Ch. 7 Attitudes and Attitude Change

attitude

an evaluative judgement of people, things, or concepts

cognitively-based attitude

based on thoughts or beliefs about an attitude object, attitude based primarily on relevant facts

affectively-based attitudes

based on one’s values/emotions, attitude rooted in emotions and values and on what the object is influenced by/associated with

behaviorally-based attitudes

based on past behaviors or behavioral intentions

classical conditioning

stimulus that elicits emotional response accompanied by a neutral, nonemotional stimulus, and eventually, the neutral stimulus elicits the emotional response by itself

ex: visiting grandmas house elicits feelings of warmth that are now associated with the smell of lavender because her house smelled like lavender. lavender triggers this emotion because of _____

explicit attitudes

attitudes we are aware/conscious of and can report

implicit attitudes

attitudes of which we are unaware, involuntary, uncontrollable, unconscious evaluations

operant conditioning

behaviors we freely choose to perform become more/less frequent, depending on whether they are followed by a reward/punishment

ex: a white girl’s dad verbally disapproves of his daughter playing with a black girl, so she associates interacting with black people with disapproval, adopting father’s racist attitude

LaPiere

Chinese were not accepted into hotels/motels during Chinese Exclusion Act. He wrote letters to each establishment that he and his Chinese friends had visited, asking if they would serve a Chinese visitor. Most said no even if they actually did, demonstrating a disconnect between action and attitude.

predicting spontaneous behavior

high accessibility (important/small), personal experince

The Theory of Planned Behavior

Azjen & Fishbein: idea that people’s intentions are the best predictors of their deliberative behaviors, which are determined by their attitude towards specific behaviors, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control

• the more specific the attitude toward the behavior in question, the better that attitude can be expected to predict the behavior

specific attitudes

the more specific the attitude, the better prediction

ex. Davidson & Jaccard: the more specific the questions about attitude towards birth control were, the higher the correlation and the better the attitude predicted actual behavior

subjective norms

people’s beliefs about how others they care about will view the behavior in question

ex: a WWJD bracelet, someone how matters to you has influence over you

Perceived behavioral control

intentions are influenced by the ease with which they believe they can perform the behavior

Rudman, Phelan, & Heppen

implicit behavior is rooted in childhood experiences, explicit behavior in recent experiences

Attitude accessiblity

strength of association between an object and the evaluation of it, typically measured by speed with which people can report how they feel about the object/issue

• highly accessible attitudes more likely to predict spontaneous behavior

• experience with attitude object makes attitude more accessible

credibility

how believable does one find the communicator to be?

• expertise: the amount of knowledge they communicator has relevant to the persuasive message

• trustworthiness: communicator’s perceived intentions, their sincerity

  • self-interest: acting contrary to one’s self-interest is a sign of trustworthiness

  • intention to persuade: if we believe people are not intending to persuade us, they are more persuasive

attractiveness

people are more persuasive if they are physically attractive/similar to receiver

fear-arousing communication

persuasive message that attempts to change ppl’s attitudes by arousing their fears. fear only works if there is a message accompanying it that will teach them how to reduce this fear.

elaboration likelihood model

Petty & Cacioppo: audiences will follow different routes to persuasion depending on whether they are motivated or able to listen to the message (central or peripheral route to persuasion)

central route to persuasion

if: audience is motivated and able to follow message

then: message strength determines outcome

peripheral route to persuasion

if: audience is either unmotivated or unable to follow message

then: peripheral cues (status, attractiveness, etc.) will determine outcome

Petty, Cacioppo, & Goldman

Ps read persuasive speech calling for school to institute mandatory comprehensive exam before graduation

IV 1: relevance (now/10 years)

IV 2: expertise (professor/high school student)

IV 3: argument strength (strong/weak)

DV: to what extend do they find the message persuasive

Results: expertise didn’t matter for high personal relevance (now), high expertise matters for low personal relevance (10 yrs)

Yale attitude change approach

study of conditions under which ppl are most likely to change their attitudes in response to persuasive methods, focusing on “who says what to whom,” looks at source of communication, communication itself, and nature of audience

persuasive communication

message advocating a particular side of an issue

attitude inoculation

making ppl immune to attempts to change their attitudes by initially exposing them to small doses of the arguments against their position. one is subjected to weak persuasive attempts which allows one to develop counter arguments - when later presented with a stronger, more persuasive attempt, you have counter-arguments ready

reactance

ppl don’t like feeling that their freedom is threatened, so when an unpleasant state of ____ is aroused, they may respond by engaging in the proscribed behavior to push back against

heuristic-systematic model of persuasion

when people take the peripheral route to persuasion, they often use heuristics - we may be more easily persuaded when we’re in a good mood compared to when we are upset, what people are doing when you try to persuade them makes a difference

subliminal messages

words/pictures that are not consciously perceived but may influence people’s judgements, attitudes, behaviors. only works in heavily controlled environments

peer pressure

linked to people’s values and emotions, playing on fear of rejection and desire for freedom/autonomy