ATTITUDES AND STEREOTYPES

Function of Attitudes

• Definition of Attitude: Evaluation made up of feelings, beliefs, and behaviors towards an attitude object (person, social group, event, or object).

• Attitude Object: The target of judgment related to an attitude.

• Types of Attitudes:

  • Explicit Attitudes

  • Implicit Attitudes

Types of Attitudes

Explicit Attitudes

• Conscious judgments held toward an attitude object.

• Can be measured via self-report tests (rating scales, surveys).

• Susceptible to manipulation; individuals may exaggerate responses.

Implicit Attitudes

• Unconscious judgments held toward an attitude object.

• Difficult to manipulate; more likely to yield true, consistent responses.

Tripartite Model of Attitude Structure

Components of the Model

• Affective: Feelings associated with the attitude object.

• Behavioral: Behaviors (past and planned) related to the attitude object.

• Cognitive: Thoughts associated with the attitude object.

• The model implies attitudes can predict future behavior, though this may not always be the case.

Examples of the Tri-Component Model

Ella really enjoys going to the beach. Ella thinks that being at the beach brings her closer to nature. As such, Ella spends every summer holidays at her parents’ beach house.

• Affective: Enjoys the beach.

• Behavioral: Spends summers at the beach house.

• Cognitive: Believes it brings her closer to nature.

Louis goes to the gym three times a week. Louis enjoys exercising at the gym because it’s a healthy way to reduce his levels of stress.

• Affective: Enjoys gym exercise for health benefits.

• Behavioral: Attends gym thrice a week.

• Cognitive: Views gym as a stress reducer.

Emma is a ‘morning person’ who likes to wake up early. Emma believes she can make the most of her day if she wakes up early. Emma sets an alarm to get up at 5:45am every morning – even of weekends.

• Affective: Identifies as a morning person.

• Behavioral: Wakes at 5:45 am daily.

• Cognitive: Believes early wakefulness maximizes her day.

COGNITIVE DISSONANCE

Theory of Cognitive Dissonance - Festinger

• Definition: Mental discomfort arising from inconsistency among beliefs, attitudes, and actions.

• Effect of cognitive dissonance:

  • Avoidance: people are inclined to avoid encountering situations and new information that could increase cognitive dissonance.

  • Reduction: to experience a balance between the reality of the world around them, and the expectations people have of their life, cognitive dissonance is continually being reduced.

  • Rationalisation: individuals experiencing cognitive dissonance tend to rationalise, or justify, their behaviour.

• Responses:

  • Changing Beliefs: Individuals may alter their existing beliefs to align better with their behaviors.

  • Changing Behavior: People might change their actions to be more consistent with their beliefs.

  • Altering Perception of Actions: Individuals may reassess the importance or impact of their actions to reduce dissonance.

  • Avoidance: People tend to avoid situations or new information that could heighten cognitive dissonance.

  • Reduction: Ongoing efforts to balance reality with personal expectations are made to continually diminish cognitive dissonance.

  • Rationalization: Individuals often rationalize or justify their behaviors to alleviate the discomfort associated with cognitive dissonance.

Experiments and Findings

Example of Cognitive Dissonance

• Smoking: Awareness of risks creates discomfort, leading smokers to rationalize behavior or quit.

Research Study: Festinger & Carlsmith (1959)

Aim: Investigate whether performing a dull task would create cognitive dissonance through forced compliance.

• Method:

  • Participants: 71 male psychology students from Stanford University (convenience sampling).

  • Materials: Spools, pegs, tape recorder, self-report questionnaire (4 rating scale questions).

  • Design:

    • IV: Amount of reward for conflicting statement.

    • DV: Strength of attitude.

  Procedure:

  1. Participants completed repetitive dull tasks: putting spools on a tray (1 hour) and turning square pegs (30 minutes).

  2. Participants were randomly assigned to three conditions:

     • Control group

     • One-dollar condition

     • Twenty-dollar condition

  3. They were deceived about the nature of the tasks and asked to induce a following participant (a confederate) to view the tasks positively.

  4. Participants in the higher incentive (20 dollars) were less likely to experience cognitive dissonance as the payment justified their behavior, while those in the lower incentive (1 dollar) changed their attitude significantly.

  5. The strength of attitude change was measured through a rating scale (-5 to +5) concerning task enjoyment and future participation.

  6. Debriefing included revealing the true experiment purpose and returning the money.

  Key Findings:

  • Participants paid $20 showed minimal attitude change (low dissonance), justifying their lie with high incentive.

  • Participants paid $1 exhibited significant attitude changes (high dissonance) due to low justification for their lie.

Strengths of the Theory

• Can be scientifically tested.

• Demonstrates behavior can precede belief formation.

Magnitude

• Definition: Magnitude is how strong the feelings of cognitive dissonance are.

• Influence: Stronger feelings happen when there is a big difference between what someone believes and how they act, especially if the results are serious.

• Motivation: When dissonance is stronger, people are more driven to fix the problem, which might mean changing their beliefs or actions.

• Implications: Knowing about magnitude can help us guess how people might change their behavior, especially when health is at stake.

Limitations

• Individual differences not fully accounted for.

• Cognitive dissonance is not directly observable.

ATTRIBUTION THEORY

Definition and Types of Attribution

• Attribution: Process of explaining behavior by identifying its cause.

  • Situational Attribution: External factors causing behavior (e.g., social pressure).

  • Dispositional Attribution: Internal factors (e.g., personality, motivation).

• Self-serving bias: Success attributed to self, failure to external circumstances.

Examples of Attribution

• High score due to hard work; low score blamed on teacher's inadequacy.

• Observing others' behavior through dispositional lenses but attributing one's own failures to situational causes.

SOCIAL IDENTITY THEORY - TAJFEL AND TURNER (1979)

Overview

• Explains how group memberships are part of self-image and affect self-esteem.

• Groups influence perceptions positive (ingroup) or negative (outgroup).

Stages of Social Identity

1. Social Categorization: Classifying individuals into groups.

2. Social Identification: Adopting group identity.

3. Social Comparison: Evaluating ingroups against outgroups.

Impacts of Social Identity

• Influences empathy and biases leading to potential intergroup conflict (e.g., Robber's Cave Experiment).

STEREOTYPES

Function of Stereotypes

• Cognitive tools for processing information, facilitating quick judgments.

• Evolutionarily, may have helped assess social danger.

Relationships Among Attitudes, Prejudice, and Discrimination

• Different components: Affect (prejudice (feelings)), Cognition (stereotypes (thoughts)), and Behavior (discrimination (action/behaviour)).

  • Cognition = Stereotype: a positive or negative thoughts about members of an outgroup.

  • Behaviour = Discrimination: unjustified negative behaviours toward members of an outgroup based on their group membership.

  • Social categorisation: the often-unconscious process of categorising people into groups based on shared characteristics.

• Prejudice can exist without direct discrimination; stereotypes can lead to discriminatory actions. p≠d, s=d.

Direct and Indirect Discrimination

• Direct Discrimination: Unfair treatment based on personal characteristics.

• Indirect Discrimination: Policies or practices that disadvantage a group.

CAUSES OF PREJUDICE

• Environmental influences: Social influence, intergroup competition (e.g competition over jobs can lead to groups purposefully inciting prejudice against outgroups), social categorization (immediately and unconsciously indentifying outgroups/ingroups), and cognitive biases.

• The Just World Phenomenon: Belief that outcomes are fair leads to endorsing victim-blaming attitudes.

REDUCING PREJUDICE

• Intergroup contact: The contact hypothesis suggests interaction reduces prejudice.

• Superordinate goals: Cooperation needed to achieve goals can reduce intergroup conflict.

Study: Robber's Cave Experiment (Sherif et al., 1961)

• Investigated the impact of competition and cooperation among groups.

• Findings showed that intergroup cooperation led to reduced prejudice and increased mutual friendships.

Attitudes and Stereotypes

Function of Attitudes

• Definition: Evaluation from feelings, beliefs, behaviors towards an attitude object.

• Types: Explicit (conscious, self-reported) and Implicit (unconscious, stable).

Tripartite Model of Attitude Structure:

• Components: Affective (feelings), Behavioral (actions), Cognitive (thoughts).

• Examples:

  1. Ella: Enjoys beach → spends summers there → believes it's close to nature.

  2. Louis: Enjoys gym → goes thrice a week → sees it as stress relief.

  3. Emma: Identifies as a morning person → wakes up early → believes it maximizes her day.

Cognitive Dissonance - Festinger

• Definition: Mental discomfort from inconsistency in beliefs, attitudes, actions.

• Effects: Avoidance, Reduction, Rationalization.

• Responses: Change beliefs, behaviors, or perceptions to reduce dissonance.

• Example: Smoking leads to rationalization due to awareness of risks.

• Study: Festinger & Carlsmith (1959) found low payment led to greater attitude change due to low justification.

Attribution Theory

• Definition: Explaining behavior by identifying causes.

• Types: Situation (external) vs. Dispositional (internal) attributions.

• Example: Excelling due to hard work, failing because of teacher's faults.

Social Identity Theory - Tajfel and Turner (1979)

• Definition: Group memberships shape self-image and self-esteem.

• Stages: Categorization, Identification, Comparison impacts empathy and biases.

Stereotypes

• Function: Helps in quick judgments; may assist in evaluating social danger.

• Related Concepts: Prejudice (feelings) and Discrimination (actions).

• Types:

  • Direct Discrimination: Fair treatment based on characteristics.

  • Indirect Discrimination: Policies causing disadvantage.

Causes of Prejudice

• Influences: Social, environmental, intergroup competition, cognitive biases.

• Just World Phenomenon: Leads to victim-blaming attitudes.

Reducing Prejudice

• Intergroup Contact: Interaction can lower prejudice.

• Superordinate Goals: Cooperation