Week 3 Social Attitudes Flashcards
What is an attitude?
a general and enduring picture about a person, object or issue
What are beliefs?
Beliefs refer to information a person has about a person, object or issue
Why do we have attitudes? (3)
- It is a summary of our beliefs
- It helps others know what to expect from yourself
- Allows us to get rewards or punishments, ie. appeasing someone, appealing to them, avoiding conflict
What are the 3 components of attitudes? (A-B-C)
- Affective components = an emotional reaction towards an issue
- Behavioural component = actions, observable behaviours that guide behaviour
- Cognitive component = thoughts and beliefs on the issue formed by information we’ve gathered
What are cognitive based attitudes + example?
These are attitudes based on beliefs about the properties of an object, we investigate features to inform our cognitive attitudes.
Example - wanting shoes from leather because we believe this material is good, we want an electric car because we believe it will be good for the environment
What are behavioural based attitudes + example?
These are attitudes based on our behavioural experiences of an issue/object
Example - eg. trying on shoes, phones, cars and forming an attitude towards those types of shoes, phones, cars.
What do we do when we are trying to form an attitude with a lack of affective or cognitive beliefs about something?
We form behavioural attitudes from observing our own behaviour in past experiences to form our attitudes
What are affective based attitudes? + example
These are based on how feelings and values towards an object, not based on an examination of facts.
Example - simply liking the feel of driving a certain car, we feel good wearing certain types of clothing.
Can we have attitudes with conflicting affective, behavioural and/or cognitive beliefs?
Yes!
For example, we can have positive affective based attitudes, while also having negative cognitive beliefs about it.
1. Liking meat (affective) but hating the way cattle is farmed and slaughtered (cognitive)
2. Liking a clothing brand (affective/behavioural) but not believing in sweatshops (cognitive)
What major things make our attitudes usually irrational?
They are heavily influenced by our social environment
What three things from our social environment influence how we form attitudes?
- sensory reactions (tone of voice, laughter, body odour)
- cultural values (israel vs. palestine)
- conditioning (normative beliefs)
How are the 2 ways attitudes can be expressed?
- Explicit attitudes - conscious endorse and easily report overtly
- Implicit attitudes - involuntary, unconscious and uncontrollable (Implicit Attitudes Test, IAT)
How could operant conditioning influence the likelihood of attitude expression?
You could be socially rewarded / reproached for expressing or holding prejudicial beliefs about issues like abortion or religious groups.
What 2 factors help attitudes predict behaviour?
Attitude specificality - The more specific the attitude the better the predictor of behaviour
Self-efficacy - We need behavioural self-efficacy to be able to perform the behaviour
How are attitudes changed?
From social influence from relevant others - who are people that are close/similar to us
What are the 3 factors that predict attitude change from the Yale Attitude Change Approach?
- Who? - the source of the communication
- What? - the nature of the communication
- To whom? - the nature of the audience?
What does the “Who? - the source of the communication” need?
- Perceived credibility within their domain
- Appearance of credibility, ie. attractiveness, likeability, charisma
What does the “What? - the nature of the communication” need?
- A comprehensible message
- A goldilock number of arguments/points
- An effective medium ie. social media, TV, newspapers
- Goldilocks amount of fear arousal / emotional provocation
What features of the audience help attitude change?
- Intelligence of the audience
- Self-esteem and confidence of the audience
What are the two routes of persuasive communication?
Central & Peripheral route
What are the features of the central route?
- when people have the motivation and capability to pay attention to the arguments
- usually has personal relevance
What are the positive implications of the central route?
- Careful analysis of an argument means one is more likely to maintain the attitude
- More resistant to being counter-persuaded
- More like to behave in alignment with your attitudes
What are the features of the peripheral route?
When people do not have the motivation and capacity to the argument but becomes swayed by surface-level features / peripheral cues
What features does the peripheral route rely on?
- Who is delivering the message instead of what is the content of the message itself.
- Perceived higher status and likeability of communicator increases listening to argument
How much fear arousal is needed for effective persuasion?
Moderate amounts of fear + problem-solving ideas on how the fear can be reduced
Are emotions a good way of predicting attitudes about something and how do advertisers exploit this?
No - emotions may be due to another source outside of the issue
Advertisers use this misattribution of emotions by creating positive feelings about their product.
ie. using music or scents, to invoke a positive feeling and to convince consumers that they want to the product + using product placement
How can affective and cognitive based attitudes persuade attitude change?
Cognitively based attitudes use rational arguments, ie. price, efficient, reliability
Affectively based attitudes use emotional appeals, ie. the look, feelings, youthfulness
What are criticisms of the IAT? (Implicit Attitudes Test)
- often devoid of context, and consequently has weaker implications for real-life prejudice attitudes and behaviours
- It’s a poor predictor of (prejudicial) behaviour
- Associations can be both positive and negative, so a stronger association does not necessarily indicate a negative association
