Ch 7 Attitudes Beliefs Consistency Questions What is attitude What s the difference between attitude and belief How are attitudes formed Why isn t attitude always consistent with behaviors 1 Attitudes a Attitude global evaluations toward some object or issue I like Jina Park b Belief information about something Jina Park is a social psych Instructor 2 How to measure attitudes a Dual attitudes i Deliberate attitudes explicit attitudes controlled and conscious evaluative responses ii Automatic attitudes implicit attitudes automatic and nonconscious evaluative responses 3 Revisit Duplex Mind a Deliberate Conscious System performs complex operations b Automatic System outside of consciousness performs simple operations 4 How to measure Automatic Attitude a The Implicit Association Test IAT i Insect unpleasant word ii Flower pleasant word b Which task was easier c Automatic Attitudes measured by Reaction Time Accuracy d Other implicit measures i Single Category IAT measure 1 Single attitude object just toward insect rather than comparison a Positive Trial hit one key when see a positive word or an insect hit a different key b Negative Trial hit one key when see a negative word or insect hit a different key whenever negative word appears whenever a positive word appears ii Priming 1 Flash picture of Obama 2 Respond quickly to word joy vs vomit 5 Dual Attitudes a What do they predict b Dovidio Kawakami Gaertner 2002 Measure automatic and deliberate attitudes of White participants towards Blacks i Videotaped White participants interacting with Black participants ii Did automatic attitudes or deliberate attitudes predict behavior 1 Deliberate Predicted a Verbal behavior b Self reported friendliness 1 P a g e 2 Automatic Predicted a Nonverbal behavior b Others reported friendliness c Arcuri et al 2008 Local elections in Italy 1 Deliberate attitudes predict deliberate behavior 2 But what if undecided 6 How do we get attitudes a Mere Exposure Effect Familiarity Breeds Liking i Measured deliberate attitudes which parties are you going to vote for Left Right Undecided ii Measured automatic attitudes of political parties i More exposure more familiarity greater liking ii Example Hearing a song from a new album for the 1st time vs hearing it for the 10th time iii Exception Initial dislike repeated exposure greater dislike iv Zajonc 1968 Chinese character study Learning of foreign language 1 Exposure to each Chinese character for 2 seconds 2 Guess meaning of the letter on a good bad scale b Classical Conditioning Through repeated pairings a neutral stimulus comes to evoke a conditioned response i Learn association previously neutral stimulus is associated with good or bad feelings 1 Ads pair attractive stimuli with products c Operant Conditioning people are more likely to repeat behaviors that have been rewarded and less likely to repeat behaviors that have been punished i Develop a positive attitude toward behaviors that are rewarded d Social Learning people learn how to behave by observing or imitating others i Learn attitudes through observation 1 Example you see other people having fun playing a game you think you might like it too e Embodied Cognition attitudes are found in bodily states such as leaning toward or away from something i Wells Petty 1980 participants heard the commenter argue that tuition should increase vs decrease 1 Participants in the nodding condition agreed more with the message than those in the shaking condition Ch 7 Part II How Do We Get Attitudes 1 Attitude Polarization attitudes more extreme as we think about them a Strong Attitude evaluate evidence in a biased manner i Accept evidence that confirms attitude ii Accept evidence from in group members 2 Consistency drive for constancy a Strengthened by learning socialization 2 P a g e i Negative terms for those who are inconsistent 1 Hypocrite 2 flip flopper b Involves both automatic conscious parts of the mind 3 Cognitive Dissonance Theory Festinger Carlson 1959 Unpleasant state when attitude and behavior don t match a Causes people to rationalize their behavior adjust attitude to match actions b Festinger Carlson 1959 P s do boring repetitive task i P s are then paid to lie to next person about how much they enjoyed the experiment 1 No lie vs 1 to lie vs 20 to lie ii P s then rate their own enjoyment iii Conclusion P s adjust attitude to match behavior i Convince self it was worth it ii May explain post hazing loyalty c Effort Justification people tend to justify rationalize suffering or effort they have made d Aronson Mills 1959 the experiment was disguised as a group discussion on sex Participants assigned to one of the three conditions control mild initiation and severe initiation condition i Participants were told that they had passed the test and could join the interesting group ii Boring discussion iii DV evaluation of the discussion and the group member e g dull interest e WHY Only people who felt discomfort and attributed it to their inconsistent behavior were driven to rationalize what they had done by changing their attitudes to match their actions i Self presentation plays a role in cognitive dissonance 1 Self presentation any behavior that seeks to convey some image of self or some information about the self to other people 2 Desire to appear consistent is even stronger than private desire to be consistent 4 Do attitudes predict behaviors a Wicker 1969 people s expressed attitudes hardly predicted their varying behaviors i Students attitudes toward cheating bare little relation to the likelihood of their actually cheating ii Attitudes toward the church were only modestly linked with worship attendance on any given Sunday b A B Problem weak link between attitudes A and behavior B i Especially true of explicit attitudes 1 Problems with self report measures c Attitude is strong vested interest accessible d Measured at same level specificity e Other influences on behavior minimized f Regan Fazio 1977 Housing crisis at Cornell some student in permanent housing vs some in temporary housing i Both groups had negative attitudes toward housing crisis ii Did they act on it 5 When Attitudes Predict Behaviors Attitude Accessibility a Fazio Williams 1986 accessibility how easily something come to mind 3 P a g e i 1984 election Reagan vs Mondale Measured how quickly people rated candidates ii 4 months later who did you vote for iii Quickly Reagan 6 Belief believing something you are told is automatic doubting something
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