Attitudes and behaviour

attitude

how we feel about something (pos/neg)

behaviour

our actions

when do attitudes predict behaviour

when theres minimal social influences. when theres a very specific attitude. when attitudes are strong and primed (care a lot and its in the front of your mind)

theory of planned behaviour

Attitudes + subjective norms + perceived control = behavioural intention → behaviours

subjective norms

our ideas of what people around us perceive to be normal

perceived control

our perception of how much our behaviour matters

behavioural intention

what you plan/hope/intend to do. usually leads to behaviour but not always

peg-turning task (findings)

people who turned pegs for $1 reported it being more fun than those who did it for $20 (had to justify it telling themselves it was fun because otherwise doing it for $1 would be irrational and we don’t like doing things that are irrational)

insufficient justification

convincing yourself you liked something to justify doing it. inverse of over justification

hazing

mistreating/testing someone who is joining a group. increases perceived group value

consistency motive

we want to be consistent and perceived as such. We want attitudes to match behaviour

cognitive dissonance

when attitudes and behaviours dont match it is uncomfortable.

how to fix cog dissonance

1. change behaviour to align with attitude

2. justify by excusing the mismatch or adding something else to compensate (recycling is too hard where I live. I do lots of other things for the environment)

3. downplay: eg recycling doesnt do that much anyways

self-affirmation theory

attitude and behaviour discrepancies can threaten or self integrity. we make up for this by affirming it in other ways and doing things we feel good about. (eg mormons wanting to volunteer)

colonization