Module 43 Attitudes and Social Cognition Chapter 14 Essentials of Understanding Psychology- Sixth Edition PSY110 Psychology © Richard Goldman June 18, 2006

Persuasion: Changing Attitudes Attitude – Learned evaluation of a:  Person,  Behavior  Belief  Thing Persuasion – Process of changing attitudes

Effective Factors Used to Change Attitudes Message Source (the attitude communicator)  Physically attractive  Socially attractive  Expert  Trustworthy Characteristic of the Message  Two-sided messages  Fear producing Characteristics of the Target  Less intelligent  Public settings – Women  Private settings – Men

Reception to Persuasion How do people consider an argument?  Central Route Processing Thoughtful consideration of the issues and arguments Involved and motivated recipient Strongest, longest lasting attitude change  Peripheral Route Processing Influenced by the presenter on other factors not related to the issue (Flash, sexy, cool, etc.) Uninvolved, distracted, bored recipient

The Link between Attitudes and Behavior What we believe strongly influences what we do Cognitive Dissonance  Holding two contradictory attitudes at the same time  We strive to reduce cognitive dissonance by: Modifying one or both of the cognitions Changing the perceived importance of one of the cognitions Adding cognitions Denying that the cognition are related to each other

Social Cognition The process of understanding others and ourselves Schemas  Sets of cognitions about people and social experiences  Use to help categorize other and predict behavior

Impression Formation Organizing information about another Central traits – major traits considered in forming impressions (assign to a personal schema) Once assigned to a schema we attribute all of the traits of that schema to the person

Attribution Processes Understanding the (rational) causes of behavior  Situational – Based on external factors  Dispositional – Based on the way we are Bias  Halo Effect – If we know that someone has some good traits we expect the all of his traits are good  Assumed-similarity – Other believe or think like you  Self-serving – We succeed because of our efforts and fail because of other  Fundamental Attribution Error – Overestimation of dispositional cause and underestimation of situational causes (pervasive in West not East)