1. David Myers 11e Behavior and Attitudes
Social Psychology
David Myers
11e
Behavior and Attitudes
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2. Chapter Four
Attitude is a leaning toward or against some attitudinal object
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3. Attitude
Favorable or unfavorable evaluative reaction toward something or someone
How well do attitudes predict behavior?
When does our behavior affect our attitude?
Why does our behavior affect our attitudes?
Changing ourselves through action.
ABCs of attitudes: (know them!)
Affect (feelings)
Behavior…tendency
Cognition (belief - thinking)
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4. How Well Do Our Attitudes Predict Our Behavior?
People’s expressed attitudes hardly predicted their varying behaviors
Student attitudes toward cheating bore little relation to the likelihood of their cheating
Attitudes toward the church were only modestly linked with worship attendance on any given Sunday
Self-described racial attitudes provided little clue to behaviors in actual situations
Ps told to assign a task (pos or neg) to themselves or partner…engaged in “moral hypocrisy”. How so?
(Batson et al., ‘97)
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5. How Well Do Our Attitudes Predict Our Behavior?
When Attitudes Predict Behavior
When social influences on what we say are minimal
Implicit
Implicit association test (IAT) (Greenwald, ’02)
Caution! - reliability and validity may be questionable (Arkes & Tetlock, ‘04)
Implicit biases are pervasive
People differ in implicit bias
People are often unaware of their implicit biases
Explicit
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6. How Well Do Our Attitudes Predict Our Behavior?
When Attitudes Predict Behavior
When other influences on behavior are minimal
- many situational influences!
Think of some that influence your class attendance
So look at averaging and aggregating them all.
When attitudes specific to the behavior are examined
E.g. costs and benefits for jogging
Theory of planned behavior (Ajzen & Fishbein)
- Behavioral intentions
When attitudes are potent
Self-awareness
use a mirror for each student during the exam?
Forge strong attitudes through experience
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7. When Does Our Behavior Affect Our Attitudes? Behavior -> attitudes
Role Playing
Role
Set of norms that defines how people in a given social position ought to behave
Philip Zimbardo’s Stanford’s prison study
Abu Ghraib controversy
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8. When Does Our Behavior Affect Our Attitudes?
When Saying Becomes Believing
When there is no compelling external explanation for one’s words, saying becomes believing
Remember self-perception theory?
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9. When Does Our Behavior Affect Our Attitudes?
Foot-in-the-Door Phenomenon
Tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request
Perceived ‘free will’ also necessary.
Low-ball technique
Tactic for getting people to agree to something. People who agree to an initial request will often still comply when the requester ups the ante
Used by some car dealers
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10. When Does Our Behavior Affect Our Attitudes? Beh-> attitudes
Evil and Moral Acts
Wartime
Actions and attitudes feed on each other
When evil behavior occurs we tend to justify it as right
Peacetime
Moral action, especially when chosen rather than coerced, affects moral thinking
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11. When Does Our Behavior Affect Our Attitudes?
Interracial Behavior and Racial Attitudes
Racial behaviors help shape our social consciousness
By doing, not saying racial attitudes were changed
Legislating morality (supreme court and Coleman report)
Why was forced bussing such a failure? (S. Cook)
No “perceived choice or equal status”
Social Movements
Political and social movements may legislate behavior designed to lead to attitude change on a mass scale
-should we pledge allegiance to the flag? Sing the national anthem?
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12. Why Does Our Behavior Affect Our Attitudes?
Self-Presentation: Impression Management
Assumes that people, especially those who self-monitor their behavior hoping to create good impressions, will adapt their attitude reports to appear consistent with their actions
Cognitive Dissonance ( self-justification)
beliefs don’t fit…a need for consistency and logic
Self-perception theory
We observe our own behavior and make self-attributions
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13. Why Does Our Behavior Affect Our Attitudes?
Self-Justification: Cognitive Dissonance (L Festinger)
Tension that arises when one is simultaneously aware of two inconsistent cognitions
To reduce this tension, we adjust our thinking
Is smoking dangerous?
A revision of attitudes after no weapons were found (2003)?
Engage in “selective exposure” what is that?
Is it more or less likely to happen in the world of the internet?
Insufficient justification
Reduction of dissonance by internally justifying one’s behavior when external justification is “insufficient”
- which was more interesting? The $1 or $20 dollar payment?
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14. Why Does Our Behavior Affect Our Attitudes?
Self-Justification: Cognitive Dissonance
Dissonance after decisions
Deciding-becomes-believing effect (J. Brehm)
-”choice influences preference”
Value of what we chose is enhanced after we buy it.
Do children and monkeys do it too?
Can breed overconfidence
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15. Why Does Our Behavior Affect Our Attitudes? - a simpler theory --
Self-Perception Theory (D. Bem, ‘72)
When we are unsure of our attitudes, we infer them much as would someone observing us, by looking at our behavior and the circumstances under which it occurs
Expressions and attitude
Overjustification and intrinsic motivations (Deci & Ryan)
Can being paid for work undermine intrinsic motivation?
Do we undermine intrinsic interest in education by giving grades? And testing?
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16. Why Does Our Behavior Affect Our Attitudes?
Comparing the Theories
Self-Perception Theory (explains attitude formation)
Dissonance Theory (explains attitude change)
Dissonance as Arousal
“self-affirming” reduces threats to our integrity
Self-Perceiving when Not Self-Contradicting
Changing Ourselves Through Action
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