1. Attitudes and Attitude Change
Social Psychology
Attitudes and Attitude Change

2. Attitudes
Enduring orientations with cognitive, affective, and behavioral components.
Cognitive
Affective
Behavioral
A favorable or unfavorable evaluative reaction toward something or someone, exhibited in one’s beliefs, feelings or intended behavior

3. Attitude Development External Stimuli The Target Intervening Processes
The Response

4. Intervening Process: Learning
Attitudes as Habits – Carl Hovland (1953)
Processes
Association
Reinforcement
Imitation

5. Association Message Learning Transfer of Affect Weak relationships
Motivation
Transfer of Affect
Associations between two objects

6. Reinforcement
Rewarded for attitudes that fit with values of group, society, culture
May initially change behavior
Then accept the underlying value

7. Reinforcement: Incentive Theory
Adopt attitude that maximizes gains
Consider importance and value
Cognitive response theory
Respond to proposition with thoughts = attitude
Expectancy value theory
Consider likelihood & value

8. Imitation Model our behaviors (and related attitudes) after others
Aronson & O’Leary
Water conservation
Cialdini
Littering

9. Intervening Process: Cognitive Consistency
Gestalt influence: Seek coherence
Attitudes must be interpreted in context
Balance theory (Heider, 1958)
Cognitive dissonance (Festinger, 1957)

10. Balance Theory P O X Key Triads can be: + or - + or - + or -
P = Person (self)
O = Other
X = Attitude Object (issue, person, etc.)
Unit or Sentiment Relations
+ sign = Link/Like
- sign = No Link/Dislike
Triads can be:
Balanced = signs multiply to positive (+)
Unbalanced = signs multiply to negative (-)
+ or - P O
+ or -
+ or - X

11. Cognitive Dissonance (Leon Festinger)
Cognitions can have 3 relations
Irrelevant
Consonant
Dissonant

12. Dissonance
Dissonance = A feeling of discomfort that is caused by holding 2 or more inconsistent cognitions
Dissonance = # and importance

13. How do you get rid of it? How do you restore a sense of consistency?
Change your behavior
To be consistent
To compensate
Change your cognitions
Add consonant cognitions (mis-remember things, rationalize your behavior)
Alter importance of cognitions

14. Participants are asked to engage in a very boring task
Cognitive Dissonance Theory: Study Example (Festinger & Carlsmith, 1959): Insufficient Justification
Participants are asked to engage in a very boring task
After that, they either:
Were told the study was over
Were paid $1 to lie to another participant about the task
Were paid $20 to lie to another participant about the task
Then, participants’ (real) attitudes about the task were measured

15. Applications Therapy Cults Daily situations
Festinger – “When Prophecy Fails”
Daily situations

16. Self Perception Theory
Bem (1972)
Rational cognitive process
Behaviorist
Infer attitudes for others
Zanna & Cooper (1974)

17. Consistency: Reactions to Discrepancy
Modes of resolution
Derogating the source
Distorting the message
Blanket Rejection

18. Elaboration Likelihood Model (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986)
Two routes
Central
Based on thoughtful consideration of facts
Peripheral
Based on thoughtless affective evaluations
Leads to acceptance of weak messages
Route depends on motivation & opportunity

19. Controlling Cognitive Responses
Counterarguing
Active processing
Implicit or explicit
Verbal or nonverbal
Depends on quantity and quality

20. ELM: Communicator
Credibility
Expert
Trustworthy
Reciprocity
Reference

21. ELM: Communication
Discrepancy
Motive arousal
Anger
Fear

22. ELM: Target Ego involvement Defense – McGuire Commitment
Issue involvement
Response involvement
Defense – McGuire
Supportive
Inoculation

23. ELM: Situation Forewarning of position Forewarning of intent
Distraction

24. Cults
Changed norms
Gradual
Powerful leader
Unquestioned authority

25. Applications
War
Token economies
Presentations
Office politics