Definition of Attitude

1. Definition of Attitude • Originally meant as indicating physical properties such as a position of the body, figure, or statue. Later, in aeronautics, it refers to orientation of an aircraft relative to the horizon. • Leaning • Stance • Position • Direction

2. A more current definition of attitude --- A psychological tendencythat is expressed by evaluatinga particular entity with some degree of favor or disfavor * * From: Eagley and Chaiken (1993). The Psychology of Attitudes.

3. Components of Attitudes • Affective (Emotional) • Behavioral • C) Cognitive (Thinking)

4. Process Observable Inferred Observable Cognition Evaluation Stimuli Attitude Affect Behavior

5. Basic factors that influence persuasion WHO What To Whom Communicator Variables Examples: Credibility Attractiveness Status Message Variables Examples: Single personal example versus factual Fear appeals One-sided versus two-sided arguments Repetition Audience Variables Examples: Knowledge Personality (e.g., self-esteem) Pre-existing attitudes Gender

6. Campaign For and Against Adding Fluoride to Drinking Water Text (in favor of fluoride) Don’t Put Rat Poison in Your Drinking Water versus (Against fluoride) Factual approach Emotional approach Which approach would be the most effective?

7. Campaign to Make Homes More Energy Efficient Text (in favor of energy conservation in homes) Factual approach Emotional approach Which approach would be the most effective?

8. Fear Appeals Do they work? Create a lot of fear in the message (within ethical limits) Influence of other factors Self-esteem Personal relevance Perception of control Give audience additional information on how to deal with their fear (e.g., where to go, when, why)

9. Examples of Fear Mesages Drunk driving Drug Use Seat Belt Use Skin Cancer Condom Use Why May They Not Work? • Odds of negative outcome (low) • Time frame may be long between behavior and negative outcome • Abiliity fo control behavior (e.g., habit, addiction)

10. Traditional Persuasion Techniques • Greater rewards lead to more responses • B) Greater punishment leads to less responses • C) Use of "credible" sources (experts, authority figures) • D) Use of conformity paradigms (e.g., Asch, Sherif)

11. Some Weaknesses of Traditional • Persuasion Approachs • Effects not very strong • B) Short-term effects • C) Limited to less important issues

12. Leon Festinger THEORY OF COGNITIVE DISSONANCE (1957) BASIC HYPOTHESIS The existence of dissonance, being psychologically uncomfortable, will motivate the person to try and reduce the dissonance and achieve consonance Behavior inconsistent with the attitude Creation of dissonance Attitude

13. Attitude: “I’m not going to smoke cigarettes anymore”) Behavior: Smoke cigarettes • Some Options • 1) Change behavior(e.g., Throw pack away) • Change cognitions(e.g., “Smoking isn’t all that bad”; “I don’t really smoke that much”) • 3) Add supporting cognitions(e.g., “ Smoking relaxes me” “it helps me think better”

14. COGNITIVE DISSONANCE FESTINGER & CARLSMITH (1$ - $20 Study) Asked to tell participant that the task was interesting Perform boring task $1 Rate task $20 • Which group rated the task as more interesting after lying, • those paid $1 or $20? Key is lack of sufficient external justification for one’s behavior

15. “TOY” STUDY Children rate desirability of toys Told not to play with the most desirable toy MILD THREAT SEVERE THREAT Children did not play with the desired toy Children rate the desirability of the toys a 2nd time after not playing with the desired Which group viewed the desirable toy most attractive?

16. ATTITUDES REGARDING MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION Original belief = “No” Asked to give speech opposite of their attitude (for legalization) Speech watched by research team Told speech taped and would be shown to high school students More positive views of legalization Attitudes regarding marijuana legalization

17. More Cognitive Dissonance Occurs When: • Choice is involved • 2) Commitment has been made • 3) Individuals are responsible for any consequences of their behavior (and if the consequences could be anticipated) • 4) Negative consequences are believed to be likely to occur • 5) One’s self-concept is involved

18. SELF-PERCEPTION THEORY DARYL BEM Internal States (e.g., “So-called “private” stimuli, physiological) “Gross” evaluation (e.g., “I feel happy”; “I feel sad” Use of external social cues for precise discriminations (e.g., other people’s behavior or one’s own actions, statements, thoughts) Attitudes formed

19. SELF-PERCEPTION STUDY Attutude survey (on environmental issues Behavioral survey (what people actually did about environmental issues Attitude survey (on environmental issues WEAK STRONG Those with weak initial environmental attitudes had their attitudes affected by their responses to the behavior questionnaire

20. Do Changing Attitudes Lead to Changes in Behavior? • Norms regarding proper behavior in a given situation (& consequences) • Availability or absence of alternatives • Extraneous events

21. Factors Affecting The Consistency of Attitudes and Behaviors • ATTITUDES • Specific Role of • Strength personal • Accessibility BEVAVIOR Range of behaviors assessed experience

22. Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) Central Processing Peripheral Processing In-Depth Thought; Detailed Analyses of Information “Lazy” Thinking; Superficial Analyses of Information • Ability (IQ, knowledge base, • distracters, message complexity) • Motivation (e.g., personal relevance)

23. ~ ELM Detail ~ Message Peripheral Cues Present in Message? (e.g., attractive source, emotional content) Yes Peripheral Processing Motivation to Process? (e.g., relevance, need for cognition, responsibility No Yes No Ability to Process? (e.g., knowledge, distractions, message comprehensibility) Keep initial attitude Yes Cognitive Structure Change (e.g., new thoughts stored in memory) Central positive attitude change Central negative attitude change Relatively permanent attitudes, More predictive of behavior

24. Issue: To institute a comprehensive university exit exam STUDY OF ELM MODEL Status of Presenter Low High Relevance Relevance Low High Low High Low argument quality High argument quality If high perceived relevance exists, argument quality is most important

25. ~THEORY OF PLANNED BEHAVIOR~ Beliefs Behavioral Beliefs (beliefs about the likely consequencesof a behavior and the evaluationof the consequences Attitude toward the behavior (thespecific attitude toward a behavior, favorable or unfavorable) Normative Beliefs (beliefs about the expectationsof other people and the motivationto comply with these expectations) Subjective norms (beliefs about how other people will view a behavior; social pressure) Behavioral Intention Behavior Control Beliefs (beliefs about the existence of factors that may help or hinder the performance of a behavior and the perceived power of these factors) Perceived behavioral control (ease with which people believe they can perform the behavior) Actual behavior control

26. Predicting the use of birth-control pills; An example Beliefs • My taking the pill regularly will reduce my chances of becoming • pregnant: • Extremely unlikely _____________________ Extremely Likely • Reducing my chances of becoming pregnant is: • Extremely bad _______________________ Extremely good Behavioral Beliefs (beliefs about the likely consequencesof a behavior and the evaluationof the possible outcomes Normative Beliefs (beliefs about the expectationsof other people and the motivationto comply with these expectations) • My close friends believe that • I should __________________________________ I should not • take birth control pills. • On average, I really care what my close friends thinks I should do. • Not at all _________________________________ Very much Control Beliefs (beliefs about the existence of factors that may help or hinder the performance of a behavior and the perceived power of these factors) • I forget to do some very important activities. • Very rarely _______________________________ Very often • My forgetfulness would make it very difficult for me to remember to take birth control pills • Definitely not true _______________________ Definitely true

27. Attitude toward the behavior (thespecific attitude toward a behavior, favorable or unfavorable) For me, taking birth control pills regularly is: Extremely valuable_______________________ Worthless Subjective norms (beliefs about how other people will view a behavior; social pressure) Most of my close friends are using birth control pills Definitely untrue _______________________ Definitely true Perceived behavioral control (ease with which people believe they can perform the behavior) For me to be able to take a birth control pill on a regular basis would be: Impossible ___________________ Possible B ~ BI = w1AB + w2 SN + w3 PC

28. I plan on taking birth control pills regularly • Definitely not true ______________________ Definitely true • I will make every effort to take birth control pills • regularly • Definitely not true ______________________ Definitely true Behavioral Intention Behavior Regularly taking birth control pills or not

29. ~ Some Shortcomings the Theory of Planned Behavior ~ • Role of past behavior and habits • Focus on the prediction of individual behavior; what • about the role of others (e.g., cooperation), obtaining • resources not possessed by an individual • Assumption that people engage in elaborate cognitions before • behaving • Role of self-identity and/or moral obligations

30. Attitude Inoculation Small (“weak”) doses of arguments against one’s position Larger, stronger arguments given later Less likely to change one’s attitudes (more able to fight off the stronger attack; received an inoculation earlier)

31. Advertising --- Product Placement Quite frequent (e.g., greater than 40 products displayed in the move Iron Man) • Why can this approach work? • Defenses are down (do not recognize our attitudes are being manipulated) • Failure to generate counterarguments

32. Reactance Theory Persuasion messages, if too strong, can lead to a boomerang effect Why? Belief than our freedom is being threatened DO NOT write on these walls under any circumstances** Versus PLEASE DON’T write on these walls ** Significantly more graffiti writing on walls with the stern message