1 Mark: Strongly disagree/ disagree/ neutral/ agree/ strongly agree zWorld hunger is a serious problem that needs attention zOur country needs to address the growing number of homeless people zThe right to vote is one of the most valuable rights of US citizens zOur government should spend less money on nuclear weapons and more on helping citizens better their lives.

2 Indicate whether or not you regularly perform the stated behaviors zI personally donate money or write my representative to do something about world hunger zI volunteer in a homeless shelter or donate money to organizations that help the homeless. zI voted in the last election (if eligible) zI write to my representative or participate in protests to convey my feelings about nuclear weapons

3 Attitudes zWhat is an attitude? yBelief, opinion with evaluative component yFunctions? zCognitive dissonance theory yFestinger ywe we need our attitudes to be consistent with our behavior yit is uncomfortable for us when they aren’t ywe seek ways to decrease discomfort caused by inconsistency

4 Dissonance-reducing Mechanisms zAvoiding dissonant information ywe attend to information in support of our existing views, rather than information that doesn’t support them ySweeney & Gruber (1973) Watergate study zFirming up an attitude to be consistent with an action yset aside doubts/ uncertainty, become more confident after decision yeffect of investing great effort, cost

5 Dissonance-reducing Mechanisms zChanging an attitude to justify an action ywhen a person does something counter to their stated beliefs, then justify the deed by modifying their attitude yInsufficient-justification effect xchange in attitude that occurs because person cannot justify an already completed action without modifying attitude xoptimizing conditions include external justification, free choice, when action would cause harm

6 Insufficient-justification effect zFestinger & Carlsmith (1959) ygave subjects a boring task, then asked subjects to lie to the next subject and say the experiment was exciting ypaid ½ the subjects $1, other ½ $20 ythen asked subjects to rate boringness of task y$1 group rated the task as far more fun than the $20 group yeach group needed a justification for lying x$20 group had an external justification of money xsince $1 isn’t very much money, $1 group said task was fun

7 Using Attitudes as Ways to “Justify” Injustice zJust-world bias ya tendency to believe that life is fair xit would seem horrible to think that you can be a really good person and bad things could happen to you anyway zJust-world bias leads to “blaming the victim” ywe explain others’ misfortunes as being their fault xe.g., she deserved to be raped, what was she doing in that neighborhood anyway?

8 Summary zPerceiving & evaluating others ywhen we’re accurate, when we’re not zAttributions yperson vs. situation attributions ythe person bias yactor-observer discrepancy yeffects of prior information yeffects of physical appearance

9 Summary zStereotypes ywhat are they? yhow do we study them? yImplicit stereotypes zSelf-fulfilling prophecy effects zAttitudes ycognitive dissonance theory ydissonance-reducing mechanisms ythe insufficient-justification effect ythe just-world bias & blaming the victim