Attitudes and Attitude Change

What are attitudes? Attitudes are made up of three parts that together form our evaluation of the “attitude object”: 1.An affective component 2.A cognitive component 3.A behavioral component Explicit versus Implicit Attitudes

Where do attitudes come from? Nature? –Identical twins share more attitudes than fraternal twins, even when raised in different homes, never knowing each other. Why? Nuture? –Our social experiences clearly play a large role in shaping our attitudes. Why?

Attitude Change and Persuasion Elaboration Likelihood Model An explanation of the two ways in which persuasive communications can cause attitude change: Centrallymotivated abilityCentrally, when people are motivated and have the ability to pay attention to the arguments in the communication. peripherally surfaceperipherally, when people do not pay attention to the arguments but are instead swayed by surface characteristics, such as credibility of source, attractiveness of source, trustworthiness of source…

The story of Robert Cialdini Psychology Professor at Arizona State Left campus for a three-year project going undercover to explore first-hand real-world influence techniques Wrote famous book – Influence: the Psychology of Persuasion Highly paid speaker/consultant

6 principles: #1 Authority (Milgram) #2 Commitment/Consistency (Foot-in-the-door) #3 Liking (halo effect) #4 Reciprocation (door-in-the-face) #5 Scarcity (limited time offer) #6 Social Proof (uncertainty) #7 Emotion (positive and negative)

Can we resist these influences? Authority Consistency Liking Reciprocation Scarcity Social Proof Emotion Is this person an expert, truthful? Would I react same without initial commitment? Do I like this product, or the person selling it? Do I feel a “need” to reciprocate, and why? Would I want this product if not scarce? Is what the others are doing right for me? Would I respond differently without emotion?

Resisting Persuasion Inoculation -Inoculation - a technique for increasing individuals' resistance to an argument by first giving them weak, easily defeated versions of it Reactance theory –Reactance theory – if feel freedom is threatened, then reduce threat by engaging in the threatened behavior