Transcript Attitudes, Persuasion, and Attitude Change

Attitudes, Attitude Change, and
Persuasion
Joshua Phelps
February 14th 2005
Attitude Exercise
Demonstration of Attitude Research in Social
Psychology
15 minute questionnaire
Lecture Outline
Attitudes: What are they, Why are they
important, How do we measure them??
Attitudes and Predicting Behavior
Attitude Change and Persuasion
Compliance
What is an Attitude?
Summary evaluation of an object of thought
(Bohner & Wänke, 2002)
Consists of Affective, Cognitive, and
Behavioral components or evaluative
responses
Examples
Why Are Attitudes So Important?
Relationship to Behavior
Personal Relationships
Politics and Public Opinion
Consumer Issues
Attitudes and Social Psychology
Individual, Interpersonal, and Societal Levels
Psykologisk Institutt Examples
Health Attitudes
Illegal Immigrants
Pro Social Attitudes
Function of Attitudes (Bohner & Wänke,
2002)
Knowledge
Higher Psychological Needs
Measuring Attitudes
Direct Measures
Self-Report
Indirect Measures
Disguised Attitude
Non-Reactive
Physiological
Implicit
https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/
Difficulties Measuring Attitudes
Operationalization
Demand Characteristics
Social Desirability
Attitudes and Behavior
LaPiere (1934)
Complex Relationship
Factors Influencing Attitudes and
the Prediction of Behavior
Precision of Measurement
Aspects of Attitude
Individual Difference
Situational Variables
Attitude Change and Persuasion
When Does Behavior Influence Attitude(s)?
When and Why do Individuals Change their
Attitudes?
Attitude Change
When a person’s evaluation of an attitude
object changes from one value to another
(Petty & Wegener, 1998).
General Approaches to Attitude
Change
Behavior-Induced
Active Participation of the Person
Persuasion
An individual’s use of arguments to convince
others to change mind or behavior
Behavior Influence on Attitudes
Cognitive Dissonance Theory (Festinger,
1967)
Self Perception Theory (Bem, 1972)
Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance: unpleasant state of
arousal that motivates individuals to reduce
dissonance
Three types of Cognitive Dissonance Effects
Effort-Justification
Induced Compliance
Free Choice
Persuasion
Persuasive Communication: Message
intended to change an attitude and related
behaviors of an audience (Hogg and
Vaughan, 2005)
Factors Influencing Persuasion
Communicator
Credibility, likeability, attractiveness
Message
Repetition, Fear, Facts vs. Feelings, Framing
Republican National Convention
Audience
Self-Esteem, Gender, Individual Differences (Same as
Attitude and Behavior), Age, prior beliefs, cognitive
biases
Compliance
”Superficial, public and transitory change in
behavior and expressed attitudes in response
to requests, coercion or group pressure.”
(Hogg and Vaughan, 2005)
Tactics for Enhancing Compliance
Ingratiation
Reciprocity
Multiple Requests
Foot-in-the-Door
Door-in-the-Face
Low Ball
Cialdini’s 6 Compliance Principles
Reciprocation
Commitment/Consistency
Liking
Authority
Scarcity
Social Proof
Questions for Next Lecture
Email: [email protected]
Clarify any topic at the end of Culture
Lecture (28/02/05)
Sources
Hogg & Vaughan (2005). Social Psychology
(4th edition)
Bohner & Wänke (2002). Attitudes and
Attitude Change
Cialdini (2001). Influence: Science and
Practice
Topics I Didn’t Cover
Structure and Components of Attitudes
Cognitive Consistency
Theory of Reasoned Action/Planned
Behavior
Three types of Dissonance Effects (pg 226235) and alternatives to Dissonance.
Dual Process Models of Persuasion
Resistance to Persuasion