Social Thinking: Attitudes and Persuasion

Agree or Disagree? World hunger is a serious problem that needs attention. Our country needs to address the growing number of homeless people. If I was running my own business, I would not hire someone who admitted to being lazy 1 = strongly disagree 4=agree 2 = disagree 5= strongly agree 3 = neither agree or disagree

Yes or No? Do you personally do anything to lessen world hunger? Do you personally do anything to help the homeless? Have you worked as hard in school over the past few weeks as you have in the past?

How and why do our attitudes change? Cognitive Dissonance Dissonance: The sense of discomfort people experience when confronted by contradictory ideas. Creates an unpleasant state of tension that motivates people to change their attitudes in order to reduce dissonance. “If it is painful to accept something, then it will not be accepted.”

INCONSISTENCY DISSONANCE Attitude: “Driving under the influence of alcohol is wrong” DISSONANCE INCONSISTENCY Action: Person drinks and drives How do we reduce this dissonance?

Cognitive Dissonance There are several strategies for reducing dissonance, including: Changing the behavior to match one’s attitude. Changing the attitude to match one’s behavior. Cognitively minimizing the degree of inconsistency or its importance (excuses, justification)

Suppose you had volunteered to participate in a psychology experiment Suppose you had volunteered to participate in a psychology experiment. Upon arrival, you were seated at a table and asked to turn knobs attached to a board for one hour (you are asked to turn each know clockwise one rotation over and over). Afterward, the experimenter convinces you to speak highly of the tasks you had performed by describing them to other potential participants as fun, worthwhile, interesting, and educational. You are paid either $1 or $20 to do this. Suppose you were then asked to privately rate your enjoyment of the tasks on a questionnaire. After which amount do you believe your actual enjoyment rating of the tasks would be higher—$1 or $20?

How and why do our attitudes change? Cognitive Dissonance: Festinger study Subjects perform a very boring task for one hour. All agreed… BORING! Subjects then "bribed" (either $1 or $20) to tell the next group coming in that the activity was exciting What’s the dissonance? "The task was really boring" (attitude) contradicts with "I lied and told someone that I liked the task” (behavior)

How and why do our attitudes change? Cognitive Dissonance: Festinger study Later, the subjects were asked their true feelings $20 group's attitude towards the activity did not change much because they had an obvious reason to behave inconsistently with their original attitudes “I said that I enjoyed the task because I got $20, but I really thought it was boring” $1 people changed their attitude to “I actually enjoyed the task” because $1 was not a good enough reason to lie

How and why do our attitudes change? Belief-Disconfirmation: Reducing dissonance through justifications: What dissonance exists with smoking? Effort Justification: You’ve waited all summer for a concert and paid a ridiculously high price on Stub Hub for the tickets The concert is terrible… cognitive dissonance?

Attitudes and Action Not only will people stand up for what they believe, they will also come to believe what they have stood up for

Changing Attitudes Foot-in-the-Door Technique (Lowballing) Asking for small favors first to induce persuasion Experimental group asked to put a 3 inch square sign ("Be a safe driver”) in their house window Control group not offered this request Both groups asked to place a large ugly billboard reading, "Drive Carefully” on their front lawn 17% of control group allowed sign 76% of experimental group agreed when they had first complied with smaller request

Door-in-the-Face Technique Changing Attitudes Door-in-the-Face Technique Unrealistically high initial request, is followed by a more reasonable secondary request Norm of Reciprocity If I give something to you, you are obligated to give me something back

Wrap-up: Shuman Psych Challenge You will be assigned to a group where you must try to change the attitude of someone else See the handout provided