Attitudes and Attitude Change

These flashcards cover the various aspects of attitudes, their components, how they change, and the methods of persuasion.

Attitudes

Evaluations of people, objects, or ideas that often determine our actions.

Cognitive Component

The thoughts and beliefs that people form about the attitude object.

Affective Component

People's emotional reaction toward the attitude object.

Behavioral Component

How people act toward the attitude object.

Cognitive Based Attitude

An attitude based on beliefs about the properties of an attitude object.

Affectively Based Attitude

An attitude based more on people's feelings and values than on their belief of the nature of an attitude object

Classical Conditioning

A learning process that occurs when two stimuli are repeatedly paired.
Emotional stimulus + Neutral stimulus (paired repeatedly) → Neutral stimulus becomes emotional trigger

Operant Conditioning

A method of learning that employs rewards and punishments for behavior.

Explicit Attitudes

Attitudes that we can consciously endorse and easily report.

• Rooted from recent experience

Implicit Attitudes

Attitudes that are involuntary, uncontrollable, and often unconscious evaluations.

• Often rooted from childhood experience

Theory of Planned Behavior

The theory that a person's intentions are the best predictor of deliberate behaviors.

Cognitive Dissonance

The discomfort experienced when a person acts inconsistently with their attitudes.

Persuasive Communication

A message advocating a particular idea or issue.

Yale Attitude Change Approach

A study focusing on conditions under which people change their attitudes.

Central Route to Persuasion

When people are motivated and able to pay attention to argument quality.

Peripheral Route to Persuasion

When people are influenced by surface characteristics rather than the argument's content.

Fear-Arousing Communication

A persuasive message that attempts to change attitudes by highlighting fear.

Attitude Inoculation

Exposing people to small doses of arguments against their position to make them immune to persuasion.

Self-perception theory

Introspection by analyzing one’s own beahviour to infer attitudes

Subjective norms

People’s beliefs about how others they care about will view their behaviour

Perceived behavioural control

How easy or difficult a person believes a behaviour is to perform

Sleeper Effect

a message from a low-credibility source may be ignored at first but become more persuasive over time because people remember the content longer than the source

Elaboration likelihood model

A model explaining two ways in which persuasive communications can cause attitude change: centrally and peripherally

Heuristic-systematic model of persuasion

an explanation of two ways persuasive communications cause attitude change: either systematically processing the merits of the arguments or using mental shortcuts (heuristics)

Product placement

a marketing strategy where brands integrate their products or logos into entertainment or media content to promote them subtly and naturally

Reactance theory

when a person’s freedom is being threatened, an unpleasant state of resistance arises; such feelings can be reduced by performing the prohibited behaviour