Social Psychology Lecture 6 Attitudes and Attributions Attitude evaluation of a person place object or behavior Can be explicit or implicit Attitudes can predict behavior sometimes By changing attitudes we can possibly change what people will do Examples of attitudes 1 Affective emotion or feelings towards something 2 Cognitive thoughts or beliefs about something 3 Behavioral actions that result from something LaPiere study study the attitude toward Chinese LaPiere traveled with a Chinese couple and they were refused service at 1 out of 250 places but 90 said they would not serve Chinese customers Analysis in 1960s shows that attitudes are a weak predictor of behavior and attitudes fail to predict behavior Attitudes as weak predictors attitudes conflict with other influences such as social norms and levels of controls Attitudes can be inconsistent There are often discrepancies between affective and cognitive components They may be based on second hand experiences which cause weaker attitudes and are less likely to motivate behavior Attitudes may be general but behaviors are specific Behavior predicts attitudes better than attitudes predict behavior Attitudes can change to match behavior o Cognitive dissonance inconsistencies between behavior and attitudes produce an unpleasant state To reduce behavior people will change attitude rationalize behavior or change behavior Dissonance studies Festinger and Carlsmith do a very boring task and lie to people and tell them it was fun Get paid 1 or 20 for the lie and then tell how you really felt about the task The results people get paid 20 for telling the task was boring and 1 for telling it was fun Effort Justification dissonance aroused by working hard for something if it was not worth the effort Attitudes are changed to justify effort for behavior Insufficient Justification dissonance aroused by not having a sufficient reason for behavior inconsistent with attitude There is more attitude change when there is no obvious justification for behavior Without external justification behavior is rationalized to one s self Ben Franklin Effect He wanted to win the support of a political enemy so he asked to borrow a valued book and returned it and then became friends until death Insufficient justification why was I nice to him I hate him Attitude changes to match behavior he must not be so bad Persuasion changing a person s attitude through the use of messages A lot of time and money is devoted to changing your attitude Two different routes 1 Central route uses careful deliberate and rational arguments to persuade The recipient must think about the information weigh the arguments and the credibility of the source and then decide their attitude This route takes mental work but forms lasting attitudes They are effective when motivation and capacity to process the message is high the message is personal there is prior knowledge and there is a feeling of responsibility 2 Peripheral route uses emotional appeals or superficial information to persuade The recipient may be persuaded because the message makes them feel a certain way the source is famous likeable or attractive This route does not require much effort or thought and attitudes may change quickly but might be weak They are effective when motivation and capacity to process the message is low and there is disinterest lack of knowledge distraction and fatigue Attributions explanations of behaviors and events Why because Attributions are important because constantly making causal explanations They influence our behavior towards others We make attributions for any behavior we see Example why did they stop their car Red light Types of attributions 1 Dispositional due to qualities of the person or actor 2 Situational due to qualities of the situation or context 3 Ambiguous attributions are uncertain The attributions we make depend on what we consider normal We make inferences about a person when they act in an unexpected way o Discounting Principle less likely to make dispositional attributions about a person s behavior if there are other obvious situational explanations available o Augmentation Principle more likely to make dispositional attributions about a person s behavior if the behavior appears to be opposite or atypical for the situation Attribution Errors o Fundamental Attribution Error under most circumstances we prefer dispositional attributes It is easier to blame the person rather than the act Perpetual salience This error is more common in cultures like the USA o Actor Observer Difference make dispositional attributions for others but situational attributions for ourselves As observers the target person is perpetually salient so we infer the person is the cause of the behavior As the actor we are aware of the situational factors that determine our behavior o Self serving bias often we make attributions in ways to boost our self esteem We make dispositional attributions for our success and situational attributions for our failures Perpetual Salience often we make attributions based on what is most obvious to us Attributions often reflect what we pay attention to rather than what actually happened Example Taylor and Fiske participants viewed a conversation from different perspectives and judgments about who led the conversation are based on who they were looking at Bad Attitudes and Bad Attributions attitudes influence attributions Emotions and expectations can affect the attributions we make Attitudes are made to fit our attitudes Example self serving biases to feel good about our achievements and blame failure on external things Ultimate Attribution Error we make attributions in ways that are consistent with our prejudices if we have a strong negative attitude towards something Prejudices and involuntary Affective prejudices emotional responses to a group It can be automatic Behavioral discrimination differential treatment due to group membership Cognitive stereotype beliefs and knowledge about a group Generalization may be seen as descriptive of all members in that group Example Trayvon Martin case It shows how attributions can explain behavior Zimmerman assumed he was a criminal because of his look The attributions Zimmerman made influenced his behavior of shooting Martin