PSYCH 280 1st Edition Lecture 11Outline of Last Lecture I. ConsistencyII. Psychological “Balance” (Heider’s POX Theory)a. POX Theory WeaknessIII. Cognitive Dissonance TheoryOutline of Current Lecture I. Attitudesa. Two components of an attitudeb. Attitudes and predicting behaviorII. Mindless PersuasionIII. Elaboration Likelihood Modela. Implications of the route takenCurrent LectureI. AttitudesAn attitude is defined as a predisposition to respond favorably or unfavorable to some object or idea. Our attitudes are innumerable—we have attitudes towards thousands of things, some of which we’ve never actually had a direct experience with. Attitudes also include memories, schemata (plural of schema), and beliefs about the specific object or idea. Often, we are unaware of our own attitudes (we interact with people who have similar attitudes as we do) andonly become aware of our attitudes once we interact with people who do not have the same attitudes as we do.a. Two attitude components:There are two components when it comes to an attitude: the affective (feeling) component and the belief/cognitive component. Usually, these two components agree with each other, butsometimes—depending on the situation—they are different. For example, a person can have a positive affective attitude towards vodka, but negative beliefs/memories about vodka (maybe they drank too much one night and experienced an awful hangover the next day).b. Attitudes and Predicting Behavior:These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor’s lecture. GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes, not as a substitute.Attitudes can predict behaviors only in certain situations, and the predictive ability of attitudes depends on multiple factors:1. Prior Experience: if the attitude is based on lots of prior experience, then it is very likely that the attitude will do a nice job of predicting the behavior.2. Attitudes are not very good at predicating spontaneous behavior, unless the attitude is very accessible.3. General attitudes are not very good at predicting behavior—the more specifican attitude is, the better that attitude is at predicting behavior.4. The stronger the attitude is, the better that attitude is as predicting behavior.5. Subjective Norms: even though someone has an attitude towards something, they may not act on that attitude due to pressure from the social situation.Basically, attitudes are useful in predicting behavior if they are strong, developed from past experience, accessible, specific, and fall into appropriate “social norms.”II. Mindless PersuasionPeople are not persuaded by thinking long and hard about things. In fact, the opposite is true—people are persuaded by NOT thinking. People make many decisions without thinking and based on unimportant information. People are swayed by many things (especially in advertisements and companies make sure to manipulate this in their advertisements):1. Vocabulary: people are more likely to buy something when an advertisementdescribed the product as new, improved, quick, easy, etc..2. Location: products at eye-level on a self are more likely to be bought than those lower on the self.3. Cuteness: people think that babies, animals, or sex appeal are good things to buy, so products that use these things in their advertisements are more likely to be bought.4. Scarcity: people are more likely to buy products that are advertised as “limited quality” or “hurry while supplies last!”5. Bundling: when items are “bundled,” people are more likely to buy them.6. Emotion: people pay attention to their feelings. Therefore, ads that play off people’s emotions are more likely to persuade people.III. Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM)The Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) states that people sometimes do not have the motivation or ability to evaluate all messages carefully. The amount of time someone puts into actively thinking about a messages determines which type of persuasion occurs:a. Central Route Persuasion: persuasion that occurs when a person carefully thinks about the persuasive stimulus. This type of persuasion typically is longer lasting and is manipulated through the use of facts and logical arguments.b. Peripheral Route Persuasion: persuasion that occurs when a person relies on simple heuristic cues present in a situation to reason about the persuasive stimulus. Persuasion through this route is usually achieved by messages such as: “experts know best!” or “more arguments the better!”c. Implications of the Route: attitudes changed through the central route are longer lasting and more resistant to change. They are more predictive of behavior and morepersistent over time. This occurs because while central route changes a person’s cognition (changes the way they think), a peripheral cue/route is
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