Social Psychology Chapter 16

Why Study Attitudes? Attitudes are important because they: strongly influence our social thought help to organize and evaluate stimuli (e.g., categorizing stimuli as positive or negative) presumably have a strong affect on behavior help to predict people’s behavior in wide range of contexts (e.g., voting, interpersonal relations) 4.5 4 10 10

Attitudes How are attitudes formed? Do attitudes influence behavior? How are attitudes changed? 4.4 4 10 10

Definition Evaluations of any aspect of our social world. Automobiles Abortion President Bush

Attitude Structure Affect Cognition Behavior Gun Control Affect: “Guns make me sick!” Affect Behavior: “I vote for gun control whenever possible.” Cognition Cognition: “Guns in the house increase the likelihood of children accidentally shooting themselves.” Behavior

Attitude Formation social learning- acquire attitudes from others classical conditioning- learning based on association subliminal conditioning- without awareness instrumental conditioning- learn to hold the “right” views observational learning- learning by observing actions of others and exposure to mass media 4 10 10

Attitude Formation (con’t) social comparison- compare ourselves to others to determine if our view of reality is correct attitudes are shaped by social information from others we like or respect genetic factors- inherited general dispositions (e.g., see world in a positive or negative light) highly heritable attitudes and gut-level preferences (music) are especially influenced 4 10 10

Summary Attitudes are evaluations of any aspect of our social world Attitudes are often learned Attitudes are also formed through social comparison New research suggests attitudes are influenced by genetic factors

Attitude-Behavior Link Attitudes do not always predict behavior LaPiere (1934) found that virtually all businesses served Chinese couple courteously, yet most owners held negative attitudes Sun-worshippers know the dangers of exposure to the sun, yet they tan anyway “looking good” attitude takes precedence over attitudes toward personal health Forward 4 10 10

Would you serve Chinese people? LaPiere Study Would you serve Chinese people? Back

Attitude Change Dissonance Theory Persuasion Elaboration-Likelihood Model

Attitude Formation & Change Cognitive Dissonance Theory Festinger and Carlsmith study

$20 Told next person tasks were fun and interesting Asked how much they enjoyed experiment Boring Tasks Told next person tasks were fun and interesting $1

Festinger & Carlsmith Study Results

Cognitive Approach to Attitude Change Persuasion efforts to change attitudes through various kinds of messages. Early persuasion research focused on: The communicator (source) What they said (message) How they said it (channels) Who was listening (audience) Research suggests there are two routes through which information is processed The Elaboration-Likelihood Model

Elaboration-Likelihood Model Nonverbal cues important Argument strength unimportant Message unimportant, uninteresting Heuristic processing Peripheral Route Nonverbal cues unimportant Argument strength important Message important, interesting Systematic processing Central Route

Figure 16.10 Overview of the persuasion process

Factors Influencing Information Processing We tend to use systematic processing when: we are strongly motivated accuracy motivation impression motivation defensive motivation we have a high ability to do so We tend to use heuristic processing when: we are unmotivated we lack the ability to systematically process info

Concern for Other’s Goals Competing Collaborating Avoiding Accommodating Compromising High Distributive Dimension Integrative Dimension Concern for Your Goals Low Low High Concern for Other’s Goals

Factors That Influence Strategy Selection Skills Willingness of other participant Perception of future relationship Attributions about others’ behavior

Person Perception: Forming Impressions of Others Effects of physical appearance Cognitive schemas Stereotypes Prejudice and discrimination Subjectivity in person perception Evolutionary perspectives

Attribution Processes: Explaining Behavior Attributions Internal vs. External Kelley’s covariation model Biases in attributions Fundamental attribution error Defensive attribution Self-serving bias Cultural influences