4.2 Attitude formation and Attitude Change

Attitude

How an individual thinks, feels, behaves towards another person, object, idea or situation

Explicit Attitude

Beliefs that the individual is aware of

Implicit attitude

unconscious, oftentimes the individual is not even aware they hold these beliefs

What can dictate our implicit and explicit attitudes

Hidden Biases like, just world Phenomenon, Victim blaming, Out-group Homogeneity bias, In-group bias, Ethnocentrism, Cultural Relativism, Belief Perseverance and Confirmation Bias

Just-World Phenomenon

Tendency for people to believe that the world is just and that things are the way they are for a reason; people get what they deserve

Victim Blaming

An individuals misfortunes are a cause of their own actions or fault

Out-Group

People that are perceived to be part of a different group that the individual does not consider themselves a part of

Out-group homogeneity bias

the tendency of an individual to perceive members of an out-group as more similar to each other than they are; can lead to overgeneralization, promotion of stereotypes, and minimizes individuals unique differences

In-group

People who the individual perceives to have similar characteristics as, resulting in seeing themselves as part of the group

In-group Bias

The tendency to favor and support people in our own group while being more critical to those outside of it

Ethnocentrism

The idea that owns culture or ethnic group is superior to others

Cultural Relativism

when an individual views and judges another culture by its own standards, showing that no culture is superior to another

Belief Perserverance

The tendency to maintain a belief despite new evidence or evidence that clearly contradicts it; individuals will engage in confirmation bias

Confirmation bias

tendency of a person to focus on information that confirms their pre-existing views and dismiss conflicting information

Stereotypes

Generalized beliefs about a group of people

Stereotypes are a form of Heuristics. Heuristics -

allow an individual to quickly categorize people allowing for quicker judgements to be made

Prejudiced Attitudes

preconceived negative attitudes towards a group and its members

Explicit Prejudice

Prejudice that people are aware of and agree with

Implicit Prejudice

negative feelings an individual has towards another person or group without them being aware of it

discriminatory behavior

unfair treatment of an individual based on their group

Cognitive Dissonance

Mental discomfort or tension that comes from when an individual has two conflicting beliefs, attitudes or behaviors

EX: A person cares about the environment and drives a truck, the truck emits a lot of CO2, how does this person resolve this tension?

The person resolves this Cognitive Dissonance by planting trees thinking they make up for the CO2 the truck emits.