Attitudes
relatively enduring set of beliefs, feelings, behavioral tendencies towards socially significant objects, groups, events, symbols
Structure of attitudes
one-component model (Thurstone), affect
two-component model (Allport), mental readiness to act and guide for evaluative processes
three-component model, affective, behavioral, cognitive components
Sociocognitive model (Greenwald)
knowledge stored in memory with summary of how to appraise
Function of attitudes
evaluation
save cognitive energy
decision making, gives sense to the world
Cognitive consistency theories
people try to maintain internal consistency, order, agreement
dissonance theory or balance theory
Cognitive dissonance theory (Feistinger)
people strive to achieve internal consistency and decrease dissonance of contradicting beliefs
Balance theory (Heider)
cognitive consistency theory
Values
higher-order concepts to organize attitudes, terminal or instrumental
Ideology
widely shared systems of beliefs, serve explanatory function, give certainty
Social representations
collectively elaborated explanations of unfamiliar, complex phenomena to transform them inro a familiar and simple form
Formation of attitudes
- mere exposure effect
- classical conditioning, instrumental conditioning
- spreading attitude effect
- modelling
- information integration (cognitive algebra)
- self-perception theory (external cues to gather information about yourself)
- parental influence
- medial influence
Theory of reasoned action (Fishbein and Ajzen)
specific attitude that has normative support predicts intention to act
Theory of planned behavior
predicting behavior from attitude measure improves if people believe they have control over it and if attitudes are strong
Attitude accessibility (Fazio)
quickly accessible attitudes are recalled more easily
Persuasive communication
Yale approach to persuasive communication (Havland)
- source
- message
- audience
Steps of persuasion process
- attention
- comprehension
- acceptance
- retention
Disconfirmation bias
people tend to believe and accept evidence that supports prior beliefs
Third-person effect
“I won’t get influenced I’m not like the others”
Elaboration-likelihood model (Petty and Cacioppo)
central route or peripheral route used for information processing
Heuristic-systematic model (Chaiken)
when message attended carefully, systematic processing, otherwise processing using heuristics
Compliance
superficial change in behavior, requestor group pressure
Persuasive techniques
- foot-in-the-door (focal then small request)
- door-in-the-foot (small then focal)
- low-ball (agree with request and then reveal hidden costs)
How does cognitive dissonance show itself
- effort justification
- free choice
- induced compliance
- self-affirmation
- vicarious dissonance
Resistance to persuasion
- reactance
- forewarning
- inoculation
