Chapter 4_Behaviour and Attitudes_PSY220

what did allan wicker find when studying the supposed power of attitudes?

people’s expressed attitudes hardly predicted their behaviours

moral hypocrisy

appearing moral without being so

our attitudes do predict our behaviour when…

• social and other influences on what we say and do are minimal

• attitude is specific to mthe behaviour

• attitude is potent (strong on our mind)

how do social psychologists minimize social influences on people’s attitude reports?

complement traditional self-report measuresof explicit (conscious) attitudes with measures of implicit (unconscious) attitudes

example: measure facial muscle responses to various statmenets (microsmile or microfrown)

Implicit Association Test

a computer-driven assessment of implicit attitudes that uses reaction times to measure people’s automatic associations between attitude objects and evaluative words

→ easier pairings (and faster responses) are taken to indicate stronger unconscious associations

Implicit attitude researchers have found that:

• implicit biases are pervasive

• people differ in implicit bias (some ppl exhibit more implicit bias than others)

• people are often unaware of their implicit biases

• implicit biases can harm

implicit attitudes can predict a wide range of behaviours such as…

people’s exercise behaviour

voting choices

age at which adolescents begin to drink alcohol

explicit and implicit atittudes may together predict beter than either would alone. behaviour predictions range from…

dental flossing

fate of romantic relationships

suicide attempts

helmet use

… attitudes have successfully predicted interracial roommate relationships

implicit racial attitudes

for attitudes such as those related to consumer behaviour and support for political candidates, … self-reports are the better predictor

explicit

which brain centres help produce our automatic, implicit reactions?

amygdala is active as we automatically evaluate social stimuli

frontal lobe areas are involved in detecting and regulating implicit attitudes

give an example of high amygdala activation when taking the IAT

whites who show strong unconscious racial bias on the IAT exhibit high amygdala activation when viewing unfamiliar black faces

implications of the Implicit Association Test

• low test-retest reliability

• IAT scores differ widely from one session to another

• change more over the lifespan

what does the existence of distinct explicit and implicit attitudes confirm?

it confirms our dual processing capacity for both automatic (System 1) and controlled (System 2) thinking

principle of aggregation

effects of an attitude on behaviour becomes more apparent when we look at a person’s aggregate/avg behaviour rather than at isolated acts

what did icek ajzen and martin fishbein find

(when attitudes specific to behaviour are examined)

when the measured attitude is a general one and the behaviour is very specific, we should not expect a close correspondence between words and actions

attitudes did predict behaviour when the measured attitude was directly related to the situation (e.g. an individual’s attitudes ab the costs and benefits of jogging are a fairly strong predictor of whether that person jogs regularly)

ajzen and fishbein (theory of reasoned action):

better yet for predicting behaviour is knowing…

• people’s intended behaviours and subjective norms

• + self-efficacy and control

• inducing new interntions induces new behaviour

give an example of ajzen and fishbein (theory of reasoned action):

• knowing people’s intended behaviours and subjective norms

• self-efficacy and control

• inducing new intentions to induce new behaviour

1)

attitude toward the behaviour: i’m for physical fitness

subjective norms: my neighbours seem to be jogging and going to the gym

perceived control: i could easily make time for this

2)

behaviour intention: i’m going to start next week

^ you can also induce this behaviour intention by going asking someone “do you intend on working out this next week?”

3)

results in new behaviour

how did mark snyder and william swann answer this question:

if we were prompted to think about our attitudes before acting, would we be truer to ourselves?

2 weeks after 120 students idnicated their attitudes toward affimrative-action employment policies, snyder and swann invited them to act a sjurors in a sex-discrimination court case.

only if they first induced the students to remember their attitudes (give them a few minutes to organize their thoughts and views on the issue) did attitudes predict verdicts

role

a set of norms that define how people in a given social position ought to behave

norms

rules for accepted and expected behaviour that prescribe “proper” behaviour

how does role-playing affect long-term behaviour

when stepping into a new social role, we must perform its actions, even if we feel phony, or it feels wrong

but this unease seldom lasts

gender roles

behaviou expectaqtions (norms) for males and females

examples on how gender roles can shape our actions

• women who believe that a certain man’s ideal woman was home-oriented presented themselves as more traditionally feminine than did women expecting to meet a man who liked strong ambitious women.

• men similarly adapted their self-presentations to meet desirable women’s gender role expectations

saying becomes believing

in expressing our thoughts to others, we sometimes tailor our words to what we think the others will want to hear, and then come to believe our own words

how did tory higgins and his colleagues illustrate how saying becomes believing?

• university students read a personality descriptionof someone, then summarize it for someone else who was believed either to like or to dislike this person

• students wrote a more positive description twhen the recipient liked the person → even remembered the description as being more positive than it was

foot-in-the-door phenomenon

the tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger requestl

low-ball technique

a tactic for getting people to agree to something. people who agree to an initial request will often still comply when the requester ups the ante. people who receive only the costly request are less likely to comply with it

door-in-the-face technique

tendency for people who have first declined a large request to comply with a subsequent, but smaller, request

why may action affect attitude?

1. self-presentation theory assumes that for strategic reasons, we express attitudes that make us appear consistent

2. cognitive dissonance theory assumes that to reduce discomfor, we justify our actions to ourselves

3. self-perception theory assumes that our actions are self-revealing (when uncertain about our feelings or beliefs, we look to our behaviour, much as anyone else would)

self-presentation: impression management

• we want to make a good impression

• make good impressions as a way to gain social and material rewards, feel better about ourselves, even to become more secure in our social identiites

• no one wants to look foolishly inconsistent

• we express attitudes that match our actions

• to appear consistent, we may pretend.

• expressed atittudes → shift toward consistency with behaviour

cognitive dissonance theory

tension that arises when we are simultaneously aware of two inconsistent cognitions

self-justification: cognitive dissonance

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

• because of cognitive dissonance → causes unpleasant arousal → adjusts our thinking

• if we sense some inconsistency (perhaps some HYPOCRISY) we feel pressure for change, either in our attitudes or in our behaviours

explain ways in which ppl minimize dissonance

• selective exposure to agreeable information (2:1 ratio of people preferred supporting rather than challenging information)

  • people are more keen on reading info that supports their views

  • for less value-relevant topics, accuracy motives are more likely to drive us → welcome a home inspection before buying or a second opinion before surgery

insufficient justifiction

reduction of dissonance by internally justifying one’s behaviour when external justification is “insufficient”

explain the 1959 study by festinger and carlsmith

(insufficient justification)

participants who were paid only $1 to lie about a boring task being fun actually believed the task was more enjoyable than those paid $20, because the low pay did not justify the lie

when extrinsic motivation is low, people justify their behaviour by creating intrinsic motivation to resolve the conflict between their actions (lying) and beliefs (it was boring)

people often change their attitudes to align w their actions when they lack sufficient exteral justificaqtion for their behaviour

dissonance theory suggests that parents should…

aim to elicit desired behaviour non-coercively, thus motivating children to internalize the appropriate attitudes

after making important decisions, how would we usually reduce dissonance?

upgrading the chosen alternative

downgrading the unchosen option

choices-influences-preferences effect

our preferences influence our decisions, which then sharpen our preferences

explain how children display dissonance reactions

louisa egan and colleagues invited 4 y.os to rate diff stickers on a scale of smiley faces

with each child, the researchers picked three stickers that the child had rated equally, and randomly identified 2 from which the children could choose to take one home

next, the researchers let the child choose one more — the unchosen sticker or the third one

result: children apparently reduced dissonance by downplaying the appeal of the unchosen first sticker, moving them to favour Sticker C 63% of the time

how can cognitive dissonance be used to increase intention to exercise in the elderly

asking older adults to generate arguments for why people should exercise led their attitudes to change such that they became more positive toward exercise

more likely to say they would exercise in the future

does the tendency for people to justify their deicisons arise out of a western cultural desire to individualistically claim that they made good choices?

culture can shape the experience of a cognitive dissonance

having an individualistic vs a collectivistic self-concept will affect when and how people experience cognitive dissonance

the experience of feeling cognitive dissonance may be shared across many cultures

self-eperception theory

when unsure of our attitudes, we infer them much as would someone observing us — by looking at our behaviour and the circumstances under which it occurs

e.g. “here i am smoking again, i must like smoking”

effect of expresisons on attitude

causes a facial (and body) feedback effect

expressions can affect feelings

list follow-up studies for more examples of facial (and body) feedback effect

• hard for us to know what the frozen-faced Botoxed are feeling. it’s also hard for botoxed to know themselves. paralyzing the frowning muscles with Botox slows activity in people’s emotion-related brain circuits and slows their reading of sadness-or anger-related sentences. they are unable to mimic others’ expressions, so harder for them to understand others’ emotions

• when ppl instructed to sit straight and push out their chest, they feel more confidence in their written ideas

• ppl who assume high-power rather than low-power poses experience increased testosterone, feelings of power, and risk tolerance

if our expressions influence our feelings, then would imitating others’ expressions help us know what they are feeling?

acting out the person’s emotion apparently enabled observers to feel more empathy.

to sense how other people are feeling, let your own face mirror their expressions

emotional contagion

explains why it’s fun to be around happy people and depressing to be arounddepressed people

we naturally and unconsciously mimic their moment-to-moment reactions

how does cognitive dissonance theory explain the insufficient justification effect (smallest incentive that will get people to do something is usually the most effective in getting them to like the activity and keep on doing it)

when external inducements are insufficient to justify our behaviour, we reduce dissonance by internally justifying the behaviour

how does self-perception theory explain the insufficient justification effect

people explain their behaviour by noting the conditions under which it occurs (rewards increase motivation)

unnecessary rewards sometimes have a hidden cost → rewarding ppl for doing what they already enjoy may lead them to attribute their doing it to the reward, undermining their self-perception that they do it because they like it

overjustification effect

the result of bribing ppl to do what they already like doing

they may see their action as externally controllted rather than intrinsically appealing

are conditions that supposedly produce dissonance actually uncomfortably arousing?

yes → they had students write an essay banning all speakers on campus

half the students were told they had no choice but to write the essay

other half given the illusion that they chose to write the essay

had students take a pill at the beginning of the experiment

1/3 told pill would make them feel aroused

1/3 told it would make them relaxed

1/3 given no info

hypothesis: if students thought pill would make them feel aroused, they would blame the arousal on the pill and would not change their attitude

results:

when students thought the pill would be arousing, students who had high and low choice to write the essay did not differ in their attitudes

when given no info, students showed the typical dissonance pattern of attitude change

those who were given illusion of choice to write essay changed attitudees more than those who were given no choice to write it

students told pill would be relaxing showed an esp large amount of attitude change

self-affirmation theory

ppl often experience self-image threat after engaging in an undersirable bhaviour. they compensate for this threat by affimrining another aspect of the self

if you threaten people’s self-concept in one domain, they will compensate either by refocusing or by doing good deeds in some other domain

self-perceiving when not self-contradicting

dissnonace procedures are uncomfortably arousing, which leads to self-persuasion after acting contrary to one’s attitudes

dissonance theory successfully explains what happens when we act contrary to clearly defined attitudes: we feel tension, so we adjust our attitudes to reduce it.

dissonance theory → explains attitude change

when our attidues are not well formed, self-perception theory explains attitude formation. as we act and reflect, we develop a more readily accessible attitude to guide our future behaviour.