4.2 - Attitude Formation & Attitude Change

Attitude Formation

Stereotypes

  • Stereotypes are oversimplified, generalized beliefs about a group of people (African Americans, women, gay people, transgender people, Whites, Asians, people with disabilities)

    • these attitudes can lead to biases and incorrect assumptions

    • it can reduce cognitive load because they help the brain process information more quickly by grouping people into categories rather than analyzing each person individually

      • thinking that all elderly people are bad at using technology

Prejudice & Discrimination

  • Prejudice is a negative attitude toward a group of people without real reason

  • Discrimination is the unfair treatment of people based on prejudice

    • not hiring someone just because they are a teenager

    prejudice → thoughts & feelings : discrimination → actions

Implicit Attitudes

  • Implicit attitudes are unconscious thoughts and feelings we have about people/things

    • getting impatient when an elderly person struggles with technology

The Just-World Phenomenon

  • Just-world phenomenon is the tendency to see the world as fair and people get what they deserve

    • something good happens to someone → the must have worked hard or been a good person

    • something bad happens to someone → they must have done something wrong to deserve it

    • can lead to victim blaming ( the idea that individuals bad luck is their own fault)

      • someone gets fired → you assume they probably just didn’t work hard enough

In-Group Bias & Out-Group Homogeneity Bias

  • In-group bias is the tendency to favor people who belong to your own group

  • Out-group bias is the belief that people not in your group are all the same or very similar

    • typically puts the blame on the person without considering other possible explanations

Ethnocentrism

  • Ethnocentrism is the idea that one’s own culture is superior to others

    • expecting others to speak your language and criticizing them if they don’t


Attitude Change

  • Belief Perseverance

    • Belief perseverance is the tendency to hold onto our beliefs even when there’s evidence that contradicts it

      • this helps the attitude stay in place

    • Confirmation bias is the tendency to search for information that supports your beliefs and ignore evidence that contradicts it

      • this helps reinforce and strengthen our existing attitudes

    Belief Perseverance

    Confirmation Bias

    A person refuses to swim in the ocean because they believe sharks are a major threat, even after seeing statistics showing that shark attacks are extremely rare.

    A manager believes teenagers are lazy and, when seeing one sitting down for a second, thinks, “They’re not working.”

    They continue to avoid swimming, ignoring the evidence

    They ignore the fact that the teenager had been working hard right before, confirming their belief.

    Cognitive Dissonance

    • Cognitive dissonance is the uncomfortable feeling you get when your beliefs don’t match up with your actions

      • we either change our belief or rationalize the conflict to make our attitudes more consistent

      • if someone knows that smoking is bad for health but continues to smoke, they might rationalize it by thinking “I’ll quit someday”