1. Persuasion, Attitudes & Behavior
Chapter 8

2. What are attitudes?
Evaluations of people, objects and/or ideas that often determine what we do

3. Where do attitudes come from?
They may be indirectly linked to genes via temperament, personality, etc.
They definitely come from social experiences.

4. The social component of attitudes:
Has three sub-components:
Cognitive: rests on relevant facts
Affective: connected to emotions, values
Behavioral: works by self-perception only when the initial attitude is ambiguous

5. The affective component of attitudes:
May have gained its emotional values from:
Values, morals or religion
Sensory experiences/aesthetics
Classical conditioning
Operant conditioning

6. The affective component of attitudes:
Is not rational
Is not based on logic

7. Explicit vs. Implicit Attitudes
- are often contradictory
Explicit attitudes are consciously endorsed
Implicit attitudes are non-conscious and at times may be involuntary and/or uncontrollable

8. How do attitudes change?
By what others have to say
By changing behavior (Cognitive Dissonance/internal justification)
Persuasive communication

9. Persuasive Communication Attitude Change on a Mass Scale
Yale Attitude Change Approach – Hovland, et. Al.
Many factors go into this
Source
Nature of the communication
Nature of the audience4

10. Elaboration Likelihood Model
Central Route to Persuasion
Listeners are likely to elaborate
Logic matters
Listeners must be able and motivated to pay attention
Peripheral Route to Persuasion
Listeners are not likely to elaborate
Logic does not matter
Listeners take mental shortcuts

11. Yale Attitude Change Approach
Source
A credible source (expert) is more likely to be believed that one less credible
An attractive source (physical or personality) is more likely to be believed than one less attractive

12. Nature of the Communication
People are more persuaded if they believe that the communication was not designed to persuade them.
A two-sided communication is generally more persuasive than a one-sided one. However, the communicator should be careful to refute the counterarguments.

13. The Nature of the Audience
A distracted audience is easier to persuade.
An audience of lower intelligence is easier to persuade than a more intelligent one.
The audience with moderate self-esteem is easier to persuade than one with high or low self-esteem.
People between the ages of are easier to persuade. Attitudes will become more stable and resistant to change as we age.

14. Paying Attention Distraction Fatigue Boring Speaker Need for cognition
Motivation to pay attention
Speaker credibility
Topic relevance/ personal relevance