12.3 attitudes and persuasion 

Attitudes

• Definition: Evaluation of a person, idea, or object; typically positive or negative.

• Components:

  • Affective: Feelings about the subject.

  • Behavioral: Impact on behavior.

  • Cognitive: Beliefs and knowledge.

Cognitive Dissonance

• Defined by Leon Festinger (1957) as discomfort from holding inconsistent attitudes, behaviors, or cognitions.

• Example: Believing smoking is unhealthy while smoking causes dissonance.

• Reduction Strategies:

  • Change behavior (quit smoking).

  • Change beliefs (rationalize smoking).

  • Add new cognition (benefits of smoking).

Justification of Effort

• Concept: We value achievements that require significant effort.

• Example: Participants rated a boring group more favorably if they had a difficult initiation.

Persuasion

• Definition: Process of changing attitudes through communication.

Yale Attitude Change Approach

• Features influencing persuasion:

  • Source credibility and attractiveness.

  • Message characteristics (subtlety, sidedness, timing).

  • Audience characteristics (attention, intelligence, self-esteem, age).

Elaboration Likelihood Model

• Describes two routes to persuasion:

  • Central Route: Logic-driven, uses facts. More durable attitude change.

  • Peripheral Route:Indirect, relies on peripheral cues (e.g., celebrity endorsement). Less permanent change.

Foot-in-the-door Technique

• Method: Getting agreement to small request increases likelihood of larger request.

• Example: Agreeing to a small task leads to agreement on a larger task later on.