Lecture 11Outline of Last Lecture 1. Effects on Impressions2. Implicit personality theory/Primacy effect3. ABC’s of AttitudeOutline of Current Lecture 1. Cognitive Dissonance2. Rationalization3. Persuasion4. Peripheral Route5. Sleeper EffectCurrent LectureCognitive Dissonance Theory- Inconsistencies between thoughts, feelings & behavior create cognitive dissonance- Which then causes changes in thoughts and/or feelings to rationalize behaviorsDissonance & Decisions- Difficult choices can induce cognitive dissonance- Dissonance typically is resolved by emphasizing the positives and minimizing the negatives of the selected choice (& opposite for choice not taken)Rationalization Shapes Attitudes: The Role of Cognitive Dissonance- Justifying Effort: Attempts to reduce dissonance produced by the effort or cost spent to obtain something unpleasant- Induced (forced) Compliance- Subtly getting people to act in ways inconsistent with their attitudes. Often leads to a change in attitude in order to resolve dissonance. -Occurs when there is insufficient justification for attitude-discrepant behavior.-Can also occur when there is insufficient deterrence for attitude-discrepant nonbehaviorNecessary conditions for inconsistency to produce dissonance- Free choice- choosing to engage in behavior that is inconsistent with beliefs will cause dissonance- Insufficient justification- Dissonance may occur when the reason for behavior is weak or unclear- Negative consequences- freely chosen inconsistent behaviors may not cause dissonance if there was nonegative consequence of the behavior SOA 223 1nd Edition- Foreseeability- dissonance may not occur if the negative consequence was not something that could beforseenSelf-Perception Theory- another explanation for findings from dissonance studies Argues that people didn’t change attitudes; they inferred their attitude from behavior in situationCentral Route to Persuasion- Person thinks carefully about communication & is influenced by strength of argumentso Topic is important to audienceo Have ability to process informationAttitude change occurs through high-quality arguments  Attend, comprehend, acceptancePeripheral Route- Person does not think carefully about communication & influenced by superficial cueso Isn’t motivatedo Doesn’t have ability to process infoAttitudes change thru feelings & superficial associationsPersuasive messages have 3 components:1. Source of the message- Credibilityexpertise/competence/trustworthiness- Likability/attractivenessSimilarity, physical attractiveness2. Content of message- Effective message: depends on audience taking central or peripheral route- Length, how discrepant from audience, do they refute other side?3. Audience or target of messageSometimes non-credible sources can change your attitude…Sleeper Effect: Effect that occurs when messages from unreliable sources initially exert little influence, but overtime cause individuals’ attitudes to shift. - Phenomenon that overtime people separate the message from messengerConditions needed:- Message needs to be persuasive & have big impact- Discounting Cue: for effect to occur, the source of message should not be trusted and should be given after the messageExample) Holand & Weiss- 1951 Nuclear Submarine Study.- The more credible author= more likely to believe