Transcript Attitude
Attitude
Attitude vs. Belief
Belief
is a thought (cognition) about
something
Raw fish is bad
Exercise is important
Attitude
adds two components: ABCs
Affective: evaluation, emotion
Behavioral: tendency to take action
Cognitive: belief or thoughts
Components
Affective:
I hate raw fish and sushi
I enjoy exercise
Behavioral
I won’t eat sushi
I will exercise regularly
Cognitive
Raw fish is bad
Exercise is good
Consistency
We
always want our ABCs to agree
What
Behavior will shape our attitude
What
if we don’t have an attitude?
if our ABCs are inconsistent?
Caveats
Attitudes
Explicit
attitude
Implicit
attitude
Involuntary, uncontrollable, often unconscious
IAT
Attitudes toward groups
Prejudice
Stereotypes
Affective component
Hostile or negative attitude toward people just
because they are a group member
Cognitive component
Generalization in which identical characteristics are
assigned to all members
Discrimination
Behavioral component
Unjustified negative or harmful action toward a group
member because of their membership
Prejudice in the classroom
Jane Elliott
Prejudice can be taught
Told students blue-eyed people were better than
brown-eyed people
Brown-eyed children had to wear collars and sit in the
back of class
Over the course of one day: brown eyed children
became self-conscious, depressed, and demoralized
Next day: Elliott switched the stereotypes about eyecolor (brown=good)
Brown-eyed kids exacted their revenge
Why are stereotypes maintained?
Illusory correlation
Out-group homogeneity effect
See correlations where they don’t exist
Remember confirmatory examples more
Example: Cheerleaders are outgoing
Us vs. them
“All ______ are alike”
In-group bias
Positive feelings for people who are part of our ingroup
Alumni, state residency
Fundamental Attribution Error
Interpret behavior as a characteristic of the
individual rather than the situation
Do not take into account the situation
Person unemployed is a bad worker
Bush caused war
Jeopardy player is really smart
Maintain stereotypes:
Attribute confirmatory examples to the individual
Ignore/attribute to the situation examples which don’t
fit or stereotype
Persuasion
Yale Attitude
Change
Hovland, 1953
The effectiveness of communication depends
on who says what to whom.
Who: The persuader or source
• Credibility (expertise, knowledge)
• Attractiveness
Persuasion
What: The message
• One- vs. two-sided messages
• Blatantly persuasive
• Primacy vs. recency
Depends on when decision is made
• Fear arousing
To whom: The recipient
• Distraction
• Intelligence
• Age
Persuasive techniques
Foot
in the door
Door in the face
Reciprocity—create an obligation
Low-ball—obtain commitment then up the
price
Sweeten the deal
Exclusivity
Prestige
Heider’s Balance Theory
We
want to maintain consistency among
our attitudes
Prefer to agree with someone I like
Disagree with someone I dislike
Object
+
Object
+
Self
--
Other
+
+
Self
Other
--
Balance Theory
What
if my attitudes are imbalanced?
Object
--
Object
+
Self
+
Other
Self
+
+
Other
--
Change beliefs about the object
Change beliefs about the person
• Change whichever is easier