1. Attitudes and Attitude Change
Chapter 5
Attitudes and Attitude Change

2. Attitudes
Attitudes are evaluative responses to stimuli

3. Attitudes They are based on “ABC” information affective component
the person’s emotions and affect towards the object
behavioral component
how person tends to act towards the object
cognitive component
consists of thoughts and beliefs the person has about the object
These are not always highly related to each other.

4. Attitudes
Attitudes are often cognitively complex but evaluatively simple.
Attitudes make it possible to access related information and to make decisions quickly.
Attitudes are one determinant of behavior but not the only one; conversely behavior also determines attitudes.

5. Theories of Attitudes Learning Approach Consistency Approach
Expectancy-Value Approach
Cognitive Approach

6. Theories of Attitudes The learning approach
Yale Attitude Change program (Hovland et al., 1950s)
Attitudes are acquired in the same way as other habits:
association
reinforcement and punishment
imitation.

7. Theories of Attitudes
Transfer of affect involves transferring emotions from one object (e.g., a sexy model) to another (e.g., the car the model is standing by).

8. Theories of Attitudes Evaluation of Learning Approach:
The learning approach views people as passive recipients of external forces.
Message learning is critical to this perspective but memory is uncorrelated with attitude change.
This model appears to work well when people are unfamiliar with the material.

9. Theories of Attitudes
Cognitive consistency approaches depict people as striving for coherence and meaning in their cognitions.

10. Theories of Attitudes
Heider’s balance theory considers the consistency between evaluations in a simple system
the mutual evaluations of two people towards each other, and of each towards an attitude object.

11. Theories of Attitudes
Balance among such a system exists when all evaluations are positive, or when one is positive and two are negative.
Imbalance exists when one, or all three, evaluations are negative.
Imbalanced systems are unstable, and the system will tend to change into a balanced one, generally by changing as few elements as possible.

12. Theories of Attitudes Evaluation of Balance Theory”
Research generally supports predictions.
However, balance pressures are much weaker when we dislike a person than when we like him or her.

13. Theories of Attitudes
Cognitive dissonance theory (Festinger, 1957) is concerned with discrepancies between people’ s attitudes and their behaviors.
Dissonance is an aversive motivational state that results when our behavior is inconsistent with our attitudes
It is greatest when the attitudes and behavior are important to the self.
Dissonance creates psychological tension that people are motivated to reduce.

14. Theories of Attitudes Three ways of reducing dissonance
changing our behavior (often difficult)
trivializing the dissonance
changing the attitude.

15. Theories of Attitudes
Decision making usually arouses dissonance that is resolved by increasing liking for the chosen alternative and decreasing liking for the non-chosen alternative.

16. Theories of Attitudes
Brehm (1956) had students rank several common products and were then given a choice of what to keep between two.
High dissonance condition: choice between two closely ranked alternatives
Low dissonance condition: choice between a high-ranked and a low-ranked alternative
No-dissonance condition: students were simply given a product.
When asked to re-rate their preferences, only students in the high dissonance condition increased their rating for the product they had been given.

17. Theories of Attitudes
Dissonance can occur when we commit ourselves to a single course of action.
Festinger and his colleagues documented the behavior of members of a doomsday cult.
When the world failed to end as had been predicted, cult members claimed that their faith had helped save the world and began active recruiting. Finding additional supporters helped justify their original behavior.

18. Theories of Attitudes
Attitude-discrepant behavior (counter-attitudinal behavior) also induces dissonance, which is typically relieved by changing the attitude (since behaviors are difficult to “undo.”)

19. Theories of Attitudes Insufficient Justification
The less incentive one has for performing a counterattitudinal behavior, the more dissonance is experienced.

20. Theories of Attitudes
Factors increasing dissonance for performing counterattitudinal behavior
Small threat of punishment
Behavior is freely chosen
There is an irrevocable commitment
Negative consequences were foreseeable
Person feels responsible for consequences
Effort is expended

21. Theories of Attitudes
Bem’s self-perception theory argues that we infer our attitudes from our behavior and the circumstances in which this behavior occurs.

22. Theories of Attitudes
Self-perception theory and cognitive dissonance theory make similar predictions but for different reasons.
Both theories may be correct:
Self-perception theory seems more applicable when people are unfamiliar with the issues or the issues are vague, minor, or uninvolving
Cognitive dissonance theory seems more applicable to explaining people’s behavior concerning controversial, engaging, and enduring issues.

23. Theories of Attitudes
Consistency seems to be a more important concern in Western cultures than elsewhere.

24. Subjective Utility = Expectancy x Value
Theories of Attitudes
Expectancy-value theory assumes that people develop an attitude based on their thoughtful assessment of pros and cons:
Subjective Utility = Expectancy x Value
Expectancy-value theory treats people as calculating, active, rational decision-makers.

25. Theories of Attitudes Dual Processing Theories
People process a message systematically when they have both the motivation and the ability to do so; when they do not have the motivation or the ability, they process messages heuristically.

26. Theories of Attitudes
Cognitive response theory seeks to understand attitude change by understanding the thoughts (“cognitive responses”) people produce in response to persuasive communications.
This theory assumes that people are active processors of information and generate cognitive responses to messages.

27. Theories of Attitudes
Attitude change depends on how much and what kind of counter-arguing a message triggers.
Persuasion can be induced by interfering with a person’s ability to counter-argue.

28. Theories of Attitudes
Petty and Cacioppo’s elaboration likelihood model draws a key distinction
The central route to persuasion involves detailed information processing and evaluation of arguments
The peripheral route to persuasion involves reliance on superficial cues without thoughtful consideration of the arguments.

29. Theories of Attitudes People use the central route when they are
involved in the issue
concerned about accuracy
aware that others are trying to change their attitudes.
People are more likely to use the peripheral route when they are
uninvolved in the issue
distracted by the source or context
overloaded with other things to do.

30. Theories of Attitudes
Chaiken has similarly distinguished systematic processing (careful review and consideration of arguments) from heuristic processing (using simple decision rules).
However, systematic processing does not always give the right answer; defensive motivations can lead to processing that is extremely biased.

31. Persuasion
The more favorably people evaluate the communicator, the more favorably they are apt to evaluate the communication.
This idea reflects transfer of affect.

32. Persuasion
Several aspects of a communicator affect whether he or she is evaluated favorably.
Credibility
Expertise
Trustworthiness
Liking

33. Persuasion
We are persuaded by the opinions of our reference groups, those we like or identify with.
This occurs both because of the motivational factors of liking and perceived similarity, and because messages from in-groups are more likely to be processed using the central route.

34. Persuasion
Source derogation involves deciding the source is unreliable or negative in some way. It can make all future as well as current arguments from that source less powerful.

35. Persuasion
The message content clearly influences whether or not people will accept it.

36. Persuasion
The greater the discrepancy between the listener’s position and the message presented, the greater the potential for change.
Attitude Change
Discrepancy

37. Persuasion
Sources who are more credible can advocate more discrepant opinions successfully.
For example, Bochner and Insko (1966) presented participants with a message on the number of nightly hours of sleep required
The message ostensibly came either from a Nobel Prize winner or a YMCA instructor.
The YMCA instructor produced the most change when advocating three hours sleep; the Nobel Prize winner, when advocating only one.

38. Persuasion
When message discrepancy is low, it is assimilated into the audience’s opinion (perceived as closer than it really is)
When message discrepancy is high, it is seen as even further away (message contrast).
Discrepancy may be reduced by distorting or misperceiving the message, or even rejecting it altogether.

39. Persuasion
People are most affected by the strength of arguments when they are motivated to pay attention and able to think carefully about them (central route processing).

40. Persuasion
When people are not motivated or able to think about message content, peripheral cues become important in determining attitude change.
source characteristics
message length
number of arguments

41. Persuasion
Repetition and familiarity tend to increase liking, but only up to a point.
Repetition may help people process strong arguments more completely but expose the flaws in weak arguments.
Repetition may lead to tedium; this can be dealt with by having ads that provide slight variations on a theme.

42. Persuasion
Matching the Persuasive Message to the Nature of the Attitude
Attitudes that are highly emotional may be more easily changed by emotional appeals.
Messages that address the functional basis of an attitude (what the attitude does for the person) may be more persuasive.

43. Persuasion
Attitudes that are high in ego involvement are resistant to change.
Kinds of ego involvement include
Commitment
Issue Involvement
Response Involvement

44. Persuasion
People high in authoritarianism or dogmatism (closed-mindedness)
tend to respond to the expertise of the source first and to argument strength only when the source is non-expert.
People who are high in the need for closure
typically more resistant to persuasion.

45. Persuasion Aggression Arousal Fear Arousal
Personal frustrations may make a person more vulnerable to persuasive communications advocating aggressive actions.
Fear Arousal
Fear usually increases the effectiveness of a persuasive appeal, but if too much fear is aroused, the effect may be disruptive.
Fear appeals are more effective if they not only arouse fear but also provide information about how to reduce the fear.

46. Persuasion
People committed to an attitude position who are forewarned of an attempt to change their attitudes will be more resistant to persuasion
They can generate more counterarguments.
Those who are not committed to an attitude position are actually more likely to change their attitudes after a forewarning.

47. Persuasion
Distraction makes it harder to counter-argue and thus tends to enhance the effectiveness of a persuasive message.
Too much distraction, however, will prevent a message from being heard at all and will reduce persuasion to zero.

48. Persuasion
McGuire suggested that inoculation (building resistance to persuasion by arguing against weak forms of a persuasive argument) helps people resist persuasion.

49. Attitude Change over Time
Thinking about an attitude object tends to make the attitude more extreme
thinking allows people to generate more consistent attitudes (if they have a preexisting schema for the issue).

50. Attitude Change over Time
The sleeper effect refers to a rebound in persuasiveness of messages delivered by low-credibility sources.
separation in memory of the source and the message
Separation in memory of the message and discounting cues

51. Attitudes and Behavior
First study of attitude-behavior consistency:
La Piere (1934) toured the United States with a Chinese couple, stopping at hotels and restaurants along the way.
They were refused service at only one establishment.
However, 92% of the institutions later said in a letter that they would refuse to accept Chinese people as guests.

52. Attitudes and Behavior
Later studies have shown higher degrees of attitude-behavior consistency
especially for attitudes that are
stable
important
certain
consistent between cognition and affect
easily accessed
formed through direct experience

53. Attitudes and Behavior
Strong attitudes are typically
stable,
personally relevant,
held about personally important issues about which one feels extreme and certain.
They are often “embedded” or tied to other beliefs.
They are often formed through direct experience and become highly accessible as a result.

54. Attitudes and Behavior
Stable attitudes that are accessible in memory are most likely to predict behavior

55. Attitudes and Behavior
Maximum attitude-behavior consistency occurs when attitudes and behaviors are measured at about the same time.
Longer time intervals diminish attitude-behavior correlations because attitudes, people, and situations change.

56. Attitudes and Behavior
Attitudes that are more accessible in memory influence behavior more strongly.
Attitudes that are expressed more frequently are more accessible and tend to become more extreme.

57. Attitudes and Behavior
Attitudes are often automatically activated when the attitude object is present.
We may have a pervasive tendency to non-consciously classify most stimuli as good or bad, and almost immediately tend to approach or avoid them.

58. Attitudes and Behavior
The more relevant an attitude is to a behavior, the more attitude-behavior consistency there will be.

59. Attitudes and Behavior
In most situations, several attitudes are relevant to behavior. The attitude that is most salient is most likely to influence behavior
especially when the attitude is not a strong one.

60. Attitudes and Behavior
When an attitude is based heavily on affect, persuasive appeals to emotion are more successful
When attitudes are based more on cognition, cognitively based appeals are more successful.

61. Attitudes and Behavior
Wilson and his colleagues have found that introspecting about the reasons one likes or dislikes an attitude object can disrupt attitude-behavior consistency
Causes the attitude temporarily to change.
Especially true for attitudes that have little cognitive support.

62. Attitudes and Behavior
When situational pressures are strong, attitudes (especially weak attitudes) are not as strong determinants of behavior.
People sometimes have completely different attitudes towards the same attitude object in different situations.
For example, Minard (1952) found that white coal miners treated black coworkers as equals in the mines but as social inferiors in the outside world.

63. The Reasoned Action Model
The model has been widely used to predict a variety of behaviors.
E.g., birth control use, decision to breast feed

64. The Reasoned Action Model
The theory of planned behavior adds an additional variable to the model:
Perceived behavior control = people’s belief in their ability to control their outcomes.
Other factors not included in the model may also be important:
external constraints and opportunities,
fear
habit