Chapter 6 Attitudes

What is an Attitude? A positive, negative, or mixed reaction to a person, object, or idea expressed at some level of intensity.

Four Possible Reactions to Attitude Objects As shown, people evaluate objects along both positive and negative dimensions. As a result, our attitudes can be positive, negative, ambivalent, or indifferent. Cacioppo et al., 1997. © Cengage Learning

How Attitudes Are Measured: Self-Report Measures Self-report measures are direct and straightforward, but sometimes attitudes are too complex for a single question. Attitude Scale: A multiple-item questionnaire designed to measure a person’s attitude toward some object. e.g., Likert Scale

How Attitudes Are Measured: Self-Report Measures (cont’d) Bogus Pipeline: A phony lie-detector device that is sometimes used to get respondents to give truthful answers to sensitive questions.

How Attitudes Are Measured: Covert Measures Observable behavior Facial Electromyograph (EMG): An electronic instrument that records facial muscle activity associated with emotions and attitudes. Neuroscience research ongoing Appears attitudes may be measurable by electrical brain activity

The Facial EMG The facial EMG makes it possible to detect differences between positive and negative attitudes. Notice the major facial muscles and recording sites for electrodes. When people hear a message with which they agree rather than disagree, there is a relative increase in EMG activity in the depressor and zygomatic muscles but a relative decrease in corrugator and frontalis muscles. These changes cannot be seen with the naked eye. From Cacioppo, J.T and Petty, R.E., “Electromyograms as measures of extent and affectivity of information processing,” American Psychologist vol 36 (pp. 441–456). Copyright © 1981 by the American Psychological Association. Reprinted by permission.

How Attitudes Are Measured: The Implicit Association Test (IAT) Based on notion that we have implicit attitudes. Attitudes that one is not aware of having Implicit Association Test (IAT): Measures the speed with which one responds to pairings of concepts.

The Implicit Association Test Through a sequence of tasks, the IAT measures implicit racial attitudes toward, for example, African Americans, by measuring how quickly people respond to black-bad/white-good word pairings relative to black-good/white-bad pairings. Most white Americans are quicker to respond to the first type of pairings than to the second, which suggests that they do not as readily connect black-good and white-bad. From Kassin, S. Essentials of psychology. Copyright © 2004. Reprinted by permission of Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ.

How Attitudes are Formed Our most cherished attitudes most often form due to exposure to Attitude objects History of rewards and punishments Attitudes of family, friends, enemies, etc. Social and cultural context Personal experiences Clearly, attitudes are formed through basic processes of learning

The Link Between Attitudes and Behavior Is the assumption that attitudes influence behavior a valid one? LaPiere’s (1934) provocative but flawed study Wicker’s (1969) conclusion that attitudes and behavior are only weakly correlated Kraus (1995): “Attitudes significantly and substantially predict future behavior.”

Attitudes in Context Theory of planned behavior: attitudes toward a specific behavior combine with subjective norms and perceived control to influence a person’s actions

Theory of Planned Behavior According to the theory of planned behavior, attitudes toward a specific behavior combine with subjective norms and perceived behavior control to influence a person’s intentions. These intentions, in turn, guide but do not completely determine behavior. This theory places the link between attitudes and behavior within a broader context. From Ajzen, Organizational Behavior and the Human Decision Process, vol 50, pp. 179–211. Copyright © 1991 Elsevier. Reprinted with permission.

Strength of the Attitude Why do some attitudes have more influence on behavior? Depends on attitude’s importance or strength Why are some attitudes stronger than others? Because of our genetic make-up?

Psychological Factors Influencing Attitude Strength Does it directly affect one’s own outcomes and self-interests? Is it related to deeply held philosophical, political, and religious values? Is it of concern to one’s close friends, family, and social ingroups?

Factors That Indicate the Strength of an Attitude The more well informed on a topic, the more consistent behavior is with attitude Not only amount of information, but also how that information was acquired An attitude can be strengthened by an attack against it from a persuasive message Strong attitudes are highly accessible to awareness, how quickly and easily they are brought to mind.

Persuasion By Communication

Two Routes to Persuasion Central Route: Person thinks carefully about a message. Influenced by the strength and quality of the message Peripheral Route: Person does not think critically about the contents of a message. Influenced by superficial cues

The Central Route Hovland et al.: Persuaded when we attend to, comprehend, and retain an argument in memory. McGuire: Distinguished between the reception of a message and its later acceptance. Greenwald: Elaboration is an important, intermediate step.

The Central Route (cont’d) Assumption that the recipients are attentive, active, critical, and thoughtful. Assumption is correct only some of the time. When it is correct, the persuasiveness of the message depends on the strength of the message’s content. The central route is a thoughtful process. But not necessarily an objective one

The Peripheral Route People are persuaded on the basis of superficial, peripheral cues. Message is evaluated through the use of simple-minded heuristics. People are also influenced by attitude-irrelevant factors.

Two Routes to Persuasion Based on aspects of the source, message, and audience, recipients of a communication take either a central or peripheral route to persuasion. On the central route, people are influenced by strong arguments and evidence. On the peripheral route, persuasion is based more on heuristics and other superficial cues. This two-process model helps explain how persuasion can seem logical on some occasions and illogical on others.

What Makes an Effective Source? Believable sources must be credible sources. To be seen as credible, the source must have two distinct characteristics: Competence or expertise Trustworthiness

What Makes an Effective Source? (cont.) How likable is the communicator? Two factors influence a source’s likability: The similarity between the source and the audience The physical attractiveness of the source

Who Do You Trust?

Is the Source More Important Than the Message? It depends… How personally relevant is the message for the recipient?

Source vs. Message: The Role of Audience Involvement People who were high or low in their personal involvement heard a strong or weak message from an expert or non-expert. For high-involvement participants (left), persuasion was based on the strength of arguments, not on source expertise. For low-involvement participants (right), persuasion was based more on the source than on the arguments. Source characteristics have more impact on those who don’t care enough to take the central route. Reprinted by permission from Richard E. Petty.

The Sleeper Effect In Experiment 1, participants changed their immediate attitudes more in response to a message from a high-credibility source than from a low-credibility source. When attitudes were measured again after 3 weeks, the high-credibility source had lost impact and the low-credibility source had gained impact—the sleeper effect. In Experiment 2, the sleeper effect disappeared when participants were reminded of the source.

What Makes an Effective Message? How should the argument be presented to maximize its strength? Are longer messages better? If peripheral, the longer the message, the more valid it must be. If central, message length is a two-edged sword. Does presentation order matter?

Effects of Presentation Order and Timing on Persuasion

What Makes an Effective Message? (cont.) How discrepant should the message be to have the greatest impact? The most change is produced at moderate amounts of discrepancy. An “upside-down U” relationship between discrepancy and persuasion.

What Makes an Effective Message? (cont.) Should the message use fear appeals or scare tactics? How strong is the argument? Does the message contain reassuring advice? Are appeals to positive emotions effective? People are “soft touches” when they are in a good mood.

Why Might Positive Feelings Activate the Peripheral Route? A positive emotional state is cognitively distracting, impairing ability to think critically. When in a good mood, we assume all is well and become lazy processors of information. When happy, we become motivated not to spoil the mood by thinking critically about new information.

Subliminal Messages Can subliminal messages influence behavior? We do perceive subliminal cues. But the cues will not persuade one to take action unless already motivated to do so.

Subliminal Influence Thirsty and nonthirsty research participants were subliminally exposed to neutral or thirst-related words. Afterward they participated in a beverage taste test in which the amount they drank was measured. You can see that the subliminal thirst cues had little impact on nonthirsty participants but that they did increase consumption among those who were thirsty. Apparently, subliminal cues can influence our behavior when we are otherwise predisposed.

Audience Factors Very few people are consistently easy or difficult to persuade. People differ in the extent to which they become involved and take the central route. Need for Cognition: How much does one enjoy effortful cognitive activities?

Need for Cognition Scale

Regulatory Fit To what extent does the message meet the psychological needs of the audience? Does the message fit the frame of mind of the audience and “feel right”? Promotion-oriented vs. prevention-oriented

Forewarning and Resistance Advanced knowledge allows time to develop counterarguments. Inoculation hypothesis Being forewarned elicits a motivational reaction. Psychological reactance Effects of forewarning depends on personal importance of message.

Strategies for Resisting Persuasion

Culture and Persuasion Culture plays a role in regard to persuasion Collectivistic vs. individualistic To be persuasive, message should appeal to the culturally shared values of the audience

Persuasion by Our Own Actions

Role Playing: All the World’s a Stage What happens when we engage in attitude-discrepant behavior? Why does role-playing lead to enduring attitude change? Why can changes in behavior lead to changes in attitude?

Cognitive Dissonance Theory: The Classic Version We are motivated by a desire for cognitive consistency. Cognitive Dissonance Theory: Inconsistent cognitions arouse psychological tension that people become motivated to reduce. Can lead to irrational and sometimes maladaptive behavior

The Dissonance Classic Participants in a boring experiment (attitude) were asked to say that it was enjoyable (behavior) to a fellow student. Those in one group were paid $1 to lie; those in a second group were offered $20. Members of a third group, who did not have to lie, admitted that the task was boring. So did the participants paid $20, which was ample justification for telling a lie. Participants paid only $1, however, rated the task as more enjoyable. Behaving in an attitude-discrepant manner without justification, these latter participants reduced dissonance by changing their attitude. From Festinger, L. and Carlsmith, J. M., “Cognitive Consequences and Forced Compliance,” Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology vol 58 (pp. 203–210). Copyright © 1959 by the American Psychological Association. Reprinted by permission.

Justifying Attitude-Discrepant Behavior Subjects experienced cognitive dissonance because they had insufficient justification for lying. Contributions of Festinger & Carlsmith’s classic study: Showed the phenomenon of self-persuasion Contradicted the accepted belief that big rewards produce greater change

Ways to Reduce Dissonance

Justifying Attitude- Discrepant Behavior (cont.) Insufficient deterrence: Mild punishment is insufficient deterrence for attitude-discrepant nonbehavior. The less severe the threatened punishment, the greater the attitude change produced.

Justifying Effort: Coming to Like What We Suffer For We alter our attitudes to justify our suffering. Aronson & Mills’ (1959) “embarrassment test” study The more we pay for something, the more we will come to like it.

Justifying Difficult Decisions: When Good Choices Get Even Better Whenever we make difficult decisions, we feel dissonance. We rationalize the correctness of our decision by exaggerating: The positive features of the chosen alternative The negative features of the unchosen alternative

Cognitive Dissonance Theory: A New Look Four steps are necessary for both the arousal and reduction of dissonance Attitude-discrepant behavior must produce unwanted negative consequences Must feel personal responsibility for unpleasant outcomes of behavior Physiological arousal Must make an attribution for physiological arousal to own behavior

Necessary Conditions for the Arousal and Reduction of Dissonance Research suggests that four steps are necessary for attitude change to result from the production and reduction of dissonance.

Alternative Routes to Self-Persuasion Self-Perception Theory: Self-persuasion through observation of own behavior. Impression Management Theory: What matters is not a motive to be consistent but rather a motive to appear consistent. Self-Affirmation Theory: Dissonance situations create a threat to the self.

When Self-Affirmation Fails Students gave a dissonant speech advocating a ban on a popular campus tradition. Compared to those in a low-choice situation, students in a high-choice group changed their attitude more to favor the ban. As self-affirmation theory predicts, those given a chance to express their values afterward did not then favor the ban—unless their values were poorly received. Self-affirmation can repair the dissonance-damaged self. When it fails, however, cognitive dissonance returns to pressure the change in attitude.

Theories of Self-Persuasion: Critical Comparisons Here we compare the major theories of self-persuasion. Each alternative challenges a different aspect of dissonance theory. Self-perception theory assumes that attitude change is a matter of inference, not motivation. Impression-management theory maintains that the change is more apparent than real, reported for the sake of public self-presentation. Self-affirmation theory contends that the motivating force is a concern for the self and that attitude change will not occur when the self-concept is affirmed in other ways.

Cultural Influences on Cognitive Dissonance Cultural context influences both arousal and reduction of dissonance Individualist vs. Collectivistic cultures Cognitive dissonance is both universal and dependent on culture

Cognitive Dissonance as Both Universal and Culturally Dependent Researchers compared Canadian and Japanese research participants in a post-decision dissonance study in which they rank ordered items on a menu, chose their top dishes, then ranked the list again. Half made the choices for themselves; the others were asked to imagine a close friend. When deciding for themselves, only the Canadians exhibited a significant justification effect; when deciding for a friend, however, Japanese participants exhibited the stronger effect.

Changing Attitudes The most common approach is through communication from others. A second, less obvious means of persuasion originates within ourselves