Unit 4.2

Attitudes and Actions

attitudes: feelings, often induced by our beliefs, that predispose us to respond in a particular way to objects, people, events

• attitudes affect actions

• attitudes can be influenced/changed by situational factors

Foot-in-the-door phenomenon: the tendency for ppl who first agreed to a small request to later agree to a larger request

door-in-the-face phenomenon: approaching someone with an unreasonably large request knowing they’ll say no so that later they say yes to your smaller and more moderate request

role: a set of expectations (norms) about a social position defining a person to behave

cognitive dissonance theory: the theory by leon festinger that we act to reduce the discomfort we feel when 2 of our thoughts are inconsistent by changing our attitudes to fit our actions

persuasion

persuasion: changing people’s attitudes, potentially influencing their actions

• peripheral route persuasion: when people are influenced by attention-getting cues

• central persuasion: when interested people’s thinking is influenced by considering evidence and arguments