Attitudes and Attitude Change

Attitudes

Attitudes are evaluative responses to

stimuli

Attitudes

They are based on ABC information

affective component

behavioral component

the persons emotions and affect towards the object

cognitive component

how person tends to act towards the object

consists of thoughts and beliefs the person has about the object

These are not always highly related to each other.

Attitudes

Attitudes make it possible to access related information and to make decisions quickly. Attitudes are one determinant of behavior but not the only one; conversely behavior also determines attitudes.

Theories of Attitudes

Learning Approach Consistency Approach Expectancy-Value Approach Cognitive Approach

Theories of Attitudes
1.The learning approach

Attitudes are acquired in the same way as other habits:

Yale Attitude Change program (Hovland et al., 1950s)

association reinforcement and punishment imitation.

Theories of Attitudes

Transfer of affect involves

transferring emotions from one object (e.g., a sexy model) to another (e.g., the car the model is standing by).

Theories of Attitudes

Evaluation of Learning Approach:

The learning approach views people as passive recipients of external forces. This model appears to work well when people are unfamiliar with the material.

Theories of Attitudes
2.Cognitive consistency approaches
depict people as striving for coherence and meaning in their cognitions.

Theories of Attitudes

Cognitive dissonance theory (Festinger,

1957) is concerned with discrepancies between people s attitudes and their behaviors. Dissonance is an aversive motivational state that results when our behavior is inconsistent with our attitudes

Dissonance creates psychological tension that people are motivated to reduce.

Theories of Attitudes

Three ways of reducing dissonance

changing our behavior (often difficult) trivializing the dissonance changing the attitude.

Theories of Attitudes

Decision making usually arouses

dissonance that is resolved by increasing liking for the chosen alternative and decreasing liking for the non-chosen alternative.

Theories of Attitudes

Dissonance can occur when we commit ourselves to a single course of action. Festinger and his colleagues documented the behavior of members of a doomsday cult.

When the world failed to end as had been predicted, cult members claimed that their faith had helped save the world and began active recruiting. Finding additional supporters helped justify their original behavior.

Theories of Attitudes

Attitude-discrepant behavior (counter-attitudinal behavior) also

induces dissonance, which is typically relieved by changing the attitude (since behaviors are difficult to undo.)

Theories of Attitudes

Factors increasing dissonance for performing counterattitudinal behavior

Small threat of punishment Behavior is freely chosen There is an irrevocable commitment Negative consequences were foreseeable Person feels responsible for consequences Effort is expended

Theories of Attitudes

Expectancy-value theory assumes

that people develop an attitude based on their thoughtful assessment of pros and cons:
Expectancy-value theory treats people as calculating, active, rational decision-makers.

Theories of Attitudes

Dual Processing Theories

People process a message systematically when they have both the motivation and the ability to do so; when they do not have the motivation or the ability, they process messages heuristically. Heuristics-mental shortcuts that provide quick estimates about the likehood of certain events.eg what is the likehoodthat I will get a high paying job

Theories of Attitudes

Cognitive response theory seeks to

understand attitude change by understanding the thoughts (cognitive responses) people produce in response to persuasive communications.

This theory assumes that people are active processors of information and generate cognitive responses to messages.

Theories of Attitudes

Attitude change depends on how much and what kind of counterarguing a message triggers. Persuasion can be induced by interfering with a persons ability to counter-argue.

Theories of Attitudes

Petty and Cacioppos elaboration likelihood model draws a key distinction The central route to persuasion involves

careful and thoughful consideration of the content of the message. The peripheral route to persuasion involves
some simple cues such as attractiveness of the source.

Theories of Attitudes

People use the central route when they are

People are more likely to use the peripheral route when they are

involved in the issue concerned about accuracy aware that others are trying to change their attitudes.

uninvolved in the issue distracted by the source or context overloaded with other things to do.

Persuasion

The more favorably people evaluate the communicator, the more favorably they are apt to evaluate the communication.

This idea reflects transfer of affect.

BELIEVING VERSUS DOUBTING

I UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU SAY BUT I DONT BELIEVE IT

BELIEF PERSEVERANCE- THE FINDING THAT ONCE BELIF IS FORM,THEY ARE RESISTANT TO CHANGE,EVEN IF THE INFORMATION ON WHICH ARE BASED IS DISCREDITED.

BELIEF AND COPING

COPING THE GENERAL TERM FOR HOW PEOPLE ATTEMPT TO DEAL WITH TRAUMAS AND GO BACK TO FUNCTIONING EFFECTIVELY IN LIFE. ASSUMPTIVE WORLD-THE VIEW THAT PEOPLE LIVE IN SOCIAL WORLD BASED ON CERTAIN BELIEF ABOUT REALITY.

THE WORLD IS BENEVOLENTPEOPLE ARE NICE,LIFE IS SAFE,GOOD THINGS HAPPENING MOST OF THE TIME.THE OPPOSITE THE WORLD IS DANGEROUS FULL OF EVIL,UNTRUSTWORTHY PEOPLE

THE WORLD IS FAIR AND JUSTPEOPLE GENERALLY GET WHAT THEY DESERVE. IAM GOOD PERSON-IAM SOMEONE OF VALUE AND THEREFORE DESERVE GOOD THINGS TO HAPPEN TO ME.

COGNITIVE COPING-THE IDEA THAT BELIEFS PLAY A CENTRAL ROLE IN HELPING PEOPLE COPE WITH AND RECOVER FROM MISFORTUNE. DOWNWARD COMPARISONCOMPARING ONESELF TO PEOPLE WHO ARE WORSE OFF.

Persuasion

Several aspects of a communicator affect whether he or she is evaluated favorably.

Credibility

Liking

Expertise Trustworthiness

Persuasion

We are persuaded by the opinions of our reference groups, those we like or identify with.

This occurs both because of the motivational factors of liking and perceived similarity, and because messages from in-groups are more likely to be processed using the central route.

Persuasion

The message content clearly influences whether or not people will accept it.

Persuasion

The greater the discrepancy between the listeners position and the message presented, the greater the potential for change.
Attitude Change

Discrepancy

Persuasion

Sources who are more credible can advocate more discrepant opinions successfully.

For example, Bochner and Insko (1966) presented participants with a message on the number of nightly hours of sleep required The message ostensibly came either from a Nobel Prize winner or a YMCA instructor. The YMCA instructor produced the most change when advocating three hours sleep; the Nobel Prize winner, when advocating only one.

Persuasion

When message discrepancy is low, it is assimilated into the audiences opinion (perceived as closer than it really is) When message discrepancy is high, it is seen as even further away (message contrast). Discrepancy may be reduced by distorting or misperceiving the message, or even rejecting it altogether.

Persuasion

People are most affected by the strength of arguments when they are motivated to pay attention and able to think carefully about them (central route processing).

Persuasion

When people are not motivated or able to think about message content, peripheral cues become important in determining attitude change.

source characteristics message length number of arguments

Persuasion

Repetition and familiarity tend to

increase liking, but only up to a point.

Repetition may help people process strong arguments more completely but expose the flaws in weak arguments. Repetition may lead to tedium; this can be dealt with by having ads that provide slight variations on a theme.

Persuasion

Matching the Persuasive Message to the Nature of the Attitude

Attitudes that are highly emotional may be more easily changed by emotional appeals. Messages that address the functional basis of an attitude (what the attitude does for the person) may be more persuasive.

Persuasion

Attitudes that are high in ego involvement are resistant to change. Kinds of ego involvement include

Commitment Issue Involvement Response Involvement

Persuasion

People high in authoritarianism or dogmatism (closed-mindedness)

People who are high in the need for

tend to respond to the expertise of the source first and to argument strength only when the source is non-expert.

closure

typically more resistant to persuasion.

Persuasion

Aggression Arousal

Fear Arousal

Personal frustrations may make a person more vulnerable to persuasive communications advocating aggressive actions. Fear usually increases the effectiveness of a persuasive appeal, but if too much fear is aroused, the effect may be disruptive. Fear appeals are more effective if they not only arouse fear but also provide information about how to reduce the fear.

Persuasion

People committed to an attitude position who are forewarned of an attempt to change their attitudes will be more resistant to persuasion

They can generate more counterarguments. Those who are not committed to an attitude position are actually more likely to change their attitudes after a forewarning.

Persuasion

Distraction makes it harder to

counter-argue and thus tends to enhance the effectiveness of a persuasive message.

Too much distraction, however, will prevent a message from being heard at all and will reduce persuasion to zero.

Persuasion

McGuire suggested that inoculation (building resistance to persuasion by arguing against weak forms of a persuasive argument) helps people resist persuasion.

Attitude Change over Time

Thinking about an attitude object tends to make the attitude more extreme

thinking allows people to generate more consistent attitudes (if they have a preexisting schema for the issue).

Attitude Change over Time

The sleeper effect refers to a rebound in persuasiveness of messages delivered by low-credibility sources.

separation in memory of the source and the message Separation in memory of the message and discounting cues

Attitudes and Behavior

First study of attitude-behavior consistency:

La Piere (1934) toured the United States with a Chinese couple, stopping at hotels and restaurants along the way. They were refused service at only one establishment. However, 92% of the institutions later said in a letter that they would refuse to accept Chinese people as guests.

Attitudes and Behavior

Later studies have shown higher degrees of attitude-behavior consistency

especially for attitudes that are

stable important certain consistent between cognition and affect easily accessed formed through direct experience

Attitudes and Behavior

Strong attitudes are typically

They are often embedded or tied to other beliefs. They are often formed through direct experience and become highly accessible as a result.

stable, personally relevant, held about personally important issues about which one feels extreme and certain.

Attitudes and Behavior

Stable attitudes that are accessible in memory are most likely to predict behavior

Attitudes and Behavior

Maximum attitude-behavior consistency occurs when attitudes and behaviors are measured at about the same time.

Longer time intervals diminish attitudebehavior correlations because attitudes, people, and situations change.

Attitudes and Behavior

Attitudes that are more accessible in memory influence behavior more strongly.

Attitudes that are expressed more frequently are more accessible and tend to become more extreme.

Attitudes and Behavior

Attitudes are often automatically activated when the attitude object is present.

We may have a pervasive tendency to non-consciously classify most stimuli as good or bad, and almost immediately tend to approach or avoid them.

Attitudes and Behavior

The more relevant an attitude is to a behavior, the more attitude-behavior consistency there will be.

Attitudes and Behavior

In most situations, several attitudes are relevant to behavior. The attitude that is most salient is most likely to influence behavior

especially when the attitude is not a strong one.

Attitudes and Behavior

When an attitude is based heavily on affect, persuasive appeals to emotion are more successful When attitudes are based more on cognition, cognitively based appeals are more successful.

Attitudes and Behavior

Wilson and his colleagues have found that introspecting about the reasons one likes or dislikes an attitude object can disrupt attitude-behavior consistency

Causes the attitude temporarily to change. Especially true for attitudes that have little cognitive support.

Attitudes and Behavior

When situational pressures are strong, attitudes (especially weak attitudes) are not as strong determinants of behavior. People sometimes have completely different attitudes towards the same attitude object in different situations.

For example, Minard (1952) found that white coal miners treated black coworkers as equals in the mines but as social inferiors in the outside world.

The Reasoned Action Model

The model has been widely used to predict a variety of behaviors.

E.g., birth control use, decision to breast feed

The Reasoned Action Model

The theory of planned behavior adds an additional variable to the model:

Perceived behavior control = peoples belief in

their ability to control their outcomes.

Other factors not included in the model may also be important:

external constraints and opportunities, fear habit