Attitudes Does what we think predict what we do, or does what we do affect what we think?

Attitudes and Actions Attitudes: Feelings, often influenced by our beliefs, that predispose us to respond in a particular way to objects, people and events If you believe that someone is threatening how would you react? Defensive? Scared? Angry?

Enjoyment Rating You volunteer to participate in a psychology experiment. On arrival, you sit at a table and are asked to undertake a series of dull, meaningless tasks for approximately an hour. Afterward, the experimenter convinces you to write an essay about the virtues of the tasks you had performed by describing them as highly worthwhile, interesting, and educational. You were paid either $1 or $20 to do this. You are 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? Why?

ACTUAL RESULTS!!!!! Osberg reports that almost all students will intuitively indicate the $20 payment. Finally, report that Festinger and Carlsmith found that those receiving $1 rated the tasks as more enjoyable than those paid $20. Explain that the authors used the concept of cognitive dissonance to explain this finding. Those who received only $1 presumably had insufficient justification for their behavior, which led to dissonance, which, in turn, produced a change in attitude about the tasks

Cognitive Dissonance Theory We act to reduce the discomfort (dissonance) we feel when two of our thoughts (cognitions) or our thought and actions are inconsistent. When our awareness of our attitudes and actions clash we can reduce dissonance by changing our attitudes. Leon Festinger The teacher was really bad so in that class it is OK. You have a belief that cheating on tests is bad. We act so as to reduce dissonance. When there's a contradiction in our heads we're not happy and will take steps to make the contradiction go away. Festinger’s Study: Participants perform a boring task. “Can you tell the next person how much you enjoyed it?” IV: $1 vs. $20 DV: “So, how much did you really enjoy it?” Those paid $1 found the task much more enjoyable than those paid $20. (due to the increased tension set up by the dissonance of “selling” the idea that the task was enjoyable for 20 dollars) -- Festinger & Carlsmith (1959) For example, when people smoke (behavior) and they know that smoking causes cancer (cognition). Festinger's (1957) cognitive dissonance theory suggests that we have an inner drive to hold all our attitudes and beliefs in harmony and avoid disharmony (or dissonance). But you cheat on a test!!!

What is this an example of? Oh dear this is good. Eating fast food is unhealthy & foolish Fast Food is Awesome! What is this an example of? When our behavior doesn’t follow our attitudes, we begin to experience anxiety. How can we believe in one thing, then do the opposite? The anxiety or tension we feel is called dissonance. In Cognitive Dissonance theory, we change our attitudes to agree with our behavior. It’s just internal rationalization, so we don’t feel hypocritical. Burt says eating fast food is foolish. But after he finds himself loving delicious burgers and fries, he changes his attitude. Fast food is awesome. We do it all the time: After we buy a product, we convince ourselves that we made the right choice because the product is excellent. If we fail to lose the weight we wanted to, we decide that we look good anyway. If we hurt someone else‘s feelings, we may even decide that he or she is a bad person who deserves our negative behavior. To escape from feeling poorly about themselves, people will engage in quite extraordinary rationalizing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnZGAHuw3Wg

Talk to a neighbor and come up with your own example of cognitive dissonance that you have experienced.

Is this an example of central route or peripheral route to persuasion?

Foot in the door This is an example of? Bart complied with his friends’ request to join them in smashing decorative pumpkins early one Halloween evening. Later that night he was surprised by his own failure to resist their pressures to throw eggs at passing police cars. Foot in the door

Foot-in-the door phenomenon: Door-in-the-face phenomenon The tendency for people who say no to a huge request, to comply with a smaller one. Foot-in-the door phenomenon: The tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later to a larger request. Foot in the door Tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request

Actions Affect Attitudes Role-Playing affects attitudes Role = A set of expectations (norms) about a social position, defining how those in the position ought to behave. Eventually we become the role

Zimbardo’s Prison Study Philip Zimbardo has students at Stanford U play the roles of prisoner and prison guards in the basement of psychology building. They were given uniforms and numbers for each prisoner. What do you think happened?

Role Playing Affects Attitudes The study found that guards and prisoners developed role- appropriate attitudes. Showed how we deindividuation AND become the roles we are given. Originally published in the New Yorker Phillip G. Zimbardo, Inc. SITUATIONS have TREMENDOUS effects on identify https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZwfNs1pqG0

How does being in a group change the way we behave? Social Influence How does being in a group change the way we behave?

Mimicry & Copycats Bomb threats last year Humans are natural mimics Yawns, laughs, look up….eventually others will follow (Chimps, too) Columbine High School Shootings, 1999 Every state, except Vermont, experienced copycat violence Cluster suicides Bomb threats last year

Conformity Adjusting one’s behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard. Why do we do it? To be accepted, liked or just to fit in or to avoid feeling silly Chameleon Effect Humans natural tendency to mimic others behavior has been coined the chameleon effect. We unconsciously mock others expressions, postures, and voice tones.

Conformity Solomon Asch (1955) The Asch Effect The tendency for people to conform, even if they are aware they are incorrect More than 1/3rd of Asch’s subjects chose to follow actor’s incorrect answers Having social support is an important tool in combating conformity

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qA-gbpt7Ts8

An illegally parked car… Will give permission for others to park illegally as well!

Conditions That Strengthen Conformity When one is made to feel incompetent or insecure. The group has at least three people. The group is unanimous…the dissent of just one other person greatly increases social courage. When one admires the groups status and attractiveness. When one has made no prior commitment to any response. Others in the group observe one’s behavior. Ones culture strongly encourages respect fro social standards.

Normative Social Influence = influence resulting from a persons desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval. Informational Social Influence = influence resulting from one’s willingness to accept others opinions about reality.

“I thought all the other traffic was going the wrong way.” A woman who drove the wrong way for 30 miles on a motorway has been banned from driving for five years.

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Stanley Milgram Experiment Obedience Compliance of a behavior in response to a direct command from a person in authority Stanley Milgram Experiment What they were told: studying effects of punishment on learning Stanley wanted to study whether participants would give shocks to others if they were told by an authority figure The experiment: Participants were to shock the learner each time they made a mistake Predicted that most people would stop soon after the first indication of pain. 63% of the participants went all the way to the last shock. https://youtu.be/xOYLCy5PVgM?t=58s

“The most fundamental lesson of our study is that ordinary people, simply doing their jobs, and without any particular hostility on their part, can become agents in a terrible destructive process…” – Stanley Milgram

Conditions That Strengthen the Influence of Obedience Person giving orders was close at hand and appeared to be a legitimate authority figure. When the authority figure is supported by a prestigious institution. When the victim was depersonalized or at a distance. There are no role models for defiance.