Social Cognition and Attitudes - PSYC1030 Week 5

Definition: The process of combining information about others to form a judgment.
Algebraic Model: Developed by Anderson ( $1965$ ), impressions are formed through mechanical combinations of traits:
- Summative: The sum of all trait ratings.
- Averaging: The total rating divided by the number of traits.
- Weighted Averaging: Attributes are weighted by importance; this model best matches actual human behavior.
Configuration Model: Based on Gestalt principles (Asch, $1946$ ), stating the whole is greater than the sum of parts.
- Central Traits: Highly influential traits that color the meaning of other information.
- Peripheral Traits: Less influential traits that take meaning from the context of central traits.

Schemas: Cognitive structures representing knowledge about stimuli, based on experience (Alba & Hasher, $1983$ ).
- Event Schemas (Scripts): Expectations for specific situations.
- Role Schemas: The parts people play within settings.
- Person Schemas: Knowledge about specific individuals or groups (e.g., stereotypes or implicit personality theories).
Heuristics: Mental shortcuts for judgment.
- Availability Heuristic: Judging frequency based on the ease of recalling examples (Kahneman & Tversky, $1973$ ). Media and personal experience often skew these judgments.
- Representativeness Heuristic: Judging group membership by comparing a case to a prototype (Tversky & Kahneman, $1974$ ).

Definition: How we infer the cause of behavior as either internal (dispositional) or external (situational) (Heider, $1944$ ).
Kelley’s Covariation Model ( $1973$ ): Attributions are made based on three factors:
- Consensus: Do other people behave the same way?
- Distinctiveness: Does the behavior occur only toward this target?
- Consistency: Does the behavior occur every time in this context?
Attribution Errors:
- Fundamental Attribution Error: Overestimating internal factors for others' behavior (Ross, $1977$ ); more common in individualist cultures.
- Actor-Observer Bias: Attributing own actions to external causes and others' to internal ones.
- Self-Serving Bias: Attributing success to internal factors and failure to external ones to protect self-esteem.

Attitude Components: Beliefs, Feelings, and Behavioral Tendencies (Himmelfarb & Eagly, $1974$ ).
Communicator Factors:
- Credibility: High-credibility sources (e.g., Oppenheimer) are initially more persuasive than low-credibility ones (e.g., Pravda).
- Sleeper Effect: Persistence of a message over time as the source is dissociated from the content (Hovland & Weiss, $1951$ ).
- Attractiveness: Enhances receptiveness to strong arguments.
Message Factors:
- Fear: Effective only if combined with high response efficacy and self-efficacy (Rogers, $1983$ ).
Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM):
- Central Route: High elaboration of arguments; used when motivation and ability are high.
- Peripheral Route: Low elaboration; relies on emotional appeals or positive stimuli.

Definition: Inconsistency between cognitions creates aversive psychological tension (Festinger, $1957$ ).
Induced Compliance (Festinger & Carlsmith, $1959$ ): Participants paid $\$1$ to lie rated a boring task as more enjoyable than those paid $\$20$ . The smaller reward caused higher dissonance, requiring a change in attitude to justify the behavior.
Hypocrisy Effect: Making individuals mindful of past behavior that contradicts their public commitments (e.g., water conservation) leads to behavior change to reduce dissonance (Dickerson et al., $1992$ ).