Lecture 10 Outline of Last Lecture The self Self awareness Outline of Current Lecture Current Lecture Self Serving Attributions Take credit for our successes avoid taking blame for our fail ures How good of a person am i Social Psychology 1 Edition nd Self serving biases we fool ourselves into thinking we re better than we are Downward social comparison Compare ourselves with people worse than us Makes accurate self knowledge difficult Attitudes the extent to which we like or dislike something Person idea object What attitudes are NOT Outlook on life manner disposition Why do we hold the attitudes we hold We have attitudes Attitudes Behavior Are we rational actors Cognitive Dissonance An unpleasant state caused by holding two or more conflicting cognitions Attitude Behavior How to deal with hypocrisy Change behavior Rationalize behavior change attitude to match behavior How do we live with our lives Noble ways Stop lying Less noble ways Lie only a little Avoid self awareness Convince ourselves the ends justify the means Convince ourselves we didn t lie The case of smoking Dissonant Cognitions I smoke Smoking will kill me