Week 6 - Attitudes

Attitude

evaluation of people, objects, ideas, can be positive or negative

Three components of attitudes (ACB)

Affect, Cognition, Behaviour

Affect

based on emotions/feelings, value, idenitiy

"this class makes me feel happy"

Cognition

based on beliefs about relevant facts

"I like this class because it has a lighter workload"

Behaviour

based on related behaviours (self perception theory)

"I attend this class even if i have ti walk in the rain, I must really like it"

Explicit vs Implicit attitudes

E: consciously aware of, recent experiences

I: unsconcious, feelings & childhood memories

Lapire & Chinese couple study

- went on roadtrip with Chinese couple during an anti chinese movement

- worried lots of restaurants, hotels, etc would deny service,

- Only 1/251 refused service (behaviour)

- 225/251 said they would refuse service on email (attitude)

Theory of planned behaviour

Behavioural intention ----> behaviour

would you buy a cake? ------> do you intend on buying a cake?

Theory of planned behaviour: attitude towards behaviour

ppls specific attitude towards the behaviour, not their general attitude

Theory of planned behaviour: Subjective norms

your beliefs about how other ppl you care about will view the behaviour in question

Theory of planned behaviour: perceived behaviour control

ease with which ppl believe they can perform the behaviour (eg: hill vs mountain climb)

According to Wicker, attitudes..

make poor predictions of behaviour

YACA 3 dimension's (who, what, whom)

WHO: SPEAKER -attractive/likeable

WHAT: MESSAGE CONTENT -intentional, or not, self interest

WHOM: LISTENER - distracted, moderate self esteem, younger

Persuasive communication

communication, advocating particular side of an issue (commercial, politics, etc)

elaboration likelihood model

2 routes of persuasion based attitude change:

- CENTRAL ROUTE: when motivated & able to process arguments, we deeply process (or mentally elaborate on) the information

- PERIPHERAL ROUTE: when we are less attentive (and generally have low motivation & ability) we rely more on heuristics/superficial information (speaker, attractiveness, etc)

Fear arousing communication works to...

promote central route processing, leading to persuasion.

What did one study find in fear and attitude change in smokers?

High fear: led to more smoking than moderate

BUT

High fear w/ instructions leads to the biggest change (less smoke)

Cognitively based attitudes vs Affectively based attitudes

C: cognition based ads best: "I choose coffee based on taste and costs"

A: Emotion based ads: "I drink coffee becuz it makes me feel good"

What did Shavitt find in the experimental desgin where-participants where exposed to cognition/affect based ads?

appropriate ad was targeted but the ads backfired if there was a mismatch

Affect ads DECREASED liking for cognition based products, vice versa.

Subliminal messages show..

limited effectiveness. Product placement may be better

Cognitive Dissonance

feeling discomfort caused by holding two conflicting cognitions that are inconsistent/conflicting w behaviour

How do you reduce post decision dissonance?

by enhancing the attractiveness of whatever was chosen

Betting : in this study, researchers asked those just about to vs who just finished making a bet on a horse found..

Those who just placed bet showed more confidence that those about to place bet.

(no objective difference in the probablility in winning)

Justification Effort

tendency for individuals to increase their liking for something they work hard to obtain

External justification

behaviour/outcomes rationalize them based on external factors they arouse less dissonance.

A smoker might say they only smoke socially because others expect them to.

Internal justification

change something about ourselves, attitude or behaviour.

smoker may tell himself that smoking is better than drugs.

Counter Attitudinal Advocacy

situation in which individuals are encouraged to present or argue for a position that contradicts their own beliefs or attitudes.

EG: You dont think fast food is healthy, but friend asks for review of a place. you give good review, even though you do not think its healthy