1PersuasionPsy 240; Fall 2006Purdue UniversityDr. Kipling WilliamsPsy 240: Williams 2Does Behavior Determine Attitudes?• Role playing– Zimbardo’s Prison Study(1971)• Wells & Petty (1980):– Testing headphones• The foot-in-the-door effect• Evil acts and attitudes– Treatment of inmates– Ostracism confederates© Phil Zimbardo2Psy 240: Williams 3Why Do Actions Affect Attitudes?• Self-presentation theory– Inconsistency looks bad to others.– We express attitudes that make usappear consistent with our behavior.• Cognitive dissonance theory– Inconsistency feels bad to us.– We justify our actions by changingour attitudes to fit what we did/said.• Self-perception theory– Our actions are self-revealingPsy 240: Williams 4Why Do Actions AffectAttitudes?• Cognitive dissonancetheory– Insufficient justification• $1 vs. $20– Effort justification– Post-decisional dissonance– Over-justificationLeon Festinger3Psy 240: Williams 5Attitudes & MotivationPsy 240: Williams 6Two Routes to Persuasion• Central routepersuasion• Peripheral routepersuasion4Psy 240: Williams 7Processing MessagesPsy 240: Williams 8Processing Messages5Psy 240: Williams 9Distraction and Persuasion• Common sense prediction:– Distraction would interfere with persuasive attempts• But, following the ELM logic, what should happen ifthe audience is distracted from elaborating duringcentral route processing?– If agreement would normally result from elaboration,distraction will result in less persuasion;– But, if disagreement (through counter-arguing) wouldnormally result from elaboration, distraction will result inhigher levels of persuasion.Psy 240: Williams 10Distraction and Persuasion• Distraction prevents elaboration• Examples of factors that prevent elaboration:– Fast talking– Talking softly– Noise– Flashy visual distracters (clothes; cigarette ash)– Slowing down heart– Laying supine– What else…?6Psy 240: Williams 11Distraction & Persuasion• IV1: Level of odor– Normal– Aversive• IV2: Strength of message– Weak– Strong• DV: Agreement with messagePsy 240: Williams 12Operational Definitions• Odor:– Normal (no detection of unusual smells)– Aversive (chemical combinations that result insignificantly higher self-reports of obnoxiousodor)• Strength of Arguments– Weak: “My advisor took a comprehensiveexam and now he has a prestigious academicposition.”– Strong: “Prestigious universities havecomprehensive exams to maintain academicexcellence.”• Agreement– Should we institute comprehensive seniorexams at Purdue? (1 = absolutely not; 7 = yes,absolutely)The odor in this room is: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7Not noticeable Highly noticeableThe odor in this room is: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7Pleasant Unpleasant7Psy 240: Williams 13Predicted ResultsAble to elaborateUnable to