Chapter 4 Attitudes Attitudes Evaluations of various aspects of the social world o Explicit Attitudes attitudes we consciously endorse and can easily report o Implicit Attitudes attitudes that are involuntary uncontrollable and at times unconscious Why Study Attitudes Evaluation is basic building block of social thought Attitudes affect behavior Identity Self Expression Functions of Attitudes Knowledge Self Esteem Ego Defensive Components of Attitudes Impression Motivation Affective Behavioral Cognitive Attitude Formation stimulus Classical Conditioning form of learning in which one stimulus initially neutral acquires the capacity to evoke reactions through repeated pairing with another o Took a neutral stimulus and paired it with images of positive negative influences Operant Conditioning form of learning in which responses that lead to positive outcomes or that permit avoidance of negative outcomes are strengthened o A behavior being reinforced or punished Observational Learning o If a person plays with a dog the dog is seen as a positive thing Heredity o Attitudes are shaped by genes some linked by genetics Religious beliefs political beliefs Strength of Attitudes Strong Attitudes o Stable o More resistant to persuasion attempts More committed to view more certain it is correct o Predict behavior better o Embeddedness more connected to things inside the brain Attitude Behavior Consistency Factors Increasing Consistency o Lapiere 1934 Chinese couple went to many establishments 180 restaurants 60 hotels refused 1 the establishments were surveyed saying they would not serve a Chinese couple Attitude and Behavior were different o Strength of Attitude Knowledge Amount Direct Experience Personal Relevance Owning a dog stronger attitude toward dogs Accessibility of Attitude Drinking age example attitude pertaining to group of people will have a high accessibility of attitude o Low Self Monitoring Not likely to adjust their behavior depending on situation HIGH SELF MONITORING wants to fit in will not have their attitude gage their behavior o Time Pressure Do not have a lot of time to make a decision No time act upon attitude o No Situational Constraints Free to display behavior upon attitude Peer pressure Theory of Planned Behavior theory suggesting that in addition to an attitude toward a given behavior and the subjective norms about it individuals also consider their ability to perform the behavior Attitude Subjective Norms Perceived Control Behavioral Intention Behavior Pluralistic Ignorance When we collectively misunderstand what attitudes others hold and believe erroneously that others have different attitudes than ourselves Are there any questions If there is none everyone thinks that everyone understood the material o Widespread misrepresentation of private views tendency on public behavior to identify public norms o Social norm misrepresents the prevailing sentiments Prentice and Miller 1993 Ivy League Drinking Study 1 Students consistently estimate the typical student is more comfortable with drinking that they themselves are Own and Average Students Comfort with Drinking o Scale of 1 11 1 being not comfortable at all with drinking o Asked How comfortable are you the average student with drinking Self comfort level is not that high versus the rest average was higher Study 2 Male students internalized perceived social norms o They came to be more comfortable with the idea of drinking by the end of the semester o Females face alienation Males were lower in September than December Females were higher in September than December Chapter 7 Persuasion Persuasion Efforts to change others attitudes through the use of various kinds of messages Mere Exposure Effect by having seen an object previously but not necessarily remembering having done so attitudes toward an object can become more positive Ex Product Placement Yale Attitude Change Approach Who Source of Communication o Sexual appeal beautiful people o Experts celebrity Ex Famous athletes advertise for sports wear o How trustworthy or credible someone was Ex Coca Cola Santa o Similar to the intended audience Said What Nature of Communication o Fear arousing moderate Ex Johnson Commercials o Evoke a good emotion Humor Ex Betty White commercial o Make it seem like its not persuasive Viral marketing not making it seem like it is advertising to desired o Create a two sided argument but in the end make desired topic more topic appealing Should not bash the competitor To Whom Nature of Audience o Younger kids 18 20 year olds are extremely persuadable o Audiences already in a good mood o Low intelligence Dumb vs distractible o Moderate self esteem is more persuadable LOW That won t work on me HIGH I m already good enough Fear Arousing Communication persuasive messages that attempt to change peoples attitudes by arousing fear Dual Process Models ELM Elaboration Likelihood Model o Central processing of info in a persuasive message that involves careful consideration of message content and ideas o Peripheral processing of info in a persuasive message that involves the use of simples rules of thumb or mental shortcuts HSM Heuristic Systematic Model o Systematic processing of info in a persuasive message that involves careful consideration of message content and ideas o Heuristic processing of info in a persuasive message that involves the use of simples rules of thumb or mental Effects of Routes Central Systematic o Pay attention to Quality of arguments o Last longer and more resistant to change Peripheral Heuristic o Pay attention to Credibility of speaker Number of arguments Length of argument o Easier to persuade What Determines Route Motivation o Personal Relevance o Need for Cognition Ability o Cognitive Load So Does Advertising Work Advertising is a persuasive message Split cable market tests o 21 boost in sales Why Yield to Persuasion Attempts Hold more accurate view of world Be consistent within yourself Gain social approval Resisting Persuasion Reactance o Negative reaction to threats to one s personal freedoms o Reactance often increased resistance to persuasion and can even produce negative attitude change or that opposite to what was intended Forewarning persuasion Inoculation o Advance knowledge that one is about to become the target of an attempt at o Forewarning often increases resistance to the persuasion that follow o Technique for increasing individual s resistance to a strong argument by first giving them weak o Easily