Attitudes & Behavior and Cognitive Dissonance

These flashcards cover key vocabulary related to attitudes, behavior, and cognitive dissonance, based on lecture notes.

Attitudes

Evaluative judgments or sentiments about objects, people, or situations that can influence behavior.

LaPierre's Study (1934)

A study that revealed the discrepancy between reported attitudes towards Chinese guests and actual behavior in service provision.

• Results:

  • 128 out of 251 establishments completed the survey.

  • Of those 128, 92% reported they would not admit Chinese guests.

 

Discrepancy: Despite only one refusal of service (behavior), a strong negative attitude was reported in the surveys, showing a significant mismatch between stated attitudes and actual behavior.

Cognitive Dissonance

An aversive psychological state resulting from inconsistencies between cognitions (thoughts, beliefs, attitudes) and behaviors.

WHY DO INCONSISTENCIES OCCUR? Between attitude and behavior

Measurement of attitude and behaviours

Social norms and groups

Behavioral control

Competing Attitudes

Measurement of attitude and behaviours

●Too far apart, no prediction

●More closely aligned, more likely to predict behaviour

 

• Problem: General attitudes don't predict specific behaviors (e.g., general environmental attitude vs. recycling behavior).

• Solution: Researchers must ensure that measured attitudes and behaviors are closely aligned (e.g., attitude towards recycling predicting recycling behavior

Social Norms And group noms

Influences from groups that shape an individual's behavior, even if it contradicts personal attitudes.

 to general consensus

 

●Conforming to peer groups

 

●Behaviour can be influenced by outward pressure even if it doesn’t match attitudes

 

• Individuals may hold a certain attitude but conform to the behavior of their peer group or situational norms due to outward pressure.

 

• Example: Someone skeptical about vaccination may agree to vaccinate their child due to the general consensus among their peer group

Behavioral control

Positive attitude but no control to act in support of attitude

 Individuals may have positive attitudes towards something but lack the capacity or control to act consistent with that attitude. 

• Example 1: A person may love animals but still enjoy eating meat, despite discomfort about its origin, as they lack control over their dietary preferences or knowledge of alternatives.

Competing Attitudes

Individuals often hold multiple attitudes that can conflict, with one attitude overriding another in specific situations.

 

●Prioritising attitudes – one trumps the other

 

• LaPierre Experiment Re-evaluation: Establishment owners had a negative attitude towards Asian people but a stronger positive attitude towards making money. Their desire for profit (filling a room, receiving payment) outweighed their racist views, leading to service being provided.

 

• Student Example: Deciding between attending a party and completing an assignment due the same weekend involves prioritizing competing attitudes (e.g., social enjoyment vs. academic success).

Competing Attitudes

Multiple attitudes that can conflict, causing one to override another in decision making.

Behavioral Control

The capacity of individuals to act consistently with their attitudes.

Reduction of Cognitive Dissonance

Strategies individuals employ to alleviate the tension caused by conflicting cognitions or behaviors.

Self-Perception Theory

The theory that individuals infer their attitudes by observing their own behaviors.

COGNITIVE DISSONANCE 

Definition: An aversive psychological state that occurs when there is an inconsistency between cognitions (thoughts, beliefs, attitudes) and behaviors.

• another part to edit changes cognitive dissonance

• Curious when various objects of thoughts which we call cognitive elements are logically inconsistent that is when they are dissonant with one another

 

 ●Inconsistency between cognitions and behaviours resulting in an aversive psychological state 

• Impact: People feel tense or anxious when their behavior does not reflect their attitude, as they generally dislike this conflict.

• Goal: Individuals are motivated to reduce this uncomfortable feeling.

•  Leads to state of psychological tension similar to anxiety

Measurement of Attitudes

The importance of aligning how attitudes and behaviors are measured to ensure accurate predictions of behavior.

How to reduce that aversive state? Of cognitive dissonance

• Three Ways to Reduce Cognitive Dissonance:

  1. Change one of the cognitions or behaviors: Directly altering a belief or action.

  2. Reduce the importance of one of those cognitions or behaviors: De-emphasizing the significance of one conflicting element.

  3. Add a consonant cognition or behavior: Introducing a new belief or action that justifies or aligns the existing conflicting elements

Changing Cognition/Behavior:

Directly altering a belief or action.

• ption A: Decide to cut down on work to free up time for health and fitness.

• Option B: Prioritize work (e.g., for a promotion) and try to fit in fitness when possible.

 

• Reducing Importance of Cognition/Behavior:

De-emphasizing the significance of one conflicting element

• Option A: Decide the promotion isn't as important as health and fitness, focusing on the latter.

• Option B: Convince oneself that past health and fitness efforts allow for a temporary break to pursue the promotion, which is currently more important

Add behaviour or cognition

1. Introducing a new belief or action that justifies or aligns the existing conflicting elements.

 Park car further from office to increase steps – can enjoy fitness without interruptions to workflow

Positive Attitude vs. No Control Example

Loving animals but still eating meat due to lack of control over dietary choices.

COGNITIVE DISSONANCE 

Festinger and Carlsmith (1959) 

1.participants were asked to sit and turn knobs for an hour

 

Very boring task ➜ negative attitude toward the task

 

2.Split in to 3 groups

➢20 to tell the next person the task was fun

➢1 to tell the next person the task was fun

➢Leave when task completed

1.Participants asked: “did you enjoy the task?”

Which group reported enjoying the task the most?

Cognivitve dissonance reduction happens unconsciously and automatically

The $1 group – but why?

 

Control group 

●asked to leave after task

●no dissonance experienced/ triggered

●Reported not enjoying the task, so it was easy for them to say it was broring

 

20 group

●Dissonance likely high

●Add a cognitive element (payment) to reduce the dissonance/conflict

●But still reported not enjoying the task

Also reported the task was boring. The 20 payment provided sufficient justification for the lie, so they didn't need to change their attitude

 

1 group

●Dissonance likely high

●Changed attitude toward task to relieve dissonance

●Reported enjoying task/ combining them selfs it was more enjoyable that it actually was

 Since 1$ was insufficient justification for lying, they experienced high cognitive dissonance. To reduce this, they changed their attitude about the task, convincing themselves it wasn't so boring after all. This demonstrated that people will alter their own beliefs to align with their actions when external justification is minimal.

Festinger and Carlsmith Study (1959)

A study demonstrating cognitive dissonance where participants paid $1 changed their attitudes to justify lying about enjoying a boring task.

Self perception Theorie

• individuals infer the attitudes, emotions and other internal states by observing their own behaviour

• Attitude people report depend on their behaviour; As their behaviour changes(because if changes in Reinforcement contigencies ) so again will the attitude

• For example, if they see themselves telling someone that they like the task and have received a new one dollar for doing so they conclude that they must have liked it or they would not be saying so

• Because People want to present themselves as rational and do not want to look foolish by behaving inconsistently they report attitudes they do not really hold

Reducing Importance of Cognition/Behavior

De-emphasizing the significance of one conflicting element to reduce cognitive dissonance.