Ch 7: Attitudes, Beliefs, and Consistency

Learning Objectives

• 7.1: Distinguish between attitudes and beliefs and the roles that they play.
• 7.2: Characterize the major accounts of attitude formation.
• 7.3: Use cognitive dissonance theory to explain attitude consistency.
• 7.4: Discuss research evidence for and against the proposition that attitudes predict behavior.
• 7.5: Explain the functions and phenomena of beliefs.
• 7.6: Discuss self-validation theory and its practical applications.

Introduction

• People can express their attitudes in various ways in the digital age.
• Example from the science fiction comedy The Orville:
  • Vote Badges allow for public opinion registration on different issues.
  • Users experience "neurological readjustment" when receiving over 10 million downvotes.

What Are Attitudes and Why Do People Have Them?

• Attitudes: global evaluations toward some object or issue.
• Beliefs: pieces of information about something.
• Purpose of Attitudes:
  • Help categorize experiences as “good” or “bad”.
  • Aid decision-making by increasing ease, speed, and quality.

Dual Attitudes

• Defined as different evaluations of the same attitude object by one person:
  • Automatic (Implicit) Attitudes:
  • Fast, evaluative, often subconscious responses.
  • Deliberate (Explicit) Attitudes:
  • More reflective and consciously considered responses.

How Attitudes Are Formed

Mere Exposure Effect

• People tend to like things more when they encounter them repeatedly.
• This effect is usually ineffective for things initially disliked.

Embodied Attitudes

• Bodily movements can shape and influence attitudes.

Classical Conditioning

• A learning process where a neutral stimulus acquires the capacity to evoke a conditioned response through repeated pairings with an unconditioned stimulus.

Operant Conditioning and Social Learning

• Operant Conditioning:
  • People repeat behaviors that have been rewarded and avoid those that are punished.
• Social Learning:
  • People imitate behaviors seen to be rewarded and avoid those seen to be punished.

Polarization

• Attitude Polarization:
  • Attitudes can become more extreme upon further reflection.
  • Individuals with strong attitudes may evaluate evidence biasedly, reinforcing their initial beliefs.

Consistency

• Theories of consistency generally outline:
  • Conditions for cognitive consistency/inconsistency.
  • Inconsistency produces unpleasant feelings.
  • Ways to restore consistency are necessary for psychological comfort.

Cognitive Dissonance and Attitude Change

• Cognitive Dissonance Theory:
  • Inconsistencies in attitudes and behaviors create psychological discomfort.
  • This discomfort leads people to rationalize their behaviors or adjust their attitudes to align more closely.

Justifying Effort and Choices

• Effort Justification:
  • People rationalize hard work or sacrifices by asserting the value of the effort.
• Post-decision Dissonance:
  • Cognitive dissonance that arises after making a choice; mitigated by enhancing the value of the selected choice while devaluing the alternative.

Advances in Dissonance Theory

• Dissonance is characterized by unpleasant arousal and distress.
• Self-presentation impacts perception; convincing others bolsters personal belief.
• Filter bubbles in media lead to selective exposure, reinforcing biases.

Is the Drive for Consistency Rooted in Nature or Nurture?

• The drive for consistency likely stems from both:
  • Automatic System: Detects inconsistencies and sends alerts of discomfort.
  • Deliberate System: Engages to rationalize or resolve inconsistencies.

Do Attitudes Really Predict Behaviors?

• Gordon Allport: Attitudes are crucial in psychology.
• Alan Wicker: Critiques that attitudes may not consistently predict behaviors, introducing the A-B problem (Attitudes vs. Behaviors).

Defending Attitudes – Specificity, Aggregation, and Context

• Specific attitudes can predict behavior, particularly when measured directly.
• Behavior aggregation involves combining various attitudes over time for a broader view.

Defending Attitudes – Accessibility and Intentions

• Attitude Accessibility: How easily an attitude comes to mind affects behavior prediction.
• Behavioral Intentions:
  • Subjective Norms: Perceptions of social approval regarding a behavior.
  • Perceived Behavioral Control: Beliefs in one's ability to perform a behavior.

Beliefs and Believing

• Believing vs. Doubting: Beliefs form automatically, while doubt often requires conscious thought.
• Belief Perseverance: Once formed, beliefs resist change even in the face of contradictory information.

Belief and Coping – Understanding Context

• Beliefs help people make sense of life and cope effectively with stress.
• Cognitive Coping: The role of beliefs in overcoming obstacles and recovering from trouble.
  • Strategies like downward comparison (comparing to those worse off) and upward comparison (to those better off).

Belief and Coping – Assumptive Worlds

• Assumptive Worlds: The belief frameworks in which people operate, based on assumptions about reality:
  • The world is benevolent.
  • The world is fair and just.
  • I am a good person.

Religious Belief

• Religious beliefs support coping by diminishing reliance on negative strategies (e.g., alcohol).
• Appeals to a higher principle assist in reducing cognitive dissonance.

Irrational Belief

• People often hold irrational beliefs without evidence:
  • Common in paranormal beliefs.
  • Individuals with irrational beliefs may experience higher anxiety, poor coping with illnesses, increased depression, and lower self-esteem.

Self-Validation Theory

• Self-Validation Theory: Validity of thought enhances its impact on beliefs and behaviors.
• Meta-Cognitive Theory: Can influence the strength of one's thoughts on attitudes and beliefs.