Social Lectures 7-8 Influence, Attitudes, and Persuasions

social influence

refers to the many ways people affect one another

• Involves changes in attitudes and behavior resulting from comments/actions/presence of others

  • conformity

  • compliance

  • obediance

Social learning theory

Many animals, including humans, can learn by watching others (MIRROR NEURONS)

• Chameleon effect: Unconscious mimicry of the nonverbal mannerisms of an interaction partner.

• Chartrand & Bargh (1999): Chameleon effect study

informational influence (conformity)

Other people provide information

• leads to internalization (private acceptance)

normative influence (conformity)

We feel pressure to fit in.

• Leads only to ONLY public compliance (we know that maybe alone we do not agree)

• Such as with the Asch study (no internalization)—-people did maintain privately they know the answer is wrong but publicly they said something else

group size

3-4 people for greatest conformity.

• Milgram’s “looking up at nothing” study

• 1 person looking up, 40% of passers-by conformed

• 2-3 people looking up, 60-65% conformed

• 4 people looking up, 80% conformed

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

Cognitive dissonance theory (Festinger): People dislike inconsistency among their beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors.

• Common inconsistency: “I’m X kind of person” but “I do/did Y thing”

• Especially strong when identity is threatened

Ways to reduce dissonance:

• Change something (belief, attitude, or behavior)

• Downplay the importance of something

• Add something that resolves inconsistency

Cognitive dissonance part 2

Insufficient justification: Dissonance arises following a behavior that is unjustifiably inconsistent with beliefs or attitudes.

• Resolve by bringing the attitude in line with the behavior.

• Festinger & Carlsmith (1959): Peg-turning study

Post-decisional dissonance: Finalizing a difficult decision often leads to dissonance.

• ex: choosing btwn two job offer—both are desirable to an extent

Effort justification: Reducing dissonance by convincing ourselves that suffering was valuable

• ex: hated movie but justify saying popcorn was good

Persuasion

Intentional efforts to change someone’s attitude, usually in hopes of changing their behavior

Central route processing (elaboration likelihood model)

Thinking systematically and evaluating the arguments, effortful processing; System 2

• Must have motivation and ability to focus on arguments

• Good for long-lasting attitude change

Peripheral route processing (elaboration likelihood model)

Influenced by incidental or irrelevant characteristics

• Effective for unmotivated, tired, or distracted audience

• Also useful when arguments are weak

• ex: carls junior adds

Yale approach to attitude change

“Who says what to whom?”

Who - Speaker effects

What - Message effects

To Whom - Audience effects

approach tells us when persuasion is more likely to occur

the “who” speaker effects

What makes a speaker more persuasive?

Credibility: A combination of expertise and trustworthiness.

Attractiveness: Often physical attractiveness, but also being likeable, well-dressed, etc.

Certainty: Confidence is persuasive (in themselves).

Similarity: We trust people who are similar

exception:

Sleeper effect (also called source forgetting): Delayed impact of a message that occurs when we remember the message but forget the reason for discounting it (the source)

• see gossip abt celeb on magazine and remember it later but not the validity of source—-availability heuristic and persuades to believe gossip about celeb

the “what” message effects

Message Quality/ content of it

• Straightforward, clear, and logical

• Explicitly refute the other side

• Speak against your own self-interest

Vividness: Statistics and facts are often less persuasive than a compelling story.

• Identifiable victim effect

• ex: sad pet shelter ads

the “what” message effects pt 2

Fear appeals: Can increase or decrease persuasion

• Reception-yielding model: Be scary enough to be convincing but not so scary that people tune out.

Best way to use fear appeals:

• Moderate amount of fear (not too much, not too little)

• Include a solution

“to whom” audience effects

Age: Younger people are easiest to persuade

• College students are primary targets for cults

Mood: Good mood is generally better, but could also match the message

Resisting Persuasion: How can we resist persuasion?

• Be forewarned

• Be informed

• Make a public commitment to your position

emotion

Emotions are brief: Only seconds or minutes.

Emotions are specific: Responses to specific events or experiences.

dont always know why we experience certain emotion

emotion vs mood

emotions brief while mood is long lasting and don’t know cause of

COMPONENTS OF AN EMOTION

Psychologists do so by studying 5 components of emotion:

1. Appraisal process

2. Physiological responses

3. Expressive behaviors

4. Subjective feelings

5. Action tendencies

Appraisal process

What gives rise to emotions initially

Appraisal Process: Patterns for evaluation events and objects in the environment based on their relation to the current goal.

Fast, automatic appraisals:

• is the event consistent or inconsistent with our goals

• leads to general pleasant or unpleasant feelings

Deliberate appraisals:

• What caused an event

• who is responsible

• is it fair

• what can I do about it

physiological response

Appraisal processes physiological responses

• Blushing

• Goosebumps

expressive behavior

• Emotions can be expressed verbally through words and nonverbally through facial expressions, gestures, body postures, etc.

• Specific expressions can be influenced by cultural norms (how we express happiness etc)

subjective feelings

• The qualities that define what the experience of a particular emotion is like

action tendencies

Emotions move us towards specific actions and behaviors

• ex: Anger can motivate behavior that helps restore justice

BROADEN-AND-BUILD THEORY (FREDRICKSON)

While negative emotions narrow and focus our behavior (thought-action repertoire), positive emotions broaden our behaviors by prompting us to pursue novel and creative thoughts and actions.

This broadening of behaviors also allows us to build personal resources over time.