attitudes

Definition of Attitude

Originally meant as indicating physical properties such as a position of the body, figure, or statue. Later, in aeronautics, it refers to orientation of an aircraft relative to the horizon.

• Leaning

• Stance

• Position

• Direction

A more current definition of attitude ---

A psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degree of favor or disfavor *

* From: Eagley and Chaiken (1993). The Psychology of Attitudes.

Components of Attitudes

A) Affective (Emotional)

B) Behavioral

C) Cognitive (Thinking)

Evaluation

Process

Stimuli

Observable Inferred

Attitude

Cognition

Affect

Behavior

Observable

WHO

CommunicatorVariables

Examples:

Credibility

Attractiveness

Status

MessageVariables

Examples:

Single personal example

versus factual

Fear appeals

One-sided versustwo-sidedarguments

Repetition

AudienceVariables

Examples:

Knowledge

Personality(e.g., self-esteem)

Pre-existingattitudes

Gender

Basic factors that influence persuasion

What To Whom

Text (in favor of fluoride)

versus

Factual approach

Emotional approach

Campaign For and Against Adding Fluoride to Drinking Water

(Against fluoride)

Don’t Put Rat Poison in Your Drinking Water

Which approach would be the most effective?Which approach would be the most effective?

Text (in favor of energy

conservation in homes)

Campaign to Make Homes More Energy Efficient

Factual approach

Emotional approach

Which approach would be the most effective?Which approach would be the most effective?

Fear Appeals

Do they work?

Create a lot of fear in the message (within ethical

limits)

Give audience additional information on how to deal with their fear (e.g., where to go, when, why)

Self-esteem

Personal relevance

Perception of control

Influence of other factors

Examples of Fear Mesages

Drunk driving

Drug Use

Seat Belt Use

Skin Cancer

Condom Use

• Odds of negative outcome (low)

• Time frame may be long between behavior and negative outcome

• Abiliity fo control behavior (e.g., habit, addiction)

Why May They Not Work?

Traditional Persuasion Techniques

A) Greater rewards lead to more responses

B) Greater punishment leads to less responses

C) Use of "credible" sources (experts, authority figures)

D) Use of conformity paradigms (e.g., Asch, Sherif)

Some Weaknesses of Traditional Persuasion Approachs

A) Effects not very strong

B) Short-term effects

C) Limited to less important issues

THEORY OF COGNITIVE DISSONANCE (1957) BASIC HYPOTHESIS

The existence of dissonance, being psychologically uncomfortable, will motivate the

person to try and reduce the dissonance and achieve consonance

Attitude Behavior inconsistent

with the attitude

Creation of dissonance

Leon Festinger

Some Options

1) Change behavior (e.g., Throw pack away)

2) Change cognitions (e.g., “Smoking isn’t all that bad”; “I don’t really smoke that much”)

3) Add supporting cognitions (e.g., “ Smoking relaxes me” “it helps me think better”

Attitude: “I’m not going to smoke cigarettes anymore”) Behavior: Smoke cigarettes

COGNITIVE DISSONANCEFESTINGER & CARLSMITH (1$ - $20 Study)

Perform boring task

Asked to tell participant that the task was interesting

$1

$20Rate task

• Which group rated the task as more interesting after lying, those paid $1 or $20?Key is lack of sufficient external justification for one’s behavior

“TOY” STUDY

Children rate desirability of toys

Told not to play with the most desirable toy

MILD THREAT SEVERE THREAT

Children did not play with the desired toy

Children rate the desirability of the toys a 2nd time after not playing with the desired

Which group viewed the desirable toy most attractive?

ATTITUDES REGARDING MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION

Original belief = “No”

Asked to give speech opposite of their attitude

(for legalization)

Speech watched by research team

Told speech taped and would be shown to high

school students

Attitudes regarding marijuana legalization

More positive views of

legalization

1) Choice is involved

2) Commitment has been made

3) Individuals are responsible for any consequences of their behavior (and if the consequences could be anticipated)

4) Negative consequences are believed to be likely to occur

5) One’s self-concept is involved

More Cognitive Dissonance Occurs When:

SELF-PERCEPTION THEORY

Internal States (e.g., “So-called “private” stimuli, physiological)

“Gross” evaluation (e.g., “I feel happy”; “I feel sad”

Use of external social cues for precise discriminations (e.g., other people’s behavior or

one’s own actions, statements, thoughts)

Attitudes formed

DARYL BEM

Attutude survey (on

environmental issues

WEAK STRONG

Behavioralsurvey (what

people actually did about

environmentalissues

Attitude survey (on

environmental issues

Those with weak initial environmental attitudes had their attitudes affected by

their responses to the behavior questionnaire

SELF-PERCEPTION STUDY

Do Changing Attitudes Lead to Changes in Behavior?

• Norms regarding proper behavior in a given situation (& consequences)

• Availability or absence of alternatives

• Extraneous events

Factors Affecting The Consistency of Attitudes and Behaviors

ATTITUDES

• Specific Role of • Strength personal • Accessibility

Range of behaviors assessed

BEVAVIOR

experience

CentralProcessing

PeripheralProcessing

In-Depth Thought; Detailed Analyses of

Information

“Lazy” Thinking; Superficial Analyses

of Information

• Ability (IQ, knowledge base, distracters, message complexity)

• Motivation (e.g., personal relevance)

Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM)Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM)

Message

Motivation to Motivation to Process?Process? (e.g., relevance, need for cognition, responsibility

Peripheral Cues Present in

Message? (e.g., attractive source,

emotional content)

Peripheral Processin

g

Ability to Process?Ability to Process? (e.g., knowledge, distractions, message comprehensibility)

Nature of Cognitive Processing

Favorable thoughts

Unfavorable thoughts

Neutral thoughts

Cognitive Structure Change (e.g., new thoughts stored in memory)

Central positive attitude change

Central negative attitude change

No

YesNo

Yes

~ ELM Detail ~

Relatively permanent attitudes, More predictive of behavior

Keep initial attitude

Yes

Low High

Low argument

qualityHigh

argument quality

Relevance RelevanceLow High HighLow

STUDY OF ELM

MODEL

If high perceived relevance exists, argument quality is most important

Status of Presenter

Issue: To institute a comprehensive university exit exam

Behavioral BeliefsBehavioral Beliefs (beliefs about the likely

consequences of a behavior and the evaluation of the

consequences

Normative BeliefsNormative Beliefs (beliefs about the

expectations of other people and the

motivation to comply with these expectations)

Control BeliefsControl Beliefs (beliefs about the existence of

factors that may help or hinder the performance

of a behavior and the perceived power of these

factors)

Attitude toward the behavior (the specific attitude toward a behavior, favorable or

unfavorable)

Subjective norms (beliefs about how other

people will view a behavior; social pressure)

Perceived behavioral control (ease with which

people believe they can perform the

behavior)

BehavioralIntention

Behavior

Actual behavior control

~THEORY OF PLANNED BEHAVIOR~

Beliefs

Behavioral BeliefsBehavioral Beliefs (beliefs about the likely

consequences of a behavior and the evaluation of the possible outcomes

Normative BeliefsNormative Beliefs (beliefs about the

expectations of other people and the

motivation to comply with these expectations)

Control BeliefsControl Beliefs (beliefs about the existence of

factors that may help or hinder the performance of a behavior and the

perceived power of these factors)

Predicting the use of birth-control pills; An example

• My taking the pill regularly will reduce my chances of becoming pregnant:

Extremely unlikely _____________________ Extremely Likely

• Reducing my chances of becoming pregnant is:

Extremely bad _______________________ Extremely good

• My close friends believe that

I should __________________________________ I should not

take birth control pills.

• On average, I really care what my close friends thinks I should do.

Not at all _________________________________ Very much

• I forget to do some very important activities.

Very rarely _______________________________ Very often

• My forgetfulness would make it very difficult for me to remember to take birth control pills

Definitely not true _______________________ Definitely true

Beliefs

Attitude toward the behavior (the specific

attitude toward a behavior, favorable or

unfavorable)

Subjective norms (beliefs about how other

people will view a behavior; social pressure)

Perceived behavioral control (ease with which

people believe they can perform the

behavior)

For me to be able to take a birth control pill on a regular basis would be:

Impossible ___________________ Possible

Most of my close friends are using birth control pills

Definitely untrue _______________________ Definitely true

For me, taking birth control pills regularly is:

Extremely valuable_______________________ Worthless

B ~ BI = w1AB + w2 SN + w3 PC

BehavioralIntention

• I plan on taking birth control pills regularly

Definitely not true ______________________ Definitely true

• I will make every effort to take birth control pills regularly

Definitely not true ______________________ Definitely

true

Behavior

Regularly taking birth control pills or

not

• Role of past behavior and habits

• Focus on the prediction of individual behavior; what about the role of others (e.g., cooperation), obtaining resources not possessed by an individual

• Assumption that people engage in elaborate cognitions before behaving

• Role of self-identity and/or moral obligations

~ Some Shortcomings the Theory of Planned Behavior ~

Attitude Inoculation

Small (“weak”) doses of arguments against one’s

position

Larger, stronger arguments given later

Less likely to change one’s attitudes

(more able to fight off the stronger attack; received an

inoculation earlier)

Advertising --- Product Placement

Quite frequent (e.g., greater than 40 products displayed in the move Iron Man)

Why can this approach work?

• Defenses are down (do not recognize our attitudes are being manipulated)

• Failure to generate counterarguments

Reactance Theory

Persuasion messages, if too strong, can lead to a boomerang effect

Why?

Belief than our freedom is being threatened

DO NOT write on these walls under any circumstances**

Versus

PLEASE DON’T write on these walls** Significantly more graffiti writing on walls with the stern message