Week 7: Influencing & Persuading Others

Question 1

Attitude

Answer 1

Evualtions of ourselves and others, which drives our interaction and expression in the world. Expressing the relationship

Question 2

Why are attitudes of interest to social psychologists?

Question 3

Attitudes are changed by…

Answer 3

Persuasion, or changing behaviour.

Question 4

ABC’s of social psychology

Answer 4

Affect, behaviours and cognition

Question 5

Attitude consistency: The principle of attitude consistency

Answer 5

Changes to the attitude will likely cause the rest of the ABC’s to follow. Attitude changes mean behaviour and cognitive changes.

Question 6

Attitude objects

Answer 6

social psychologists reserve the term attitude to refer to our relatively enduring evaluation of something, where the something is called the attitude object. The attitude object might be a person, a product, or a social group

Question 7

Where are attitudes constructed?

Answer 7

-Genetically inherited
-Imparted through direct and personal experience
-Indirect experience through media and friends.

Some attitudes are shared and some are not.

Question 8

Attitude strength

Answer 8

-How quickly it comes to mind, think the IAT.

-Also, how often it is used, cognitively accessible.

-Direct experience.

-Self-concept. Literally the entire chapter for memory.

Question 9

How do our attitudes guide behaviour?

Question 10

The theory of planned behaviour: Attitude and behaviour relationship

Answer 10

a) Attitude towards behaviour
b) Subjective norms
c) Perceived behaviour control (self efficacy belief)

This model is particularly effective for dietary and physical health habits.

Question 11

Attitudes predict behaviour well when…

Answer 11

-The attitude and behaviour both occur in similar social situations

-The same components of the attitude (either affect or cognition) are accessible when the attitude is assessed and when the behavior is performed.

-Attitudes are specific, rather than general. (self concept?)

-Low self-monitor (not driven by a self conscious desire to belong in society)

Question 12

Changing attitudes through persuasion

Answer 12

Persuasion is effective communication

Question 13

Effective communication is…

Answer 13

Effective message
Relevant and receptable recipient.

Question 14

Expert communicator traits

Answer 14

Self-confidence and those who develop a positive association

Similarities

Trustworthy

Quickly and confidently, discounts any arousal of counterargument

Question 15

What is the sleep effect?

Answer 15

Someone who we perceive to be an untrustworthy communicator, we often select their information and attempt to discount it from our minds. Unfortunately, this means we unconsciously retrieve it repeatedly and as a result remember it more than the information we’d like to believe. We detach the content from the source, in our attempts to forget.

Question 16

Effective process

Answer 16

Get their attention
Understand it
Accept it
Apply it to their self-concept

Question 17

Two types of message processing

Answer 17

Spontaneous, often uses affective meaning to persuade. Other names include; peripherally or heuristically

Thoughtful, often uses cognitive elaboration to persuade or remember. Other names include; centrally or systematically

Question 18

Cognitive dissonance and our need for closure is spontaneous message processing

Answer 18

Quick, fast and affective. Our memory capacity is already full. They create an emotional response. Personal anecdotes.

Fearful messages, however, have the capacity to create such an aversion that action is also avoided. Unless self efficacy is already strong, it is good to offer plans for action.

Question 19

Thoughtful message processing

Answer 19

Careful consideration, and whether it matches with what you’ve come to know. Often takes more effort to consider.

Question 20

When a message may be too complex, we rely on…

Answer 20

Spontaneous message processing. Even weak messages can be processed effectively, or rather spontaneously.

Question 21

Different motivations

Answer 21

High personal relevance found were not influenced by the expertise of the source, but were influenced by the quality of information presented.

Low personal relevance found these students were influenced by the ‘sleeper effect’. The quality of the argument found no leverage for persuasion in those with low personal relevance.

Question 22

Preventing persuasion

Answer 22

Forewarning: Serve a reminder that the person may also

Inoculation: Feign an attack that helps the individual build counterarguments. Think vaccines.

Question 23

Psychological reactance

Answer 23

Forewarning and inoculation can create a strong emotional response, causing the individual to become ‘set in their ways’. The prominence of authority feels like an insult on the character?

Question 24

Subliminal advertising

Answer 24

The consumer is unaware that a message was presented. Effective, as it does not disrupt the consumers attention and escaping the consumer’s attention, it cannot be counterargued.

Although meta-analyses discount it’s effectiveness.

Question 25

Changing attitudes by changing behaviour

Question 26

Self-perception

Answer 26

We examine our behaviour for traces of thoughts and emotions not within our conscious spectrum.

To meet a goal, self-concern and other-concern.

Question 27

Insufficient justification

Answer 27

Is the impact of external threat or reward in changing our behaviour, which we do not perceive as pivotal to our behaviour.

They reason that the cause of their behaviour was internal changes, but in actual fact, it was the external happenings. Insecurity? Why would we avoid looking at it this way?

Question 28

Balance of reinforcement and overeinforcement

Answer 28

We should provide the smallest reward/punishment that targets the attitude and not the behaviour.

Which is why intrinsic and extrinsic motivations are so relevant. As it targets attitude, so behaviour can follow.

Question 29

Cognitive dissonance

Answer 29

Self-awareness theory: discomfort that occurs when we behave in ways that we perceive as inconsistent (we fail to live up to our own expectations).

Question 30

The discomfort of cognitive dissonance manifests physically as

Answer 30

Anterior cingulate cortex

Question 31

Dissonant thoughts:
Consonant thoughts:

Answer 31

…uncomfortable thoughts
…pleasant thoughts

Question 32

$1 vs $20 experiment

Answer 32

The $1 group had to rely on internal reward for the experiment.

Question 33

The negative feeling from dissonance

Answer 33

The negative feelings from cognitive dissonance occur from the distance between our attitude and behaviour. Also, when there is a significant contrast between behaviour and the perception of ourselves as good people. Good to ourselves, and others.

Question 34

Reducing the prevalence of dissonance by doing either of the two:

Answer 34

Decreasing dissonant cognition
Increasing consonant cognition

Question 35

Group women example

Answer 35

Justify the effort of initiation, that was used to attain entry into a group.

Question 36

Postdecisional dissonance: Buyer’s remorse

Answer 36

The regret we feel after making an important decision.

Question 37

The irony…

Answer 37

The irony of diminishing our immoral behaviour, also leads to more immoral acts.

Question 38

Collectivist vs Individualist cultures

Answer 38

Canadians displayed a higher spread of alternatives when confronted with negative feedback on their self-esteem.

Question 39

Foot-in-the-door technique

Answer 39

First agreeing to a small commitment, then revealing a larger request.

Question 40

Low ball technique

Answer 40

Causes the consumer to experience a little taste of what they most desire, something better than it seems. Then offer them the reality, the cost.

Question 41

Bait-and-switch technique

Answer 41

Already commited and interested in a purchase, only to find it is not there. They will likely switch to a more expensive product to account for the effort exerted.

Question 42

Make them commit to the feeling and imagine.

Question 43

Several potential paths to persuasion

Answer 43

Commitment and consistency: Commit orally, in writing and in public.

Reciprocity: We feel obligated to return a favor.
Social Proof: We tend to follow what others are doing.

Authority: We tend to obey authority figures.

Liking: We are more easily persuaded by people that we like.

Scarcity: Opportunities are more valuable to us when they are less available.

Question 44

Door-in-the-face technique

Answer 44

Make an impossible request followed by a realistic request. Reciprocity. Quell the disappointment they have seemingly caused.

Question 45

Pre-giving technique

Answer 45

Give something before asking for the request. People feel obliged to give.

Question 46

Commitment vs reciprocity techniques

Question 47

Social media

Answer 47

A concern is quickly turned into a debate, instead of common action. Politics is introduced followed by binary positions. Better off educating and engaging in solutions.

Question 48

Tactics of persuasion

Answer 48

1. Call out disagreement
2. Find commonality
3. Focus on the issue and not the person
4. Accept the possibility of being wrong
5. Use solid facts, when you have them
6. Know when to exit.