1. Chapter 6 Attitudes

2. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.6 | 2 What is an Attitude? A positive, negative, or mixed evaluation of a person, object, or idea expressed at some level of intensity.

3. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.6 | 3 Figure 6.1: Four Possible Reactions to Attitude Objects Cacciopo, et al. 1997

4. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.6 | 4 Researchers can tell if someone has a positive or negative attitude by measuring physiological arousal. Answer: False… Let’s see why! Putting Common Sense to the Test…

5. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.6 | 5 How Attitudes Are Measured: Self-Report Measures Attitude Scale: A multiple-item questionnaire designed to measure a person’s attitude toward some object. –e.g., Likert Scale Bogus Pipeline: A phony lie-detector device that is sometimes used to get respondents to give truthful answers to sensitive questions.

6. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.6 | 6 How Attitudes Are Measured: Covert Measures Observable behavior Facial Electromyograph (EMG): An electronic instrument that records facial muscle activity associated with emotions and attitudes.

7. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.6 | 7 How Attitudes Are Measured: The Implicit Association Test (IAT) Based on notion that we have implicit attitudes. –Attitudes that one is not aware of having Implicit Association Test (IAT): Measures the speed with which one responds to pairings of concepts.

8. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.6 | 8 Figure 6.2: The Facial EMG: A Covert Measure of Attitudes? From Cacioppo, J.T., and Petty, R.E. (1981). Electromyograms as measures of extent and affectivity of information processing. American Psychologist, 36, 441-456. Copyright © 1981 by the American Psychological Association. Reprinted with permission.

9. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.6 | 9 Figure 6.3: The Implicit Association Test (IAT) From Essentials of Psychology by Saul Kassin, Copyright © 2004. Reprinted by permission of Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ.

10. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.6 | 10 The Link Between Attitudes and Behavior Is the assumption that attitudes influence behavior a valid one? –LaPiere’s (1934) provocative but flawed study –Wicker’s (1969) conclusion that attitudes and behavior are only weakly correlated Kraus (1995): “Attitudes significantly and substantially predict future behavior.”

11. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.6 | 11 Figure 6.4: Theory of Planned Behavior Reprinted from Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Vol. 50, Professor Ajzen, pp. 179-211. Copyright (c) 1991, with permission from Elsevier.

12. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.6 | 12 Strength of the Attitude Why do some attitudes have more influence on behavior? –Depends on attitude’s importance or strength Why are some attitudes stronger than others? –Because of our genetic make-up?

13. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.6 | 13 Psychological Factors Influencing Attitude Strength Does it directly affect one’s own outcomes and self-interests? Is it related to deeply held philosophical, political, and religious values? Is it of concern to one’s close friends, family, and social ingroups?

14. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.6 | 14 Factors That Indicate the Strength of an Attitude How well informed is the person? How was the information on which the attitude is based acquired? Has the attitude been attacked? How accessible is the attitude to awareness?

15. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.6 | 15 Persuasion By Communication

16. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.6 | 16 In reacting to persuasive communications, people are influenced more by superficial images than by logical arguments. Answer: False… Let’s see why! Putting Common Sense to the Test…

17. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.6 | 17 Two Routes to Persuasion Central Route: Person thinks carefully about a message. –Influenced by the strength and quality of the message Peripheral Route: Person does not think critically about the contents of a message. –Influenced by superficial cues

18. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.6 | 18 The Central Route Hovland et al.: Persuaded when we attend to, comprehend, and retain in memory an argument. McGuire: Distinguished between the reception of a message and its later acceptance. Greenwald: Elaboration is an important, intermediate step.

19. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.6 | 19 The Central Route (cont.) Assumption that the recipients are attentive, active, critical, and thoughtful. –Assumption is correct only some of the time. –When it is correct, the persuasiveness of the message depends on the strength of the message’s content. The central route is a thoughtful process. –But not necessarily an objective one

20. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.6 | 20 The Peripheral Route People are persuaded on the basis of superficial, peripheral cues. –Message is evaluated through the use of simple- minded heuristics. People are also influenced by attitude-irrelevant factors.

21. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.6 | 21 Figure 6.5: Two Routes to Persuasion

22. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.6 | 22 What Makes an Effective Source? Believable sources must be credible sources. To be seen as credible, the source must have two distinct characteristics: –Competence or expertise –Trustworthiness

23. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.6 | 23 What Makes an Effective Source? (cont.) How likable is the communicator? Two factors influence a source’s likability: –The similarity between the source and the audience –The physical attractiveness of the source

24. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.6 | 24 Table 6.1: Whom Do You Trust?

25. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.6 | 25 Chaiken (1979)

26. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.6 | 26 Is the Source More Important Than the Message? It depends… How personally relevant is the message for the recipient?

27. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.6 | 27 Figure 6.6: Source Versus Message: The Role of Audience Involvement Petty, Cacioppo, & Goldman, 1981

28. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.6 | 28 Figure 6.7: The Sleeper Effect

29. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.6 | 29 What Makes an Effective Message? How should the argument be presented to maximize its strength? Are longer messages better? –If peripheral, the longer the message, the more valid it must be. –If central, message length is a two-edged sword. Does presentation order matter?

30. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.6 | 30 Table 6.2: Effects of Presentation Order and Timing on Persuasion

31. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.6 | 31 What Makes an Effective Message? (cont.) How discrepant should the message be to have the greatest impact? –The most change is produced at moderate amounts of discrepancy. –An “upside-down U” relationship between discrepancy and persuasion.

32. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.6 | 32 What Makes an Effective Message? (cont.) Should the message use fear appeals or scare tactics? –How strong is the argument? –Does the message contain reassuring advice? Are appeals to positive emotions effective? –People are “soft touches” when they are in a good mood.

33. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.6 | 33 Why Might Positive Feelings Activate the Peripheral Route? A positive emotional state is cognitively distracting, impairing ability to think critically. When in a good mood, we assume all is well and become lazy processors of information. When happy, we become motivated not to spoil the mood by thinking critically about new information.

34. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.6 | 34 People are most easily persuaded by commercial messages that are presented without their awareness. Answer: False… Let’s see why! Putting Common Sense to the Test…

35. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.6 | 35 Subliminal Messages Can subliminal messages influence behavior? We do perceive subliminal cues. –But the cues will not persuade to take action unless one is already motivated to do so.

36. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.6 | 36 Figure 6.8: Subliminal Influence Strahan et al., 2002.

37. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.6 | 37 Audience Factors Very few people are consistently easy or difficult to persuade. People differ in extent to which they become involved and take the central route. –Need for Cognition: How much does one enjoy effortful cognitive activities?

38. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.6 | 38 Table 6.3: Need for Cognition Scale Copyright © 1982 by the American Psychological Association. Reproduced with permission. From J.T. Cacioppo and R.E. Petty "The Need for Cognition," Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 42, 116-131, 1982. No further reproduction or distribution is permitted without written permission from the American Psychological Association. Note, instructors are permitted to use the requested materials to create an in-class presentation (to address in greater depth topics presented in the textbook). Instructors may distribute paper copies of the materials to students (one copy per student) if necessary. However, no electronic reproduction or distribution is permitted.

39. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.6 | 39 Figure 6.9: Informational and Image- Oriented Ads: The Role of Self-Monitoring From J.M. Snyder and K.G. DeBono (1985) "Appeals to Image and Claims About Quality: Understanding the Psychology of Advertising," Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 49, 586-597. Copyright (c) 1985 by the American Psychological Association. Adapted with permission.

40. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.6 | 40 Audience Factors (cont.) To what extent does the message meet the psychological needs of the audience? Cultural factors play a subtle but important role. –e.g., individualistic vs. collectivistic messages

41. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.6 | 41 Table 6.4: Strategies for Resisting Persuasion

42. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.6 | 42 Audience Factors (cont.) Has the audience been forewarned? Advanced knowledge allows time to develop counterarguments. –Inoculation hypothesis Being forewarned elicits a motivational reaction. –Psychological reactance Effects of forewarning depends on personal importance of message.

43. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.6 | 43 Persuasion by Our Own Actions

44. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.6 | 44 Role Playing: All the World’s a Stage What happens when we engage in attitude- discrepant behavior? Why does role-playing lead to enduring attitude change? Why can changes in behavior lead to changes in attitude?

45. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.6 | 45 Putting Common Sense to the Test… The more money you pay people to tell a lie, the more they will come to believe it. Answer: False… Let’s see why!

46. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.6 | 46 Cognitive Dissonance Theory: The Classic Version We are motivated by a desire for cognitive consistency. Cognitive Dissonance Theory: Inconsistent cognitions arouse psychological tension that people become motivated to reduce. –Can lead to irrational and sometimes maladaptive behavior

47. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.6 | 47 Table 6.5: Ways to Reduce Dissonance Insert table 6.5, p. 208, 7/e

48. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.6 | 48 Figure 6.10: The Dissonance Classic From L. Festinger and J.M. Carlsmith, "Cognitive Consequences of Forced Compliance," Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 58, 203-210, 1959. Copyright © 1959 by the American Psychological Association. Reprinted with permission.

49. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.6 | 49 Justifying Attitude-Discrepant Behavior Subjects experienced cognitive dissonance because they had insufficient justification for lying. Contributions of Festinger & Carlsmith’s classic study: –Showed the phenomenon of self-persuasion –Contradicted the accepted belief that big rewards produce greater change

50. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.6 | 50 Justifying Attitude- Discrepant Behavior (cont.) Mild punishment is insufficient deterrence for attitude-discrepant nonbehavior. –The less severe the threatened punishment, the greater the attitude change produced.

51. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.6 | 51 Putting Common Sense to the Test… People often come to like what they suffer for. Answer: True… Let’s see why!

52. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.6 | 52 Justifying Effort: Coming to Like What We Suffer For We alter our attitudes to justify our suffering. Aronson & Mills’ (1959) “embarrassment test” study The more we pay for something, the more we will come to like it.

53. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.6 | 53 Justifying Difficult Decisions: When Good Choices Get Even Better Whenever we make difficult decisions, we feel dissonance. We rationalize the correctness of our decision by exaggerating: –The positive features of the chosen alternative –The negative features of the unchosen alternative

54. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.6 | 54 Figure 6.11: Necessary Conditions for the Arousal and Reduction of Dissonance

55. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.6 | 55 Alternative Routes to Self-Persuasion Self-Perception Theory: Self-persuasion through observation of own behavior. Impression Management Theory: What matters is not a motive to be consistent but rather a motive to appear consistent. Self-Affirmation Theory: Dissonance situations create a threat to the self.

56. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.6 | 56 Figure 6.12: When Self-Affirmation Fails Galinsky et al., 2000.

57. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.6 | 57 Figure 6.13: Theories of Self- Persuasion: Critical Comparisons