1. Attitudes and Persuasion October 2nd, 2009 : Lecture 7

2. Lecture Overview Midterm 1 Extra Credit Assignment Attitudes Overview Cognitive Dissonance Liking Balance Theory Attitude change: Persuasion & Persuasion Tactics

3. Midterm 1 Date: Friday, October 16th Time: 3 - 4 pm Locations: AA 112, AC 223, SW 309

4. Midterm 1 Format: 26 Multiple choice questions 3% each 11 Matching 2% each

5. Material covered by Midterm 1 Lectures 1 - 7 Chapters 3, 4, 5, and 6 (except pages 91 - 96) TEXTBOOK IS MANDATORY

6. Preparing for Exam Review sheet and practise questions: http://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/psyb10/exams.html

7. Preparing for exam How to use review sheet: Questions will be asked on a subset of topics FOR EACH TOPIC: 1. Write a few sentences in your own words of what the topic means 2. Come up with an example from your life of when that happened

8. Preparing for exam Practise questions: 5 multiple choice Example matching Give you a flavour of the way I ask questions

9. Preparing for exam External factors: Get 8 hours sleep before exam Eat both breakfast and lunch on 10/16 Eat a snack around 2:30 MAKE SURE THEY ALL INCLUDE PROTEIN

10. Extra Credit Assignment “Elimination Slate” Will Become Available on Blackboard at the end of the 10/4 Premiere Will only remain available until midnight on 10/10

11. Demo of Elimination Slate

12. Weekly Analysis Each week: Watch that week’s episode Think about how something from the class relates Email your analysis to: psyb10extracredit@gmail.com WITH YOUR STUDENT ID AS THE SUBJECTpsyb10extracredit@gmail.com

13. Marking 0% - 2% based on # of complete analyses: 0% for ≤ 2 complete analyses 1% for 3 - 5 complete analyses 2% for ≥ 6 complete analyses

14. “Complete analysis” A complete analysis has two elements: Refers to something that happened THAT WEEK in Battle of the Blades Relates at least ONE topic you learned in this course

15. Demo of submitting Weekly analysis

16. What are Attitudes? A like or dislike that influences our behaviour toward someone or something

17. What are attitudes? ABCs: Affective: What you feel about something Behavioural: What you are likely to do Cognitive: What you think about something

18. What goes into an attitude? Valence Bipolar dimension from good to bad Strength Intensity of the attitude

19. Attitude Types Explicit Attitudes Implicit Attitudes

20. Explicit Attitudes Attitude stored in the form of a statement of which you are fully aware

21. Implicit Attitudes Attitude stored as an association in your semantic network Association between the object of the attitude and the concepts of “good” and “bad” You may or may not be aware of it

22. Attitudes and Behaviour Which comes first? Your Belief About Something Your Behaviour in Relation to That Thing

23. Cognitive Dissonance A change in people’s behaviour alters their attitudes (Festinger, 1957) Dissonance: Unpleasant feeling of tension

24. Cognitive Dissonance You experience unpleasant tension (dissonance) when: You experience contradictory attitudes You behave inconsistently with your attitudes

25. Cognitive Dissonance To relieve this tension... You change your attitude since you cannot change your behaviour Or, you reappraise the situation so that your behaviour no longer indicates anything about your attitudes Overjustification Effect

26. Cognitive Dissonance Festinger & Carlsmith (1959) Method: Thanks for participating. 1 Week Later “How Enjoyabl e Was The Study?” I’ll give you $1 to tell the next participant it was very enjoyable. I’ll give you $20 to tell the next participant it was very enjoyable.

27. Cognitive Dissonance Festinger & Carlsmith (1959) Results:

28. Cognitive Dissonance To relieve this tension... You change your attitude since you cannot change your behaviour Or, you reappraise the situation so that your behaviour no longer indicates anything about your attitudes

29. Overjustification effect If one can justify an attitude-inconsistent behaviour, then they will not experience dissonant feelings

30. Post-Decision Dissonance Dissonance aroused after making a decision, typically reduced by: Enhancing the attractiveness of the chosen alternative, Devaluing the rejected alternatives

31. Post-decision Dissonance Brehm (1956): Method: 20 Minutes Later

32. Post-decision Dissonance Brehm (1956): Results:

33. Liking Positively-valenced attitude

34. Balance Theory To reduce cognitive dissonance, we desire to keep a positive “balance” between our opinions and those of others Self Frie nd Issu e

35. Balance Theory To reduce cognitive dissonance, we desire to keep a positive “balance” between our opinions and those of others Self Frie nd Issu e + ( + )*( + )*( + )=+ In Balance + +

36. Balance Theory To reduce cognitive dissonance, we desire to keep a positive “balance” between our opinions and those of others Self Frie nd Issu e + ( + )*( + )*( - )=- Unbalanced + -

37. Balance Theory Options when unbalanced: Try to change friend’s attitude Self Frie nd Issu e + ( + )*( + )*( + )=+ In Balance + +

38. Balance Theory Options when unbalanced: Try to change friend’s attitude Change your attitude toward the issue Self Frie nd Issu e + ( + )*( - )*( - )=+ In Balance - -

39. Balance Theory Options when unbalanced: Try to change friend’s attitude Change your attitude toward the issue Change your liking of your friend Self Frie nd Issu e - + - ( - )*( - )*( + )=+ In Balance

40. Attitude Change Persuasion The altering of an existing attitude or the adoption of a new attitude

41. “Routes” of Persuasion Central route to Persuasion When a person invests the necessary decision- making time and effort to evaluate the evidence and logic behind each persuasive message Peripheral route to Persuasion When people attend to indirect factors to make a decision about a persuasive message (e.g., speaker’s appearance)

42. 6 Basic Tendencies to say “YES” 1. Reciprocation 2. Consistency 3. Social Proof 4. Liking 5. Authority 6. Scarcity

43. Reciprocity Norm A social norm stating that we should try to repay in kind what another person has given us The power of a gift

44. Consistency People will go to extremes to try to appear consistent in their behaviour Public commitments are powerful determinants of behaviour “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds” - Ralph Waldo Emerson “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

45. Consistency Example: Restaurant Reservations If told, “Please call if you need to cancel” 3/10 = no call, no show If asked, “Will you please call if you need to cancel?” and wait for response, “Yes I will.” 1/10 = no call, no show

46. Social Proof We follow the lead of similar others, and accept “personal stories” as proof of a product’s promises “I love the product and so do my kids. I have attached a couple of pictures just to show you how good your product looks … not that you didn’t already know that.” Beckie M. Pickering, Ontario

47. Social Proof as Information Other people’s “stories” is a very effective means of persuasion The experiences of others are used as pieces of information for decision-making

48. Social Proof as information Method: On a cold winter New York morning, a man stops on a busy sidewalk and gazed skyward for 60 seconds, at nothing in particular IV: Varied number of skyward lookers

49. Social Proof as Information Results:

50. Liking If you like someone, you are more likely to do what they want you to do

51. Liking as a Persuasive tool Effective campaigns using Liking: Tupperware Parties Close friends gather for a party Party is organized by Tupperware Big Catch: Friends are selling to friends

52. Authority/Credibility We are much more likely to be persuaded if we perceive the source of the persuasive message to be credible or respectable E.g., Celebrities, actors dressed in lab coats

53. Authority / Credibility Method: ? ?

54. Authority / Credibility Results: The man could increase the number of pedestrians who followed him by 350% by wearing a suit & tie

55. Scarcity An item or opportunity becomes more desirable as it becomes less available “The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost” - GK Chesterton “The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost” - GK Chesterton

56. Persuasion Strategies Door-in-the-face technique Foot-in-the-Door technique Low-balling Bait-and-switch That’s-Not-All Technique Emotional/Traumatic Messages Fearful messages

57. Door-in-the-face After making someone refuse a large, unreasonable request, they will be more likely to agree to a more reasonable second request

58. Door-in-the-face Cialdini et al. (1975) Method: Ask college students moderate request: Taking juvenile delinquents to the zoo for 2 hours Half were first asked a big request: Counsellor at juvenile correction facility for 2 hours per week for 2 years

59. Door-in-the-face Cialdini et al. (1975) Results:

60. Foot-in-the-door After agreeing to a small request, people are more likely to agree to a larger request than they might have been without the first small request Works through desire for consistency

61. Foot-in-the-door Freedman & Fraser (1966) Method: Ask homeowners moderate request: Put “Drive Carefully” sign on lawn Ask some homeowners for small request first: Sign safe driving petition two weeks earlier

62. Foot-in-the-door Freedman & Fraser (1966) Results:

63. Low-Balling Inducing a customer to agree to purchase a product at a very low cost, and then claiming there was an error at the last minute Relies on consistency

64. Low-BallING Cialdini, Cacioppo, Bassett, & Miller (1978) Half participants: Experimenter: “Will you participate in my experiment?” 56% of Potential Participants: “Yes.” Experimenter: “It’s at 7 am.” 95% of participants showed up Other half of participants: E: “Will you participate in my experiment at 7 am?” 24% of Potential Participants: “Yes.”

65. Bait-and-switch Drawing someone in by making a desirable offer, but then changing the deal or switching the terms at the last minute

66. That’s Not All! Padding an offer with an additional offer before the person has responded to the initial offer

67. That’s Not All

68. Emotional / Traumatic Messages Messages which involve emotionally arousing content

69. Fearful Messages Persuasive messages which evoke fear and arousal Effectiveness: Slightly fearful = persuasive Moderately to very fearful: Provide a solution? Yes: Very persuasive No: Very Unpersuasive

70. Sleeper Effect A delayed persuasion technique where an initially rejected message is adopted later Mechanism: Works through Source Monitoring Errors

71. Source monitoring errors The tendency to forget the source of a memory before we forget the source’s message Episodic memory decays before declarative memory Provides a back door for underhanded persuaders

72. Propaganda and source monitoring errors Donald Rumsfeld on CBS Face the Nation

73. Resisting Persuasive Techniques Forewarning Effect Inoculation Effect

74. Forewarning Effect Simply informing people that they are about to hear a persuasive speech activates their resistance and weakens the effect of the message on their attitudes

75. Inoculation Effect A person is more likely to reject a moderately good persuasive communication if the person first heard a weaker argument as opposed to hearing no prior argument

76. Propaganda of the Day: “You will evaluate this class very highly...” ☻ Next Lecture (10/7): Conformity and Dissent Relevant websites: http://projectimplicit.org http://www.cbc.ca/battle