4.2 Attitude Formation and Attitude Change

Attitude

A learned evaluation of a person, object, idea, or situation expressed through affect (feeling), behavior (action), and cognition (belief).

Stereotype

A cognitive belief or overgeneralized mental shortcut about a group of people; reduces cognitive load but often inaccurate; a thought, not a feeling.

Prejudice

A negative affective feeling or attitude toward a group and its members, based on group membership rather than individual experience.

Discrimination

Unfair behavioral action or treatment directed at individuals based on their group membership, stemming from prejudice.

Implicit Attitudes

Unconscious attitudes or biases that influence behavior without one's awareness, often revealed through indirect measures like the IAT.

Cognitive Load

The total amount of mental information being processed at once; high load increases reliance on stereotypes and heuristics as shortcuts.

Social Identity

A person's sense of who they are based on membership in social groups (e.g., nationality, religion, school); shapes in-group favoritism.

Ingroup / In-Group

The social group one belongs to and identifies with ("us"); membership triggers preferential treatment toward fellow members.

Outgroup / Out-Group

Any social group one does not belong to ("them"); tends to be viewed with less empathy and more uniform stereotyping.

In-Group Bias

The tendency to favor, trust, and evaluate members of one's own group more positively than equally qualified out-group members.

Out-Group Homogeneity Bias

Tendency to perceive out-group members as highly similar to each other ("they're all the same") while seeing one's own group as diverse.

Ethnocentrism

Using one's own culture as the superior standard by which to judge all other cultures, viewing foreign customs as inferior or strange.

Scapegoat Theory

Theory that prejudice arises when frustrated in-group members displace their aggression onto a more vulnerable, innocent out-group.

Just-World Phenomenon

The implicit belief that the world is fair and people get what they deserve, leading to victim-blaming of those who suffer misfortune.

Cognitive Dissonance

Psychological discomfort caused by holding two conflicting beliefs or acting against one's own beliefs; resolved by changing attitudes or rationalizing.

Foot-in-the-Door Phenomenon

Compliance strategy: agreeing to a small initial request makes a person more likely to agree to a larger follow-up request later.

Door-in-the-Face Phenomenon

Compliance strategy: after refusing a large initial request, a person is more likely to comply with a smaller follow-up request.

Belief Perseverance

Tendency to maintain a belief even after the original evidence supporting it has been clearly discredited or disproven.

Confirmation Bias

Tendency to seek, interpret, and recall information that confirms existing beliefs while ignoring contradictory evidence; fuels belief perseverance.