What was an interesting thing President Johnson did relating to the Vietnam War?
Sent those with doubts about the war on ‘fact-finding’ missions with reporters.
=> these people would have to persuade others that the war was a good thing –> resulted in they themselves being this too
What are attitudes?
- Attitudes are evaluations of a target expressed with some level of intensity
(can be towards anything = object or person)
How can attitudes vary? (what are the different types - 4)
Attitudes vary in strength along positive and negative dimensions
- High Positive + Low Negative = Positive Attitude
- High Positive + High Negative = Ambivalence (Dual Attitudes)
- Low Positive + Low Negative = Indifference
- Low Positive + High Negative = Negative Attitude
Do Attitudes dictate Behaviour?
Not all the time.
* There is an Intuitive assumption that attitudes or how we evaluate an object will influence how we behave towards it. - however not always the case
- (La Piere => Chinese couple only denied service once –> but later survey 90% said they would not serve)
- Review conducted in the 1960s suggested that attitudes only weakly predict behaviour
However this was later found to be untrue and that in fact, yes, Attitudes are a strong predictor of behaviour.
What are factors that may impact the relation between attitudes and behaviour?
- Attitudes sometimes conflict with other determinants of behaviour.
- e.g. Job/School that prevents people who care about the environment from going to a rally
- Attitudes based on direct experience more strongly predict behaviour.
- e.g. Previously vaccinated people
- Attitudes less predictive when assessing general attitude and behaviour toward specific target
What is the Theory of Planned Behaviour?
Planned behaviour best explained by combined influence of:
- Attitudes: attitudes toward specific behaviour more important than general attitudes.
- Subjective norms: beliefs about how people around them view their behaviour.
- Perceived behavioural control: ease with which people think they can engage in particular behaviour.
Three factors combine to influence behavioural intentions which in turn influence behaviour
- 3 factors => Intention => Behaviour
Can behaviour influence attitude?
Yes, just as attitudes predict behaviour, actions can influence our attitudes.
- When people behave in ways that are inconsistent with their beliefs or attitudes, attitude and belief change often occurs.
Cognitive Dissonance Theory
- People troubled by inconsistency between thoughts, feelings, and actions and as a result experience an unpleasant emotional state or dissonance.
- People motivated to reduce dissonance by rationalising actions or changing attitude in order to create greater consistency.
What are some strategies for reducing cognitive dissonance?
Example of dissonance situation: on a diet but ate a high calorie dessert
- Changing their attitudes. (e.g. I don’t need to be on a diet in the first place)
- Changing their perception of the action. (e.g. I hardly ate that much dessert)
- Adding consonant cognitions. (e.g. actually dessert was nutritious)
- Minimizing the importance of the conflict (e.g. “Ah whatever life is short idc if I gain weight”)
- Reducing perceived choice. (e.g. I had no choice I was at a birthday party)
What did the Classic work by Festinger and Carlsmith display (Insufficient Justification)?
- Ps asked to complete boring peg turning task for an hour.
- Those in experimental conditions asked to tell another participant that the tasks were interesting and enjoyable.
- Some participants offered $1 for lying to next participant, while others offered $20 for doing so.
- Participants later asked to evaluate their study experience.
RESULTS:
* Saying something we don’t believe and doing so with little justification ($1) (insufficient justification) produces dissonance.
- $1 group rated the activity as more fun afterwards vs control and $100 group
- Dissonance leads to attitude change.
What is effort justification?
- A common dissonance experience also comes from paying a high price for something that turns out to be disappointing.
- People experience dissonance when they struggle to get something only to be disappointed by it.
- However, they can reduce this dissonance by changing their cognitions about the very thing.
- Strategy used by many groups via challenging initiations.
e.g. we try to convince ourselves that the thing we struggled for was worth it
What did the classic work on effort justification display?
- Female Ps believed they were joining a discussion group about sex and needed to pass a screening task.
- Randomly assigned to mild initiation, severe initiation, or control.
- All Ps then told they could listen in on group discussion.
- Heard sex life of invertebrates with dysfunctional group.
–> people who struggled more (severe initiation) rated the dysfunctional group discussion as more interesting
What is Post Decisional Dissonance?
We face dissonance when faced with tough decisions because alternatives equally desirable.
e.g. choosing between two things you like equally (Cake and Ice cream for example)
- Dissonance reduced by rationalising decision and focusing on positive features of our choice and the negative features of the alternative
- E.g., women asked to rate several appliances.
- Given choice between two equally favourable items or a favourable and an unfavourable item.
- After making decision, all Ps rated the items again.
-> rated chosen item higher and second option lower
What is persuasion?
Persuasion is the process by which attitudes are changed
- People can be remarkably susceptible to persuasion
- People can also be remarkably resistant to persuasion
What are the two routes of persuasion?
(1) Central or Systematic Route
(2) Peripheral or Heuristic Route
What is Central or Systematic Route of persuasion?
Process by which people think carefully about the content of a message and are influenced by the strength and quality of the argument
What is the Peripheral or Heuristic Route of persuasion?
Process by which people are influenced by superficial cues in a message such as the length of the message, the attractiveness of the communicator, or the theatricality of the message
When do we use the Central / Systematic route?
Central route influenced by:
* Personal relevance of the message.
* Knowledge about the issue.
* Whether the message makes us feel responsible for some action.
When do we use the Peripheral or Heuristic Route route?
- Factors that reduce our motivation. (e.g. we don’t care about the issue)
- Factors that interfere with our ability to attend to the message (e.g. multitasking or cognitive load)
What are three factors that influence Persuasive communication?
- Message
- Source
- Audience
What are the aspects of the MESSAGE which contributes towards how effective persuasive communication?
- Informational Strategies
- Message Tone
- Strength of argument and repetition
- Fear Appeals
- Emotion appeal and objective statistics
Factor: Message: Infomational Strategies
- When people use central route, more information better as long as information is factual.
- When using peripheral route, longer message better. (as we think –> longer message = more knowledgeable)
Factor: Message: Message Tone
- Persuasiveness better when taking less extreme position and conveying moderate amounts of discrepancy (upside down U).
- Extreme arguments often counterproductive.
Factor: Message: Strength of argument and repetition
- Strong arguments usually persuasive, while weak arguments are not.
- Frequency of exposure to message can also impact attitude change.
- E.g., college students listened to strong or weak arguments for using comprehensive exam before graduation.
- Heard the message 1 or 3 times.
- Strong argument led to more support for exam, but effect magnified when message repeated 3 times.
- However for weak argument, when repeated 3 times led to less support –> bad arguments that are repeated reduce persuasion
