6. Attitudes

Attitudes

_____________: “A lasting, general evaluation of people (including oneself), objects or issues” —Allport

• Allport once said Social Psychology is the study of __________, he also provided the definition.

Three Components of Attitudes

1. Affective (feelings/emotions),

2. Behavioural (on the basis of those attitudes), and

3. Cognitive

Allport said attitudes are saturated with emotions

Direct Measures of Attitudes

Ask people explicitly what they think or feel. One of the main jobs of a social psychologist is to measure attitudes. Best to use ________________:

• Likert Scale

• Semantic Differential

• Social Distance Scale

• Problems—Social Desirability Bias

Likert Scale

Direct Measures of Attitudes

_____________:Response options from: Strongly agree, agree, disagree, strongly disagree

• Measures degree of agreement with statements

• Ex. What do you think of the food on campus

Semantic Differential

Direct Measures of Attitudes

_____________:Participants rate an object using bipolar adjectives

• Ex. Pleasant vs unpleasant, serious vs. fun, formal vs. casual

Social Distance Scale (Bogardus)

Direct Measures of Attitudes

_____________:Measures willingness to engage in varying levels of closeness with a group, a measure of social distance

• Often used in prejudice research—Groups may be based on race, gender, ethnicity, etc.

• Ex. Are you willing to have them as neighbours? Club members? Married into the family?

Social Desirability Bias

Problems with Direct Measures

_____________: People may hide negative attitudes, lie to the researcher, or lie to themselves

• They respond in ways that seem socially acceptable

• There are measures to determine _________

• Because of this, psychologists sometimes rely on indirect measures (about 1% of the time)

Indirect Measures of Attitude

________________: Based on the idea that people reveal attitudes without consciously trying to

• Graffiti, Lost Letters, Garbage, Bumper Stickers, Circle of Seated Children, Pupils, Chairs

• Bogus Pipeline

Examples of Indirect Measures

1. Graffiti

2. Lost Letters

3. Garbage (Garbology)

4. Bumper Stickers

5. Circle of Seated Children

6. Pupils

7. Chairs

1. Graffiti

Indirect Measures

______________: there is low concern for social desirability, reveals strong emotions, beliefs, passions

2. Lost Letters

Indirect Measures

______________: preaddressed, stamped letters are dropped in public, whether people mail them reflects attitudes.

• Ex. If they’re addressed to the American Red Cross vs. The American Nazi Party

3. Garbage (Garbology)

Indirect Measures

______________: Studying what people throw away (recycling behaviour) Nixon famously had SS find someone going through his garbage to “know the real Richard Nixon”

4. Bumper Stickers

Indirect Measures

______________: Public expression of strong attitudes, people voluntarily displaying their beliefs

5. Circle of Seated Children

Indirect Measures

______________: Children listening to a scary story sit closer together over time, although they say they’re not scared.

6. Pupils

Indirect Measures

______________: dilate with arousal or interest. Used in sales, dating, guessing thoughts or what number a person is thinking of.

7. Chairs

Indirect Measures

______________: Two strangers choose where to sit, see where they put the chairs to see if they’re interested or uninterested.

Bogus Pipeline

Indirect Measures

______________:Convince participants that a machine can read their thoughts

• Machine resembles a lie detector (but you use something else like pupil size)

• Participants fill out a direct attitude questionnaire

• Because they believe lying will be detected, they answer honestly

• Rarely used

• Ex. Attitudes toward women pilots or doctors differ when people believe the machine works

Explicit Attitudes

______________: conscious, deliberate, self-reported

Implicit Attitudes

______________: unconscious, automatic, hidden even from oneself

Implicit Association Test (IAT)

______________: Measures response time in milliseconds. Slower response times suggest internal conflict or hidden bias, used to see if you’re prejudiced

• Faster pairings = stronger mental association

  • Good + insect (slow)

  • Good + European American vs. Bad + African American

Direct vs. Indirect Attitudes Measures?

______________: It’s questionable whether indirect attitudes predict behaviours, some psychologists believe it does, others don’t

• Study with psychologists that believe vs. don’t believe in implicit attitudes

  • Explicit attitudes strongly predict behaviour

  • Implicit attitudes also uniquely predict behaviour, but more weakly

  • There is a relationship between explicit and implicit attitudes

Cognitive Dissonance Theory (Festinger 50s-70s)

______________: discomfort from holding inconsistent beliefs or behaviours

• Festinger & Carlsmith Study

Festinger & Carlsmith Study

______________: Participants completed a boring task and are asked to lie and say it was enjoyable

• Paid either $1 or $20

Results

• Control Group: with no compensation, said the task was boring

• $20 group: said task was okay (sufficient justification)

• $1 group: said task was enjoyable

• Explanation: $1 was not enough justification for lying, to reduce dissonance, participants changed their attitudes.

People come to believe in and love the things they have to suffer for

Predicts the opposite of behaviorism, which would say the more you’re rewarded, the more you’ll like the behaviour

Aronson and Mills

______________: Explains why initiation and hazing persist—People value groups more if they suffer to join them

• Women interested in joining a discussion group on sex

  • Easy entry-> said the group was okay

  • Embarrassing initiation where you read something out loud while the others watch to see if you get embarrassed -> said the group was great

Giving smaller awards is more affective

• University initiations (Acadia)

  • Suffering creates meaning and value. If everyone gets in easily, membership feels less special

Ways to Reduce Dissonance

1. Changing your attitude: Adjust your belief to match your behaviour “Smoking isn’t actually that harmful”

2. Distraction and Forgetting: Avoid thinking about the consistency, move on.  Not looking at someone who’s fallen

3. Trivialization and Self-Affirmation: Focus on the positive aspects of yourself “Lots of things are unhealthy,” “I may smoke, but I’m a good person”

4. Denial of Responsibility: Blame external forces  “it’s the cigarette company’s fault”

5. Adding Consonant Cognitions: Add new thoughts that justify the behaviour  “Smoking helps me relax and it’s good for making friends”

6. Change Behaviour: Stop the behaviour causing the conflict. Quit smoking

7. Act Rationalization: Create logical-sounding justifications after the behaviour “I’ve had a stressful week, I deserve this”

1. Changing your attitude

Ways to Reduce Dissonance

______________: Adjust your belief to match your behaviour

• “Smoking isn’t actually that harmful”

2. Distraction and Forgetting

Ways to Reduce Dissonance

______________: Avoid thinking about the consistency, move on.

• Not looking at someone who’s fallen

3. Trivialization and Self-Affirmation

Ways to Reduce Dissonance

______________: Focus on the positive aspects of yourself

• “Lots of things are unhealthy,” “I may smoke, but I’m a good person”

4. Denial of Responsibility

Ways to Reduce Dissonance

______________: Blame external forces

• “it’s the cigarette company’s fault”

5. Adding Consonant Cognitions

Ways to Reduce Dissonance

______________: Add new thoughts that justify the behaviour

• “Smoking helps me relax and it’s good for making friends”

6. Change Behaviour:

Ways to Reduce Dissonance

______________: Stop the behaviour causing the conflict

• Quit smoking

7. Act Rationalization

Ways to Reduce Dissonance

______________: Create logical-sounding justifications after the behaviour

• “I’ve had a stressful week, I deserve this”

When Prophecy Fails (Festinger)

______________: Real world study of cognitive dissonance

• Mrs. Keech Case: claimed aliens warned of a catastrophic flood. Followers quit jobs, gave up possessions, and publicly committed

  • The flood did not happen, instead of abandoning the belief

  • She told the group their faith saved the world, sought publicity, becoming more committed

Why didn’t they leave? They had a deep conviction, not easily reversed (quitting jobs), and connected to the real world

Dissonance is strongest when… (Festinger)

Ex. Significant other is cheating on you

1. Deep conviction relevant to the behaviour (you love this person)

2. Must have committed behaviours not easily reversed (you’ve done things you can’t reverse, like a proposal or living together)

3. Belief must be connected to real world (they’re cheating on you)

4. Events must refute the belief (they’re cheating on you)

5. Others must support the beliefs

Greater commitment can reduce dissonance

• What happens when you really believe in something or someone and they let you down? The rational thing is to leave, but what if you embrace them more

• Festinger observed when you’re profoundly disappointed you actually become even more close

1. Deep conviction relevant to the behaviour

Dissonance is strongest when…

______________: The belief is very important to you.

2. Must have committed behaviours not easily reversed

Dissonance is strongest when…

______________:You have already made choices that are hard to undo.

3. Belief must be connected to real world

Dissonance is strongest when…

______________:The belief relates to real events or situations.

4. Events must refute the belief

Dissonance is strongest when…

______________:New evidence clearly contradicts what you believe.

5. Others must support the beliefs

Dissonance is strongest when…

______________:People around you reinforce the belief, making it harder to change.

New Look Model (Joel Cooper)

Dissonance occurs when:

1. Individual must realize the attitude discrepant action will have negative consequences

2. The individual must take responsibility for the action (if you’re not responsible, why would you experience any discomfort)

3. The individual must experience arousal (dissonance isn’t a physical thing, we think it’s related to this)

4. The individual must attribute arousal to action

1. Realize negative consequences

New Look Model

______________:The person recognizes their action conflicts with their attitude and may cause harm.

2. Take responsiblity for the action

New Look Model

______________:The person believes they freely chose the behaviour

3. Experience arousal

New Look Model

______________:The person feels psychological discomfort from the inconsistency

4. Attribute arousal to the action

New Look Model

______________:The person links their discomfort to their own behaviour

Dissonance and Choice

Students asked to argue for raising tuition

• High choice (counterattitudnal) Participants chose to write the essay arguing for it

• Low choice (required)

• High choice (control) Participants chose to write about any topic

Cognitive dissonance theory predicts:

• High choice + counter attitudinal behaviour → more dissonance -→ attitude change

• Participants should shift their attitudes to be more favourable toward tuition increases

• Low choices → less responsibility → less dissonance → less attitude change

• Does choice matter?

Do attitudes affect behaviour?

For a long time, psychologists assumed yes. However research showed the relationship is more complicated

• La Piere

• Wicker

• When?

• Theory of Planned Behaviour

• Resistant Attitdues

La-Piere (1934)

______________: Study with the Chinese couple where attitudes often do not match behaviours, as many restaurants said they would not serve Chinese customers but did

Wicker (1969)

______________: Reviewed many studies, found the correlation between attitudes and behaviour was small

• This was troubling because social psychology studies attitudes to predict behaviour

Attitudes only predict behavior when….

1. Attitude Specificity: the attitude is very specific

   1. General: “I value healthy eating”

   2. Specific: “I don’t like pickles on burgers”

2. Attitude Strength: Strong attitudes like protesting against electric cars will predict behaviour

3. Attitude Accessibility: Recently activated attitudes predicted behaviour, such as doing a debate recently in a class

Theory of Planned Behaviour (Ajzen and Fishbein)

______________: Attitudes do not directly cause behaviour; they influence behavioural intention which then predicts behaviour

Intention can be predicted by:

1. Attitudes towards the behaviour: Do I think quitting smoking is good?

2. Subjective norms: Do friends or close others approve or disapprove?

3. Perceived behavioural control: Could I stop smoking?

If all three are strong → intention to quit increases → behaviour is more likely

Been used in safe sex practice research, or could you leave a partner

Attitudes So Resistant to Change (Hornsey and Fielding)

• Attitude Roots

• Jiu Jitsu Persuasion

Resistant Attitude Roots (Hornsey and Fielding)

1. Ideologies, Values and World Views

2. Conspiratorial Ideation

3. Vested Interests

4. Personal Identity Expression

5. Social Identity Needs

6. Fears and Phobias

1. Ideologies, Values and World Views

Resistant Attitude Roots

____________: Changing the attitudes threatens the persons entire belief system/worldview

2. Conspiratorial Ideation

Resistant Attitude Roots

____________: Evidence is dismissed as part of a larger conspiracy, think everything is out there to get them

1. Cancer Natural Cures—“They don’t want you to know about” believing they solved cancer but don’t want to tell you so they don’t go out of business

3. Vested Interests

Resistant Attitude Roots

____________:The person benefits from holding the belief. Changing it threatens self-image, power, or status

1. Ex. RateMyProfessor, colleagues who do not believe in student evaluation. Their _____________ is they’re the best prof ever

4. Personal Identity Expression

Resistant Attitude Roots

____________:Their attitude expresses who they are. Being contrarian or different is part of identity

5. Social Identity Needs

Resistant Attitude Roots

____________: Attitude is tied to group membership, changing it risks social rejection.

6. Fears and Phobias:

Resistant Attitude Roots

____________: Emotional roots override rational evidence

1. Ex. Fear of needles and vaccinations

Jiu Jitsu Persuasion (Hornsey and Fielding)

______________: Instead of directly attacking the belief identify the underlying root, address the deeper concern

• There is often a surface/show argument (what they say) and an argument beneath the argument

• You might suggest that if you don’t get vaccines, you’ll end up in a hospital full of needles