[SOCPSY] Chapter 4 Myers

attitudes

beliefs and feelings related to a person or an event

ABCs of attitudes

affect (feeling)

behavior tendency

cognition (thoughts)

how well do our attitudes predict our behavior?

People's expressed attitudes hardly predicted their varying behaviors

moral hypocrisy

disjuncture between attitudes and actions

- appearing moral while avoiding the costs of being so

when do attitudes predict behavior?

our attitudes predict our behavior when these other influences on what we say and do are minimal, when the attitude is specific to the behavior, and when the attitude is potent

implicit association test (IAT)

a computer-driven assessment of implicit attitudes. The test uses reaction times to measure people's automatic associations between attitude objects and evaluate words. Easier parings (and faster responses) are taken to indicate stronger unconscious associations

- not reliable enough to compare individuals

assumptions about implicit biases

- implicit biases are pervasive (elderly < young)

- people differ in implicit bias

- people are often unaware of their implicit biases (researchers show sometimes)

do implicit biases predict behavior?

reveals that both explicit (self-report) and implicit attitudes help predict people's behaviors and judgments

- predict behavior together better

for attitudes formed early in life, implicit and explicit attitudes frequently diverge with implicit attitudes predicting behavior better

what part of the brain produce implicit reactions?

amygdala

existence of implicit and explicit

our dual-processing capacity for both automatic (S1) and controlled (S2) thinking

what guides us?

- situation we face

- social influences can be enormous to induce people to violate their convictions

principle of aggregation

effects of an attitude become more apparent when we look at a person's aggregate or average behavior

theory of planned behavior

knowing people's intended behaviors and their perceived self-efficacy and control

- specific relevant attitudes predict actual behavior

two conditions that attitude will predict behavior

- to change habits thru persuasion, we must alter people's attitudes toward specific practicees

1. when we minimize other infleunces upon our attitude statements and on our behavior

2. when the attitude is specifically relevant to the observed behavior

3. an attitude predicts behavior better when the attitude is potent

Our attitudes become potent if we think about them

induce people to focus on their inner convinctions: make them self-aware, perhaps by having them act in front of a mirror

forging strong attitudes through experience

the attitudes that best predict behavior are accessible (easily brought to mind) and stable

- more accessible, enduring, likely to guide actions

We can think of ourselves into a way of acting

behavior determines attitudes

- we come to believe in what we stand up for

- the mental aftereffects of our behavior also appear in many social-psychological examples of self-persuasion

ways of acting

1. role-playing

2. saying becomes believing

3. evil and moral acts

4. social movements

role playing

behavior is a product of both the individual person and the stiuation

ex. zimbardo standford prison study

- how what is unreal can morph into what is real

- when we act like those around us, we change our former selves into being more like them

Role

Set of norms that defines how people in a given social position ought to behave;

saying becomes believing

people adapt what they say to please listeners

- when induced to give support to soemthing they doubt, people. will feel bad

- begin to believe what they are saying

- people tend to adjust their messages to their listeners and to believe altered message

evil and moral acts

evil results from gradually escalating commitments

- erodes one's moral sensitivity, making it easier to perform a worse act

- harmful acts change us in other ways -> tend to hurt those we dislike but also to dislike those we hurt

- harmful acts shape the self but moral acts too

example of evil and moral acts

wartime

- people tend to humanize and dehumanize enemies

- killing begets killing

- justification

moral acts

moral action affects moral thinking

interracial interaction and racial attitudes

attitude change has followed desegregation

social movements

strong influence on racial attitudes

- danger lies in the possibility of employing the same idea for political socialization on a mass scale

- public conformity to build private patriotism

- inner need to make beliefs consistent with acts

brainwashing

many people assume that the most potent social indoctrination

Self-presentation theory

- express attitudes that match our actions. To appear consistent, we may pretend those attitudes. Even if that means displaying a little insincerity or hypocrisy, it can pay off in managing the impression we are making.

- making a good impression = social and material rewards, to feel better about ourselves to become more secure in our social identities

- people exhibit a much smaller attitude change when a fake lie detector inhibits them from trying to make a good impression.

self-justification

attitudes change because we are motivated to maintain consistency among our cognitions

Cognitive dissonance

Tension that arises when one is simultaneously are of two inconsistent cognitions. For example, dissonance may occur when we realize that we have with little justification, acted contrary to our attitudes or made a decision favoring one alternative despite reasons favoring another.

- discrepancies between behavior and attitudes

- explanation for self-perusasion -> offers surprising predictions

- encouragement and inducement should be enough to elicit the desired action

Selective exposure

Tendency to seek information and media that agree with one's views and to avoid dissonant information.

- way to minimize dissonance

- beliefs steer their reasoning and evaluation of data

- discrepancies between behavior and attitudes

Insufficient justification

Reduction of dissonance by internally justifying one's behavior when external justification is "insufficient"

- attitudes-follow-behavior effect was strongest

- ex. those who had $1 were more likely to adjust their attitudes

Attitudes follow behaviors for which we feel some responsibility

authoritarian management

effective, the theory predicts only when the authority is present because people are unlikely to internalize forced behavior

dissonance after decisions

emphasis on perceived choice and responsibility implies that decisions produce dissonance

- after making important decisions, you can reduce dissonance by upgrading the chosen alternative and downgrading the unchosen option

- deciding-becomes-believing effect can breed overconfidence

- our preferences influence our decisions, which sharpen our preferences

- decisions are justified once made

choices-influence-preferences efect

occurs even after people press a button to choose what they think was a subliminally presented vacation alternative

Self-perception theory

Theory that when we are unsure of our attitudes, we infer them much as would someone observing us--by looking at our behavior and the circumstances under which it occurs.

- we see how a person acts in a situation and attribute it to persons' traits and attitudes/environmental forces

- we make similar inferences when we observe our own behavior

- hearing myself talk informs me of my attitudes, seeing my actions provides clues to how strong my beliefs are

- infer our emotions by observing our bodies and behaviors

Facial feedback effect

Tendency of facial expressions to trigger corresponding feelings such as fear, anger, or happiness

- ex. botox messes with embodied cognition

- feel more conference in written ideas than slouching forward

expressions and attitude

- motions trigger emotion

- make a pained expression whenever the shock came on

- observing others makes us naturally and unconsciously mimic

- facial expressions influence our attitudes

emotional contagion

explains why it's fun to be around happy people and depressing to be around depressed people

insufficient justification effect

smallest incentive that induces people to do something will most effectively get them to like it and keep on doing it

Overjustification effect

Results of bribing people to do what they already like doing

self-perception theory

reward always increase motivation, unnecessary rewards can have a hidden cost

- rewarding people may lead to attribute their action to reward

- undermine self-perception

- an unanticipated reward doesn't diminish intrinsic interest because people can still attribute their actions to their own mtoviation

- can actually increase our intrinsic mtoivation

comparing the theories

both are products of human imagination, creative attempts to simplify and explain what we've observed

dissonance as aorusal

dissonance is an aroused state of uncomfortable tension

- change our attitudes

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Self-affirmation theory

Theory that people often experience a self-image threat after engaging in an undesirable behavior; and they can compensate by affirming another aspect of the self. Threatens self-concept.

- justifying actions is self-affirming -> protects and supports our sense of integrity and self-worth

- arouse tension

self-perceiving when not self-contradicting

dissonance can't explain attitude changes that occur w/o dissonance

- doesn't explain overjustification effect

- successfully explains what happens when we act contrary to attitudes

- explains attitude change

- self-perception theory explains attitude formation