social psychology alive, breckler/olson/wiggins chapter 7 chapter seven attitude change
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Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 7
Dissonance Theory
• Cognitive dissonance theory is based on a small set of principles
– cognitions can be either consistent or inconsistent with one another
– inconsistent cognitions produce dissonance
– dissonance can be reduced by changing our attitudes, changing our behavior, or adding a third cognition to mediate between the other two
Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 7
An Example of Cognitive Dissonance
• Your professor holds the attitude “No make-up exams”
• You persuade the professor to give you a make-up
• The professor’s attitude and behavior are now dissonant with one another
– the professor will be motivated to reduce her cognitive dissonance
Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 7
Dissonance Reduction
• Options available to our professor:
– change the behavior: not likely, the make-up exam’s been given
– change attitude: maybe
• professor might decide that make-up exams aren’t so bad after all
– find a mediating element: could be
• professor might still hold attitude, still perform behavior, but decide it’s a one-time event
Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 7
How Dissonance Reduction Works
• To reduce dissonance and restore consonance, an individual might:
– change her attitude to be consonant with her behavior
– change her behavior to be consonant with her attitude
– maintain both the attitude and the behavior, but introduce an additional cognition to restore consonance between them both
Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 7
Early Research: Induced Compliance
• Festinger and Carlsmith (1959)
– people engage in a boring task
– these same people convince others that the task is fun and enjoyable
– some people get paid $1 for saying this, others get paid $20 for saying this
• The $1 group showed greater positive attitude change
• Brought their attitudes in line with behavior
Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 7
Early Research: Effort Justification
• Aronson and Mills (1959)
– severity of initiation leads to greater liking for the group
• Dissonance reduction is used to justify the expenditure of effort
– “this is horrible…I must really like it”
Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 7
Early Research: Free Choice
• Festinger (1957)
– having to choose between two desirable alternatives can produce dissonance
– the bad elements of the chosen alternative are dissonant with the decision
– the good elements of the unchosen alternative are dissonant with the decision
– people engage in post-decision dissonance reduction to restore consonance
Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 7
Post-Decision Dissonance Reduction
• As a consequence of having to choose one of two desirable alternatives, people will:
– improve their evaluation of the chosen alternative
– lower their evaluation of the unchosen alternative
• Doing so reduces dissonance and restores consonance
Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 7
Self-Perception Theory
• An alternative to dissonance theory
– perhaps people simply observe their own behavior and infer their own attitudes from it
– “I’m eating pistachio ice cream; I must like pistachio ice cream”
– “I did the boring task; I must like the boring task”
• Self-perception works best with weak attitudes
Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 7
Impression Management Theory
• An alternative to dissonance theory
– people want to make a good impression
– in dissonance studies, they may not want to appear inconsistent
– self-presentation goals would predict their behavior
Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 7
Self-Affirmation Theory
• An alternative to dissonance theory
– people want to view themselves as moral, capable individuals
– counterattitudinal behavior threatens these feelings of self-worth
– people change their attitudes to reduce these threats to self-worth
Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 7
Recent Research: Hypocrisy
• Early dissonance research focused on the negative consequences of behavior
• Even people who promote a proattitudinal position can experience dissonance
– hypocrisy produced by advocating a proattitudinal position but engaging in counterattitudinal behavior leads to dissonance
– if you promote conservation, you’d better recycle!
Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 7
Recent Research: Individual Differences
• Preference for Consistency (PFC) measures individual differences in wanting predictability and consonance
• Individual differences may mediate the effects found in traditional dissonance research
Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 7
Recent Research: Explicit/Implicit Attitudes
• Almost all research on dissonance theory has focused on explicit attitudes
• Recent research has examined dissonance and implicitly-held attitudes
– dissonance affects explicit attitudes
– dissonance has little effect on changing implicit attitudes
Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 7
Cognitive Response Theory
• Information-based persuasive communication also changes attitudes
• Cognitive response theory argues that the effectiveness of an attitude change message depends on the thoughts evoked by that message
– positive thoughts lead to adoption of the advocated position
– negative thoughts lead to rejection of the advocated position
Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 7
Argument Strength
• Strong arguments tend to produce strong attitudes
– strong attitudes should predict greater attitude change
• Weak arguments tend to produce weak attitudes
– weak attitudes provide poor support for the advocated position
Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 7
Processing the Message
• Strong arguments should be presented in a clear way
– capitalize on target’s uninterrupted processing of good arguments
• Weak arguments may fare better with distraction present
– you don’t want the target to pay a lot of attention to lousy arguments!
Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 7
Heuristic Persuasion
• Heuristic persuasion relies on factors other than the strength of the arguments presented
– relevance of the message
– credibility of the communicator
– likeability of the communicator
– attractiveness of the communicator
– positive mood and emotion
Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 7
Two Routes to Persuasion
• Systematic processing occurs when people attend to and think about the message
• Heuristic processing occurs when people rely on simple cues to make judgments, rather than the strength of the arguments
• Central route processing is analogous to systematic processing
• Peripheral route processing is analogous to heuristic processing
Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 7
Motivation and Ability
• Systematic/central route processing when:
– the recipient of the message is motivated to expend the energy needed to process the information
– the recipient of the message has the ability to process the information
Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 7
Personal Relevance & Message Complexity
• An attitude change message should be relevant to the target
– if not, little attitude change
• Undue message complexity should work against attitude change
– if you can’t understand the message, it makes it difficult to process the message
Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 7
Effects of Aging on Attitude Change
• Null hypothesis: no age-related changes
• Increasing persistence: people become more resistant to influence as they age
• Impressionable years: lots of attitude change when young, less when older
• Life stages: greater susceptibility to persuasion when young, again when old
– this is an issue that has not been settled
Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 7
Effects of Culture on Attitude Change
• People from collectivist cultures may not feel the same urge to behave in ways that are consistent with their attitudes
– this would reduce the effects of cognitive dissonance in shaping behavior
• Collectivism may also predict differences in responses to persuasive messages
Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 7
Persuasion and Health: Fear Appeals
• The arousal of fear has been used in many health-related attitude change messages
– Protection Motivation Theory describes this process
• believe the problem is severe
• assume personal susceptibility
• believe the steps to ameliorate
• capable of performing those steps
Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 7
Propaganda
• Persuasion that is motivated by a specific ideology and that is biased in its presentation
– wars often inspire propaganda messages
– cults often inspire propaganda messages
Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 7
Aspects of Cult Indoctrination
• Selective targeting of potential recruits
• Isolation of recruits
• Sleep deprivation
• Love-bombing
• Repetition
• Foot-in-the-door
• Denial of privacy
• Reciprocity
• Fear-mongering
Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 7
Everyday Propaganda
• Common sources of a biased message promoting a specific ideology:
– advertising
– movies and television
– education
– religious institutions
Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 7
Resisting Persuasion
• Inoculation
– exposure to a weakened form of arguments makes us less susceptible to attitude change
• Reactance
– limits to personal freedom lead to motives to restore that freedom
• Personal preparation against unscrupulous attitude change messages is a good idea