1. LECTURE 5 Attitudes and Behaviour
Administration
What are attitudes?
Origin of attitudes
How do we measure attitudes?
Explicit versus implicit measures
IAT – how did you do?
IAT video
Break
The attitude-behaviour link
Do attitudes determine behaviour?
Does behaviour determine attitudes?
7) Next Class

2. Attitudes
Definition:
“An evaluation of a person, object, or idea”

3. Attitudes Towards: (Likert Scale)
Ice-cream
Very Very
negative positive
Asians
Very Very
negative positive
Nudity on TV
negative positive

4. Attitudes towards: (Likert Scale)
It is essential that all citizens exercise their right to vote if government is to effectively reflect the will of the people.
Strongly Strongly
Disagree Agree
Homelessness in Canada is a serious social problem that needs attention.
I believe that a family with a mother and father is the best.

5. Where do attitudes come from?
(C) Cognitively Based Attitudes
Based primarily on a person’s beliefs about the properties of an attitude object.
“I like this vacuum cleaner because this one picks up more dirt”
(A) Affectively Based Attitudes
Based primarily on people’s feelings and values pertaining to the attitude object
Can be a sensory reaction (chocolate), conditioned (love warm comforters on rainy days), or value-based (anti-abortion)
(B) Behaviourally Based Attitudes
Based on an observation of how one behaves toward an attitude object
“I recycled, so I must have a positive attitude toward environmental issues”
Sometimes we might be ambivalent toward certain objects because of these different determinants (cigarettes).
ABCs of attitudes

6. How do we measure attitudes?
Explicit vs. Implicit – Why Important?
Explicit Measures
Likert Scales (already shown)
Evaluation Thermometer
Semantic Differential Scale
Modern Prejudice

7. Attitudes Towards: (Likert Scale)
Gay men
Very Very
negative positive

8. Evaluation Thermometer
Gay Men
Very favorable
100 50
Very unfavorable

9. Semantic Differential Scale
Gay Men
Bad ____ : ____ : ____ : ____ : ____ Good
Worthless ____ : ____ : ____ : ____ : ____ Valuable
Unpleasant ____ : ____ : ____ : ____ : ____ Pleasant
Boring ____ : ____ : ____ : ____ : ____ Interesting
Unfavorable ____ : ____ : ____ : ____ : ____ Favorable
Harmful ____ : ____ : ____ : ____ : ____ Beneficial

10. Modern Prejudice Scale
strongly strongly
disagree agree
1. Gay men are getting too demanding in their push for
equal rights.
2. Prejudice against gay men is still a problem.
3. The government should not help make any special effort to
help gay men because they should help themselves.

11. How do we measure attitudes?
Implicit Measures
Bogus Pipelines
Reaction Time Measures - IAT
Physiological Measures – EEG and fMRI (brain activity), ECG (heart rate)

12. Bogus Pipeline Studies Page & Sigall (1971)
A bogus pipeline fools people into disclosing their attitudes by convincing them that a machine can be used to gauge their private attitudes.
Participants hold a wheel that measures whether they agree with a statement or not. Electrodes are attached to their arm and the fake machine supposedly gauges their tendency to turn the wheel to the left (disagree) or to the right (agree). This attitude machine was demonstrated by showing participants how it worked on an attitude that they had expressed earlier.
Once convinced that the machine worked, participants were asked about their racial attitudes. Compared to control conditions, who were not on the machine, these participants reported more negative attitudes toward Blacks.

13. But is it possible that we are not even aware of our implicit attitudes?
The Implicit Association Task and studies using physiological measure suggests that this may in some instances be the case.
Did you test your Hidden Biases/Attitudes with the IAT?
Which IAT did you do?
What were the results?

14. IAT BIAS Your results suggest: Strong automatic preference for *
Moderate automatic preference for *
Slight automatic preference for *
Little or no automatic preference *
Slight automatic preference for *
Moderate automatic preference for *

15. BLACK/WHITE IAT
unpleasant or
BLACKS
pleasant or
WHITES

16. BLACK/WHITE IAT
unpleasant or
BLACKS
pleasant or
WHITES
love

17. BLACK/WHITE IAT
unpleasant or
WHITES
pleasant or
BLACKS

18. BLACK/WHITE IAT
unpleasant or
WHITES
pleasant or
BLACKS
war

19. BLACK/WHITE IAT Your results suggest:
Strong automatic preference for Whites
Moderate automatic preference for Whites
Slight automatic preference for Whites
Little or no automatic preference
Slight automatic preference for Blacks
Moderate automatic preference for Blacks
Strong automatic preference for Blacks

20. BLACK/WHITE IAT Percentage of Total Respondents on IAT website
Blacks/Whites IAT
Preference for Whites %
Little or no preference %
Preference for Blacks %

21. Implicit Association Test (IAT) Greenwald, McGhee, & Schwartz (1998)
Explicit vs. Implicit Measures of Bias
IAT and Semantic Differential Scale
Blacks (/Whites)
Bad ____ : ____ : ____ : ____ : ____ Good
Worthless ____ : ____ : ____ : ____ : ____ Valuable
Unpleasant ____ : ____ : ____ : ____ : ____ Pleasant
Video: Dateline on IAT

22. Implicit Association Test (IAT) Greenwald, McGhee, & Schwartz (1998)
Positive Ingroup Evaluations:
Blacks vs. Whites
Video: A girl like me

23. But can the IAT predict behaviour? If so, what type of behaviour?
Explicit Implicit
Behaviour Behaviour
explicit attitudes predict Yes No
implicit attitudes predict No Yes

24. The Attitude-Behaviour Link
Do attitudes determine behaviour?
What are the conditions under which attitudes predict behaviour?

25. Attitudes can predict behaviour when:
we minimize social influence on attitudes
Reduce social desirable responding (bogus pipeline, implicit measures)
we match the level of specificity of attitudes and behaviours
General attitudes predict behaviours in general
Specific attitudes predict specific behaviours
The theory of planned behaviour
attitudes are strong

26. General attitudes predict behaviours in general
A general attitudes toward an object or a concept may not predict any specific behavior but if we average behaviours over many occasions, attitudes can predict behaviour.
Principle of aggregation:
A person’s religious attitude may not predict whether they go to church next weekend but it will predict the total number of a wide array of religious behaviours over time.

27. Specific attitudes predict specific behaviours.
A general attitude will often not predict a specific behavior.
But when attitude measures are directly pertinent to the situation they will predict behavior in that situation.

28. Theory of Planned Behavior
Ajzen & Fishbein, 1985
Specific
Attitude
Behaviour
Intentions
(Subjective)
Norms
Behavioral
Control

29. Theory of Planned Behavior
Problems with this theory:
It is very rationale and deliberative.
Intentions are not great predictors of behaviour.
Attitudes sometimes have a direct relationship to spontaneous, unintentional behaviour.
It also can not explain habits which are very unthoughtful actions.
This theory also does not take into account our implicit attitudes and how our behavior can also be influenced by these evaluations that are often quite different than our explicit attitudes.

30. Strong attitudes predict behaviours (not all attitudes are equal)
People with a strong attitude:
Often have acquired more information about the attitude object
Often are personally involved with the attitude object. It is important to them.
Often have had direct experience with an attitude object.
Strong attitudes are important because they are more accessible. More accessible attitudes direct behaviour.
(e.g., I think we must protect the environment.)

31. The Attitude-Behaviour Link
Do attitudes determine behaviour?
Sometimes.
Does behaviour determine attitudes?
When and why?

32. Why and when do behaviours change attitudes?
e.g., Donating money to foreign aid.
Self-Presentation (not actual attitude change)
Self-Justification - Cognitive Dissonance
Self-Perception

33. Self-Presentation
To appear consistent (and avoid appearing foolish), we express attitudes that match our actions
Assumes conscious awareness of the discrepancy between the real attitude and the presented attitude
Not genuine attitude change
(e.g., If I donate money to a relief charity, I may state that I am more positive toward this charity if I am with women who saw me give money than if I was with a different group of women who did not witness my initial donation.)

34. Self-Justification: Cognitive Dissonance
Real change that occurs within the self.
Tension arises when we are aware of inconsistencies in the self
You realize that your behaviour doesn’t match your attitude
To reduce that tension we often change our attitudes to fit the behaviour
(e.g., I would state that I am more positive toward this charity even if I was with a different group of women who did not witness my initial donation or if no one was around.)

35. Self-Justification: Cognitive Dissonance
When?
Insufficient Justification
Postdecisional Dissonance

36. Self-Justification: Cognitive Dissonance
1) Insufficient Justification
We change our attitudes to be more consistent with our behaviours if we act in a certain way that is not consistent with our attitudes and we have no strong justification for acting in this way. If we do have a reasonable justification, we will not change our attitudes.

37. Self-Justification: Cognitive Dissonance
Classic Study: Festinger & Carlsmith (1959)
How much I enjoyed the experiment (-5 to +5)

38. Self-Justification: Cognitive Dissonance
2) Postdecisional Dissonance
People often reduce dissonance that is aroused after making a decision by
increasing their liking for the chosen item and
- decreasing their liking for the rejected item.

39. Post-decision Dissonance Schultz, Leveille, & Lepper (1999)
Ask 13 year olds to rate the attractiveness of various posters.
Some children were allowed to choose between 2 posters they rated very positively. After choosing, they rated the poster they rejected more negatively than they had previously.
- Rejecting a positive objects produces dissonance. So you need to change your attitude toward positive object that you reject.
Other children were allowed to choose between 2 posters they rated very negatively. After choosing, they rated the poster they chose more positively than they had previously.
- Choosing a negative object produces dissonance. So you need to change your attitude toward negative object that chose. This effect was largest.

40. Arousal and Cognitive Dissonance
Dissonance and the pill (Cooper & Zanna, 1974)
Procedure
Subjects were asked to write a counter-attitudinal essay
banning all speakers on campus
Either an illusion of high choice or low choice
Given a pill – told will be arousing, have no effect, or be relaxing (really a placebo)
Examine attitude change

41. Dissonance and the Pill
Dissonance and the pill (Cooper & Zanna, 1974)

42. Self-Perception Theory
When unsure of our attitudes, we infer them by observing our behaviour.
Examples, listening to country music channel (no one forcing me)
Social Embodiment
Overjustification Effect

43. Social Embodiment
Recent theorizing on embodiment suggest there is a close relationship between bodily feedback and higher cognitions. They assuming that actions and body movements can directly influence our thoughts and attitudes.
For example, if we are evaluating cartoons when we holding a pen with a mouth that grins rather than a circular mouth, we will find the cartoons funnier.
Likewise, if we are evaluating Chinese ideographs when we are pulling up on a table (upward flex) compared to when we are pushing down on a table (downward extend), we will like the object more.
The feedback from our body influences our attitudes.

44. Overjustification effect
“The result of paying people to do what they already like doing,” may make the task less intrinsically motivated and less likely to occur.
This effect occurs when someone offers an unnecessary reward beforehand in an effort to control behaviour.

45. Overjustification effect Deci (1971)
Procedure
Monitored participants who are initially
allowed to play with puzzles.
- ½ subjects paid to solve puzzles
½ not paid
Next removed all rewards for the paid group.
Monitored who continued to work on the puzzle

46. Overjustification effect Deci (1971)
Amount of Time played with puzzles

47. Overjustification Effect (Self-Perception Theory)
Getting paid for something you want to do. Getting paid for doing puzzles when you like solving puzzles. No dissonance here – I like solving puzzles and I am solving puzzles. My attitude and my behaviour are consistent.
However, self-perceptions may lead people to believe that by receiving an unnecessary reward for the behaviour they may not really like the task so much - - that they are just doing it for the money. They believe that the reason they are behaving like they are is because of extrinsic rather than intrinsic motivations.

48. Underjustification Effect (Cognitive Dissonance Theory)
Getting paid for something you don’t want to do. Getting paid to tell someone that a task is fun when your real attitude is that it is a boring task. Dissonance is that your behaviour and your attitudes are not consistent.
Why am I telling this person it is a fun task when it is really boring – it can’t be because of the money ($1), it wasn’t enough to make me act that way, I must really like the task.

49. Next Class
Class 6: Persuasion