L9 Social

What is the goal of evaluative conditioning?

To create or replace links between concepts in memory by pairing an emotional stimulus with a target stimulus even if the two are not logically related.

Do the emotional stimulus and target stimulus need to be logically related in evaluative conditioning?

No stimuli do not have to be related repetition alone can transfer the feeling from one to the other e.g. positive music paired repeatedly with a pen makes the pen feel positive.

What does evaluative conditioning target "gut" reactions or reasoned beliefs?

Immediate automatic gut emotional responses not causal or logical relationships.

What is contingency awareness in the APE model?

When a person notices the odd pairing between stimuli and consciously realizes what the conditioning is trying to do e.g. I think this is supposed to make me like alcohol.

What happens to conditioning effectiveness when contingency awareness is present?

Effectiveness increases because the person shifts from simple associative learning to propositional elaborated causal learning.

In the bittering agent/sugar taste study which manipulation actually changed evaluations?

Adding a bittering agent significantly reduced liking of the flavor while adding sugar did not increase liking showing the negative pairing worked but the positive one didn't.

Who was most affected by the bittering agent/sugar evaluative conditioning?

Participants who were most aware of the pairing manipulation since awareness led them to elaborate propositionally on why the association was created.

Why does awareness make evaluative conditioning more effective not less?

Awareness creates a causal explanation between concepts propositional learning elaborating a simple association e.g. Black-Positive into a reasoned link.

What psychological mechanism helps new associations from evaluative conditioning translate into behavior change?

Cognitive dissonance discomfort from a conflict between attitudes and behavior motivates people to resolve the inconsistency.

What is cognitive dissonance?

An uncomfortable state of arousal caused by awareness of inconsistency between one's attitudes and behavior which motivates attitude or behavior change to resolve it.

According to Festinger what conditions must be met for cognitive dissonance to occur?

The action is perceived as inconsistent with attitude the action is perceived as freely chosen not externally caused the person experiences uncomfortable arousal and they attribute that arousal to the inconsistency itself not to another cause.

In Festinger and Carlsmith 1959 what did participants do and how were they paid?

Students lied to a stranger saying a boring study was interesting and were paid either 1 dollar or 20 dollars for doing so.

What did participants paid 1 dollar report about the task and why?

They reported actually liking the task because 1 dollar was not enough external justification for lying so they resolved the dissonance by changing their attitude to match their behavior.

What did participants paid 20 dollars report about the task and why?

They openly said the task was boring and admitted they only did it for the money the large payment gave them sufficient external justification so little dissonance was created.

What is Daryl Bem's alternative explanation for attitude change instead of cognitive dissonance?

Self-perception theory people infer their own attitudes/emotions by observing their own behavior rather than through discomfort or arousal.

How does cognitive dissonance apply within the APE model overall?

Associative conditioning creates a new automatic behavior the person notices it conflicts with their existing propositional belief they change their propositional belief to match the new behavior associative and propositional information now align strengthening the likelihood of the behavior recurring.

In the salad example how does evaluative conditioning and cognitive dissonance change eating behavior?

Repeatedly pairing salad with a cute kitten reduces the automatic salad = bad gut reaction person eats salad more this conflicts with belief I don't like salad dissonance resolves by updating the belief to salad is okay associative and propositional information now match making the behavior more likely to repeat.

What is priming?

Activating certain information concepts consciously or unconsciously to influence subsequent perceptions judgments or behavior often via spreading activation in a semantic network.

In Petzel and Noel 2020 how did question framing priming affect binge drinkers responses?

A social framed question How common is it for adults to drink while socializing primed different associations than a safety framed question How common is it to drink and then drive.

According to Loersch and Payne 2011 why does priming influence behavior?

Primed information becomes more mentally accessible than other relevant information and because people are cognitive misers they rely on whatever comes to mind most easily when forming judgments decisions.

What is elaboration in the Elaboration Likelihood Model ELM?

The critical effortful evaluation of an argument's content rather than accepting or rejecting it automatically.

What are the two routes of persuasion in the ELM?

Central routes scientific evidence logic based arguments and peripheral routes emotional appeals e.g. fear that work by changing memory associations.

When are peripheral emotional routes of persuasion most effective?

In preventing maladaptive behaviors from forming in the first place e.g. plain tobacco packaging but they are less effective at changing already persistent behaviors.

How can emotional messages promote high elaboration?

When they are counterintuitive to a person's longstanding beliefs and attitudes prompting deeper processing.

How can central route persuasion reduce unwanted elaboration skepticism or counterarguing?

By combining it with a peripheral route or by boosting the perceived trustworthiness of the source/information.

Why do arguments from experts tend to be more persuasive?

They typically produce lower elaboration less scrutiny and increase the trustworthiness of central route arguments making them more effective at changing persistent behaviors.

In DeBono and Harnish 1988 which argument type produced low elaboration and what was it about?

The strong argument calendar promotes sexist attitudes reinforces gender stereotypes tarnishes university image surprisingly this produced low elaboration.

In DeBono and Harnish 1988 which argument type produced high elaboration?

The weak argument calendar gives free advertising to swimsuit manufacturers people focus on cheerleaders rather than athletes produced high elaboration.

In DeBono and Harnish 1988 how did source expertise affect elaboration?

An expert source Dr Leonard Charles a renowned psychologist produced low elaboration while a control peer source Leonard Charles a student produced high elaboration.

What is drunkorexia?

A behavior pattern combining alcohol use/abuse with disordered eating and/or excessive exercise e.g. skipping meals or over exercising to offset calories from binge drinking or drinking to purge food.

In the drunkorexia intervention study which route of persuasion was effective on its own?

Peripheral emotion driven cues alone were sufficient to reduce binge drinking adding central logic based messaging did not provide much additional benefit for university students.

In the attractiveness/elaboration study what did the high elaboration condition involve?

Participants were told they'd have to write a critical review of the product putting them in a critical effortful mindset.

In the low elaboration condition did model attractiveness affect attitude change?

Yes an attractive model changed attitudes more than an average looking model regardless of the product (diet product or deodorant).

In the high elaboration condition when did model attractiveness matter?

Only when the product was relevant to attractiveness (e.g. diet product) attractiveness had no effect on attitudes toward an irrelevant product (deodorant).

What is the overall takeaway of the ELM regarding argument strength vs source cues?

Strong arguments alone can change attitudes regardless of source but experts attractive sources or social identity cues can shift attitudes even with weak arguments though effectiveness varies by individual differences (some people remain skeptical regardless of source expertise).

Do mandatory diversity trainings reliably improve diversity outcomes?

No mandatory trainings do not always improve diversity while voluntary trainings often suffer from low attendance.

According to self-determination theory what are the two types of motivation relevant to diversity initiatives?

External motivation driven by rules laws or consequences versus internal motivation driven by personal values and genuine desire to engage.

In the academic lecturer study on diversity initiative framing which type of motivational message produced more positive evaluations?

Messages framing engagement as internally motivated e.g. it makes us happier more productive produced more positive evaluations than mandated externally required framing.

In Farrell et al 2020 what did participants read before rating an organization?

Brochures describing the organization's diversity training as either mandated controlling or as a matter of free choice autonomy supportive.

What happened to implicit racial bias IAT D-scores when diversity training was framed as mandated?

Bias actually increased participants showed stronger negative implicit associations with Black Americans making the mandate framing backfire.

What happened to implicit racial bias when diversity training was framed as autonomous internally motivated?

Implicit bias D-scores dropped to nearly zero indicating no strong racial preference.

Why might mandating anti prejudice behavior ironically increase prejudice?

People feel social pressure and resentment which can trigger stereotype rebound after suppression since self control depletes over time ego depletion.

What is stereotype rebound?

The phenomenon where suppressed stereotypical thoughts return with greater strength once suppression stops sometimes exceeding baseline stereotype use.

What is perspective taking as a prejudice reduction technique?

Making an active effort to imagine seeing the world through an outgroup member's eyes a day in the life facilitated by writing essays listening to discrimination interviews or having face to face meetings.

Why is perspective taking effective at reducing bias?

It helps people see overlap between their own experiences and the outgroup's strengthening ingroup outgroup associations and fostering internal motivation to reduce bias.

What behavioral outcomes are associated with successful perspective taking?

Increased helping behavior toward the targeted group reduced social distance and more positive social interactions with outgroup members afterward.

What are the limitations of perspective taking?

It can backfire for people who strongly identify with their ingroup may not change deeply prejudiced attitudes and can lack the depth of real lived experience injustice knowledge outgroup members actually face.

What was the key innovation of Petzel et al 2024 in perspective taking research?

Using virtual reality combined with contextual information rather than just imagination essay writing to more fully recreate the outgroup's first hand experience.

Describe the VR manipulation used in Petzel et al 2024 Experiment 1

Participants men watched a presentation on gender bias in science given by a male presenter as a peripheral credibility cue then saw themselves in a mirror as a woman then attended a male dominated science conference where they could interact with different groups.

What combination of factors produced the strongest support for gender equality in Petzel et al 2024?

The combination of both contextual understanding what women in science experience AND embodying a woman in science via VR not perspective taking alone.

How does Petzel et al 2024 map onto the Elaboration Likelihood Model?

Central routes = expert sources and empirical evidence on gender bias Peripheral routes = promoting empathy and perspective taking as a female scientist.

How does Petzel et al 2024 map onto the APE model?

Central empirical evidence changes propositional beliefs e.g. women are disadvantaged in STEM while embodied perspective taking builds associative links Women-Science and the two can reinforce each other bidirectionally.

What is the contact hypothesis intergroup contact theory?

Under proper conditions direct interaction between ingroup and outgroup members leads to positive attitude change.

For whom is intergroup contact less effective?

People high in prejudice who avoid contact with disliked groups and people high in intergroup anxiety who lack confidence in positive relationships with the outgroup.

What happens when intergroup contact is negative rather than positive?

Negative contact is more harmful than positive contact is helpful it reinforces stereotypes and increases stereotype application even though positive contact is more common and generally more effective.

What is extended indirect contact?

Having an ingroup friend who has outgroup friends which is associated with lower prejudice and reduced intergroup anxiety by showing intergroup relationships are possible and permissible.

What is media contact as a form of indirect contact?

Seeing outgroup members portrayed positively in media real or fictional which functions as a form of extended contact and perspective taking to improve intergroup attitudes.

What is imagined contact?

Mentally rehearsing a positive relaxed comfortable first meeting with an outgroup member which helps with self regulation of emotions and builds a behavioral script for real interactions.

In the Northern Ireland imagined contact study with elderly outgroup members what was the manipulation and result?

Participants imagined interacting with an elderly person afterward their preference for choosing a same age partner disappeared showing reduced age based bias.

What is the common ingroup identity model of how contact reduces prejudice?

Ingroup and outgroup members recategorize themselves as belonging to one shared larger group identity which breaks down us vs them thinking.

What is a key limitation of the common ingroup identity approach?

Majority group members may define the common identity in terms of their own group's norms assimilation assuming the outgroup should adopt their values rather than a truly shared identity.

What is transcranial magnetic stimulation TMS and how is it used in prejudice research?

TMS uses strong magnetic fields to disrupt or slow neural activity in specific brain regions helping researchers establish cause and effect relationships between brain areas and behaviors like stereotyping.

What is transcranial direct current stimulation tDCS?

A technique using electrical current to strengthen or inhibit activity in specific brain regions also used in clinical settings such as treatment resistant depression.

In the tDCS prejudice study what happened when positive stimulation was applied to the frontal lobe?

Implicit prejudice IAT D-scores dropped since the frontal lobe supports controlled processing and increasing its activity increased participants ability to override automatic bias.

In the tDCS prejudice study what happened when frontal lobe activity was inhibited?

Implicit prejudice increased due to reduced controlled processing resources though still not as much as in the sham condition.

What is propranolol and why is it relevant to prejudice research?

A beta blocker used for anxiety that unexpectedly reduced implicit racial bias by affecting physiological and emotional reactivity.

What did IAT D-scores look like for participants given propranolol versus placebo?

Placebo participants showed typical bias while propranolol participants showed D-scores near zero indicating no bias.

What actually explains propranolol's effect on IAT performance?

It slowed responses overall by reducing amygdala based emotional reactivity so participants no longer showed differential fear responses to racial groups.

Is propranolol considered a genuinely effective real world intervention for reducing racism?

No it is not practical as an intervention but it helps identify brain mechanisms underlying bias such as amygdala reactivity.

What is the overall practical takeaway about brain stimulation and pharmacological interventions for prejudice?

They are not feasible real world interventions but provide causal insight into brain mechanisms like frontal control and amygdala emotional reactivity underlying prejudice.