1 / 33

Attitudes

Attitudes. Defining Attitudes. an enduring response disposition toward a person, object or idea three components: Affective e.g., transfer of affect transferring feelings for one object to another associated with it Behavioral e.g., Bem’s (1972) self-perception theory Cognitive

bernadette
Download Presentation

Attitudes

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Attitudes

  2. Defining Attitudes • an enduring response disposition toward a person, object or idea • three components: • Affective • e.g., transfer of affect • transferring feelings for one object to another associated with it • Behavioral • e.g., Bem’s (1972) self-perception theory • Cognitive • e.g., weighing the pros and cons of different attitudes

  3. Defining Attitudes Affect(feeling) Cognition(belief) Overall attitude Behavior(response)

  4. Theories of Attitudes • Biological Theory of Attitudes • Twin studies • fraternal vs. identical • attitudes are probably indirectly affected by genes • presence of “attitude” genes?

  5. Theories of Attitudes • Explicit vs. Implicit Attitudes • Explicit • conscious endorsement of attitudes • Implicit • involuntary, uncontrollable, unconscious • measurement of these types of attitudes remains controversial

  6. Theories of Attitudes • Learning Theory • Hovland et al., 1953 • attitudes as habits • information/feelings acquired through association • reinforcement/punishment  learning • imitation of attitudes  acquisition

  7. Theories of Attitudes • Cognitive Consistency Theories • attitude consistency • Balance Theory • Cognitive Dissonance

  8. Theories of Attitudes • Balance Theory (Heider, 1958) • Assumes we are driven to maintain consistency between our sentiment and unit relations

  9. Theories of Attitudes • Balance Theory Diagrams A Related Object, Person, Attribute, or Consequence O P The Person X The Attitude Object

  10. Theories of Attitudes

  11. Theories of Attitudes O O - O O - + + + - + - P P P P - + X + X X X - Four Balanced Configurations O O + O O - - + - - + + P P P P + + X - X X X - Four Imbalanced Configurations • Main Assumption: we strive to balance imbalanced situations

  12. Theories of Attitudes • Cognitive Dissonance Theory (Festinger, 1957) • the tendency to seek consistency among cognitions (e.g., beliefs, opinions) • inconsistency creates dissonance • attempt to eliminate dissonance

  13. Theories of Attitudes • Eliminating Dissonance •  importance of dissonant beliefs •  consonant beliefs to outweigh dissonant beliefs • change the dissonant beliefs so they are no longer inconsistent • Usually results in attitude change • as opposed to behavior change

  14. Theories of Attitudes • Self-Perception Theory • Bem (1967) • we infer our attitudes from our behavior • e.g., You’ve noticed you tend to vote for younger candidates in elections so you infer that you have a preference for younger politicians • Although outcomes tend to be the same, the processes described by self-perception theory and cognitive dissonance theory are fundamentally different

  15. Theories of Attitudes • Expectancy-Value Theory (Edwards, 1954) • the pros and cons of holding an attitude and the likelihood that these outcomes will occur determine our decisions • e.g., “I'm more motivated to work on my English class because I know that I'm a good writer and can do well.” • attitude = good writer, can do well • behavior = work on paper

  16. Theories of Attitudes • Dual Process Theories • Heuristic vs. Systematic processing of persuasive message (Eagly & Chaiken) • Systematic Processing • careful review and consideration of arguments • Heuristic Processing • using simple decision rules • e.g., more is better; an expert said it so it must be true

  17. Theories of Attitudes • Elaboration-Likelihood Model (ELM) • Petty & Cacioppo (1986) • Central vs. Peripheral Routes to Persuasion • Central Routes • involved, need accuracy, recognize that a message is persuasive • Peripheral Routes • uninvolved, distracted, busy • for most practical purposes, the ELM and the Heuristic/Systematic theory are identical

  18. Theories of Attitudes • Cognitive Response Theory • Romero, Agnew & Insko (1996) • thoughts generatated in response to a persuasive message determine whether we support the message or not • Counterarguing • resisting discrepant communications by actively rebutting the arguments • No counterarguments  attitude change • Lots of counterarguments  no attitude change

  19. Persuasion • Persuasive messages are part of everyday life • The effectiveness of a persuasive message depends on: • the communicator • the communication • the target

  20. Persuasion • The Communicator • Credibility • high credibility  more persuasive • Expertise • expert sources  more persuasive • Trustworthiness • trustworthy sources more persuasive • those who seem to be making an argument contrary to self-interest are more persuasive • multiple sources of information make a message more trustworthy

  21. Persuasion • Liking • those we like  more persuasive • Reference Groups • groups we like more persuasive • Source Derogation • when faced with a persuasive message inconsistent with our own attitudes, we can call the communicator’s reliability into question or make negative claims about the person • future messages from the same source will carry less weight • Communicator as Peripheral Cue • e.g., “An expert said it, so it must be true”

  22. Persuasion • The Communication • discrepancy from our own position • low Discrepancy  little attitude change • high Discrepancy  little attitude change • moderate Discrepancy  most attitude change • greater credibility allows for more discrepancy (Bochner & Insko, 1966) • arguments close to our own are viewed as closer than they actually are (assimilation) and those very discrepant from our own are view as further away than they actually are (contrast)

  23. Persuasion • Strong vs. Weak Arguments • persuasiveness depends on our level of processing • Repetition of Argument • Cacioppo & Petty (1979) • increases persuasiveness up to a point • think of an annoying commercial that is always on… • in general, repetition helps strong arguments but hurts weak arguments

  24. Persuasion • Peripheral cues and message characteristics • we use peripheral cues when: • an issue has little importance to us • we’re uniformed or distracted • source characteristics and the number and length of arguments will increase persuasion if the above conditions are met

  25. Persuasion • Matching the persuasive message to the nature of the attitude • e.g., appealing to anger in an argument when the audience is angry is more likely to be persuasive • recall the three components to attitudes • Distorting the Message • can achieve cognitive consistency between our own behavior and persuasive messages of others through distortion of the message • Blanket Rejection • dismissing an argument for no apparent reason

  26. Persuasion • The Target • Aggression Arousal • personal frustrations can cause us to advocate aggressive responses • Fear Arousal • increasing fear in the target increases the persuasiveness of a message up to a point • moderate levels of fear are most persuasive

  27. Persuasion • Ego Involvement • Attitudes highly relevant to the self are hard to change • commitment to the attitude • issue involvement (personal relevance) • response involvement • individual differences • some people more ‘persuadable’ than others

  28. Persuasion • The Situation • Forewarning • knowing that an argument is about to be made reduces persuasion • counterarguments can be made in the intervening period • Distraction • mild amounts enhance persuasion • counterargument process is affected

  29. Persuasion • Attitude Innoculation (McGuire, 1964) • being exposed to weak arguments counter to our own attitude makes us more resistant to later exposure to complex counter-attitudinal persuasive arguments

  30. Attitude Change Over Time • Spontaneous Attitude Change • Tesser (1978) • merely thinking about an attitude object will make our attitudes about it more extreme • Persistence of Attitude Change • Sleeper Effect • delayed attitude change not apparent immediately after exposure to the persuasive message

  31. Attitudes and Behavior • Do attitudes predict behavior? • attitude strength • attitude stability • attitude accessibility • automatic activation of attitudes • relevance of attitudes to behavior • salience of the attitude

  32. Attitudes and Behavior Theory of reasoned actionFishbein & Ajzen, 1975 Beliefs about consequences of behavior X Attitude toward behavior X Intention to perform behavior X Behavior X Subjective norm concerning behavior X Normative beliefs about behavior X

  33. Attitudes and Behavior Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen, 1991)

More Related