph-modules/sb/behavioralchangetheories/BehavioralChangeTheories3.html)
- Define attribution, and describe two key attribution errors/biases.
Attribution theory
Heider (1958) - ‘naïve scientists’
Categorised people’s explanations for others’ behaviours into ‘personal attributions’ and ‘situational’ attributions’.
Many factors (about individuals and situations) appear to contribute to the process of attribution:
Jones’ Correspondence Inference Theory
Kelley’s Co-Variance Model
Processing of these factors can lead to biases/errors:
Fundamental Attribution Error
Actor-Observer Effect
Fundamental attribution error (Ross, 1977): Overemphasise the role of personal causes and underestimate the impact of situations on people’s behaviour.
Gilbert & Malone (1995): problem stems in part from how we make attributions.
Seems that social perception is a two-step process:
1. Identify the behaviour and make a quick personal attribution
2. We correct/adjust that inference to account for situational factors.
Actor-Observer effect: More likely to assume that our own behaviour is situationally determined, whereas others’ behaviours can be internally attributed (Jones & Nisbett, 1972).
2 main explanations:
Perceptual focus. The actor and the observer have different perspectives (Storms, 1973).
Informational differences. Difference in level of information between actor and observer.
- Define persuasion, and describe Petty & Cacioppo (1986)’s dual route model of persuasion.
Persuasion: ‘the process by which attitudes are changed’ (Kassin, Fein & Markus, 2011, p.214).
We are surrounded by attempts to “persuade” us/change our attitudes.
How does persuasion happen?
Petty & Cacioppo (1986): DUAL PROCESS MODEL – “elaboration/likelihood model”.
Central route to persuasion (people influenced by the strength & qualities of the arguments)
Peripheral route to persuasion (people influenced by more ‘superficial’ cues)
Route taken depends on cognitive effort expended on message.
Central route: Step 1 RECEPTION (Learning of message Hovland et al., 1949, 1953)
Step 2 ELABORATION
(Consider personally relevant implications, seek further information Greenwald, 1968)
Final step: ACCEPTANCE OF MESSAGE (McGuire, 1968)
Peripheral route - Sometimes people sometimes SHORTCUTS and respond only to more superficial cues.
People evaluate a message using simple-minded heuristics (Chaiken, 1987; Chen & Chaiken, 1999).
Example of cues:
Communicator has a good reputation
Speaks/writes well
Reputation for honesty (Priester & Petty, 1995)
Long list of arguments
Influences of which route we take - Source (who is the communicator), Message (content), Audience (recipients of message)
The source - CREDIBILITY and LIKEABILITY.
CREDIBILITY –(Pornpitakpan, 2004).
Competence: Refers to a speakers perceived ability (Hass, 1981).
Trustworthiness: Base our judgments in terms of
social position of the speaker
vested interest? E.g. celebrities endorsements - Tripp et al. (1994)
The source and likeability - Source more persuasive if they are likeable.
What makes someone more likeable?
Similarity (e.g. perceived similarity in values, interests, group membership etc.), and
Attractiveness (e.g. supermodels used in advertising).
The message - When people care about an issue, the strength of a message determines its impact (rather than characteristics of the source).
Both what a person has to say AND how that person says it.
Persuasiveness depends on which route is taken by the audience (peripheral or central route).
Central route to persuasion, a lengthy message can EITHER aid OR hinder persuasion:
Lots of supporting information length aids persuasion (Harkins & Petty, 1981)
Extra arguments are weak length hinders persuasion (Friedreich et al., 1996; Harkins & Petty, 1987)
Repetition
Also:
“Illusion of truth effect” (Moons et al, 2009).
Sleeper effects (Kumkale and Albarracin, 2004)
Fear!
Impact of fear depends on perception of likelihood of consequence for participants.
Dental hygiene versus smoking cessation
Impact depends on how afraid participants already are!
Facts versus feelings
