Page 1: ATTITUDES BOOK CHAPTER 15

• This note is about attitudes and their formation, prediction of behavior, and the active change of attitudes through persuasion.

Page 2: OUTLINE

• The outline includes the topics of what attitudes are, how they are formed, the prediction of behavior based on attitudes, and the role of behavior in shaping attitudes. It also mentions the active change of attitudes through persuasion.

Page 3: NATURE OF ATTITUDES

• Attitudes are defined as relative enduring sets of beliefs, feelings, and intentions towards an object, person, event, or symbol.

• Attitudes have three components: affective component (feelings of like/dislike), cognitive component (beliefs held about the object), and behavioral component (intention of behavior in accordance with attitude).

Page 4: ATTITUDE FORMATION

• Attitude formation can occur through classical conditioning, where an unconditioned stimulus (US) evokes an unconditioned response (UR), and repeated pairing of the US with a conditioned stimulus (CS) leads to a conditioned response (CR).

• Attitude formation can also happen through mere exposure, where the more often a neutral stimulus is seen, the more it is liked.

• Other ways of attitude formation include observational learning, operant conditioning, and effort justification.

Page 5: ATTITUDE FORMATION

• Mere exposure effect applies not only to objects but also to people.

• Society's influence directs what individuals are repeatedly exposed to, limiting the possibilities of exposure.

• Bornstein & D'Agostino (1992) studied the effects of mere exposure.

Page 6: ATTITUDE FORMATION

• Other ways of attitude formation include observational learning, operant conditioning (reinforcements/rewards), and effort justification (more effort can lead to more liking).

Page 7: ATTITUDE-BEHAVIOR CONSISTENCY

• Factors that influence the likelihood of consistency between attitudes and behavior include knowledge (firsthand knowledge leads to higher consistency), personal relevance (more relevance leads to more consistency), attitude accessibility (more accessible attitudes lead to more consistency), and behavioral intentions (specific aims to act a certain way lead to more consistency).

Page 8: BEHAVIOR AFFECTS ATTITUDE: SELF-PERCEPTION THEORY

• Self-perception theory states that people infer their own attitudes from their behavior.

• Example: Regularly picking up a donut might lead someone to conclude that they must like donuts.

Page 9: BEHAVIOR AFFECTS ATTITUDE: COGNITIVE DISSONANCE

• Cognitive dissonance theory states that people experience tension when there is a discrepancy between attitudes and behaviors, behavior and self-image, or conflicting attitudes.

• Dissonance is an adverse state that people are motivated to reduce.

• Dissonance can be reduced by changing attitudes.

Page 10: FESTINGER AND CARLSMITH (1959)

• Participants were induced to lie about a boring task and were rewarded either $1 or $20 for lying.

• Participants who had insufficient justification for lying ($1) changed their attitude about the task and rated it as enjoyable.

Page 11: PERSUASION

• Persuasion involves the use of communication to change attitudes.

• Various factors, such as word choice, dominance, and manipulation, can influence the effectiveness of persuasion.

Page 12: ELABORATION LIKELIHOOD MODEL

• The elaboration likelihood model explains how persuasion works based on the motivation and ability of the audience to process the message.

• Central processing focuses on the quality of the message arguments, while peripheral processing focuses on surface features.

• Lasting change occurs with central processing, while temporary change occurs with peripheral processing.

Page 13: ELABORATION LIKELIHOOD MODEL

• The model distinguishes between central route processing (high motivation and ability to process) and peripheral route processing (low motivation or ability to process).

Page 14: ADVERT EXAMPLES TARGETING DIFFERENT ROUTES

• Advertisements can target different routes of persuasion, such as central route processing or peripheral route processing.

• Examples of advertisements targeting