Topic 1: Attitudes

Attitude Formation
Lecture #1 of 3 Kevin M. Williams July, 2005

Attitudes

Evaluations of various aspects of the social world The extent to which we hold positive/negative reactions to issues, ideas, persons, etc. More enduring than passing preferences Highly resistant to change Long history of psychological study

e.g., Allport, 1924

Why are attitudes important?

Attitudes strongly influence two major aspects of our lives:

Social thought the way we think about social information Social behavior e.g., protesting, voting, interpersonal relations

Attitudes are pervasive:

We hold attitudes about virtually all topics Range from major to minor issues

We have attitudes about

Attitude formation

Most attitudes become solidified during teen years and early adulthood Social learning: Acquiring new information, forms of behaviour, and attitudes from other persons We are influenced by the people around us:

friends, family, co-workers, etc.

Types of social learning:

Classical conditioning Instrumental conditioning Observational learning

Classical conditioning

Based on association One stimulus becomes a signal for a second stimulus E.g., Pavlovs dogs: bell eventually became a signal for food and produced salivating Attitudes may form in a similar fashion

Classical conditioning

Initially, the bell is paired with food to produce salivating Eventually, the food is no longer required to produce salivating Similarly, a certain person may be paired with a negative reaction by a parent, leading to the child becoming upset Eventually, the negative reaction is no longer required to make the child upset

Classical conditioning
Initially Parents reaction = unconditioned stimulus Upset child = unconditioned response
Over time Person X = conditioned stimulus Upset child = conditioned response

Classical conditioning
food

bell
parents negative reaction

salivating

person X

child upset

Classical conditioning
food

bell
parents negative reaction

salivating

person X

Child upset

Classical conditioning

The initial conditioning behavior must occur several times Classical conditioning can occur unconsciously (i.e., without awareness) subliminal

conditioning

E.g., during a TV commercial: photos of positive images flashed for a very brief period of time Over time, the product in the commercial becomes paired with positive feelings

Instrumental learning

Also called operant conditioning Rewards and punishments Strengthening of responses that lead to:

positive outcomes avoidance of negative outcomes

Instrumental learning

If a child is praised for holding a certain attitude, they will be more likely to continue holding this attitude On the other hand, punishment leads to rejecting attitudes Positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement

Instrumental conditioning

Explains why:

Children may have attitudes about topics they do not fully understand (e.g., politics) Children and adults hold similar attitudes up until teen years Subsequently, teens begin to evaluate attitudes independent of parents reactions

Observational learning

Learning by example Attitudes may be transmitted unintentionally by parents Child may observe their parent smoking, which may lead to a positive attitude towards smoking Child may overhear a certain attitude being conveyed by a parent that they were not meant to hear

Observational learning

Attitudes also learned from media Individuals want to imitate the people around them, or people they look up to Observational learning is evident in trends

E.g., attitudes towards clothes, etc.

Social comparison

Festinger (1954) We compare ourselves to others in order to determine whether our view of social reality is correct or incorrect If our attitudes match those of others, then we must be correct (desirable) Thus, we often change our attitudes to conform with those of other people (e.g., friends) Occurs even if you had no previous experience with the topic

Maio, Esses, & Bell (1994)

Participants learned of a (fictitious) group of people the Camarians Told that many Camarians were applying to immigrate to Canada Received either positive or negative ratings of Camarians from England raters After receiving negative ratings, participants less likely to give positive ratings of Camarians or support their immigration Why? Participants motivated to be similar to England raters (want to be correct)

Cultural factors: The study of Values

Cultural differences in attitudes are often examined by focusing on cultural values:

principles of life that include moral beliefs and our standards of conduct

Differ from attitudes in that they are broader, more abstract Like attitudes, values convey what is important in our lives

Values

Ten types (Schwartz, 1992):

Power Achievement Hedonism Stimulation Self-direction - Universalism - Benevolence - Tradition - Conformity - Security

E.g., value of security relates to various attitudes (e.g., war, gun control, expectations of privacy, etc.)

The stability of values

There are typically no sex differences in values The same values are found across cultures

e.g., Schwartzs ten values

Peoples value preferences tend to remain constant over time

Values, behaviour and culture

Values predict attitudes, which predict behaviour Like attitudes, values can be culturally transmitted via social learning and shaped by social comparison at home/school/by friends E.g. Western cultures value individualism more so than Eastern cultures

Canadian/American differences

Canadians value equality more so than freedom, Americans are opposite but both values are regarded highly in both countries Canadians are more communitarian (community-minded) than Americans

Canadian trends

Temporal trends: Canadians values are shifting towards

(1) higher individualism, (2) devaluing of institutions, and (3) greater diversity (i.e., more diverse set of values, and greater acceptance of diversity)

However, these changes are very gradual, and more traditional values are still most popular

Genetic factors: Are attitudes inherited?

We typically think of physical characteristics such as height, eye color, etc. as inherited However, thought occurs within the brain, and brain structure is genetically influenced Studies have demonstrated that there is in fact a small genetic component in attitudes

Attitudes: Twin studies

The attitudes of identical twins are more common than those of non-identical twins or unrelated people Also true for twins raised apart Some attitudes are more heritable than others:

attitudes involving relatively basic topics (e.g., music) are more heritable than those involving more cognitive or abstract ideas (e.g., equality) more resistant to change more likely to influence behavior

Highly heritable attitudes are:

Personality factors

Personality traits tend to have a strong genetic component How does personality relate to attitudes and values? Roccas et al. (2002):

Personality trait

Correlates with

Agreeableness
Extraversion Conscientiousness Openness to Experience

Benevolence, Tradition
Achievement, Stimulation Achievement, Conformity Self-direction, Universalism

Other personality traits related to attitudes:

Right-wing authoritarianism

Deference to established authority Think in terms of in-groups and out-groups Negative attitudes towards out-groups Support traditional values

Social dominance orientation

Desires superiority, dominance for their ingroup Negative attitudes towards out-groups Do not value equality

Summary: Attitude formation

Attitudes are evaluations of various aspects of the social world, which influence thought and behavior Attitudes may be formed via classical conditioning, instrumental conditioning, observational learning, or social comparison Once formed, attitudes tend to be highly resistant to change Cultural, genetic, and personality factors are all highly relevant to attitudes Next lecture: Attitudes and behavior

Topic 1: Attitudes

Attitudes and Behaviour

Lecture #2 of 3 Kevin M. Williams July, 2005

Attitudes and behaviour

Why is it important to study attitudes? Presumably, attitudes are a strong predictor of actual behaviour but does scientific research support this claim?

Attitudes predict behaviour:

Research has demonstrated that attitudes predict a multitude of behaviours, including:

church-going behaviour (Rokeach, 1968) contraceptive use (Sheeran et al., 1999) classroom cheating (Whitley, 2001) voting (Britt, 2003) dieting (Conner et al., 2003) sexual assault (Malamuth, 2003)

When attitudes dont predict behaviour:

Other researchers have argued that attitudes do not predict behaviour (e.g., Wicker, 1969) e.g.: LaPiere (1934) Traveled around the US with a Chinese couple, stopping at restaurants, hotels, etc. (250 locations in total) Received polite service from almost every location

When attitudes dont predict behaviour:

Afterwards, LaPiere wrote back to these establishments and asked them if they would offer service to Chinese visitors Of those that responded, over 90% stated that they would NOT serve Chinese customers Thus, attitudes clearly unrelated to behaviour in this example

When attitudes dont predict behaviour:

Similar findings have been made in subsequent studies (e.g., Wicker, 1969) Attitudes unrelated to:

Pro-environmental behavior (Kasapoglu and Ecevit, 2002) Risky sexual behavior (Shearer et al., 2005)

Attitudes and behavior

Sowhen and how do attitudes actually predict behavior? There appear to be two important factors:

(1) aspects of the situation (2) aspects of the attitudes themselves

When attitudes predict behaviour:

Situational factors

Situational constraints:

Factors that prevent us from expressing attitudes in overt behavior Situations where me must be polite Places where we are expected to be quiet, respectful Situations where it is important for us to make a certain impression

Situational constraints

There are many examples of situations that constrain our behaviour:

In each of these examples, society dictates that we act in a certain manner, and we may not be able to reveal our true attitudes

Choosing situations

Situations influence the attitude-behaviour link, but our attitudes predict the situations we enter into We tend to prefer situations where we are free to express our attitudes openly We prefer to surround ourselves with other people who share our attitudes

Aspects of attitudes: Attitude origins

Aspects of attitudes themselves also affect when attitudes influence behavior Attitude origins:

Attitudes formed on the basis of direct experience (as opposed to ones we may overhear from other people) are more likely to influence behavior Attitudes with these origins are stronger and more accessible (easier to bring to mind)

Attitude strength

Attitude strength:

Several components to strength:

Stronger attitudes are more likely to predict behavior Intensity (strength of emotional reaction) Knowledge (of the attitude object) Importance (extent to which the person cares deeply about the attitude and is personally affected by it)

Vested interest is related to importance (i.e.,

relevance, important personal consequences) Higher vested interest = more likely to influence behavior

Attitude specificity

Attitude specificity:

extent to which attitudes are focused on specific objects or situations rather than on general ones

Attitudes predict behaviors to the extent that the two are measured at the same level of specificity E.g., going to religious services is more strongly associated to service-going attitudes than to general attitudes towards religion

Triandis Attitude-Behaviour Model

Attitudes contain three components, which influence ones intention to act: 1) Perceived consequences of action (C):

Will be the effects of my action be positive? Will this action produce positive emotions? e.g., Do I have a social obligation to act?

2) Affect evoked by the action (A):

3) Social factors (S):

Triandis Attitude-Behaviour Model

These three aspects are summed to predict Behavioural Intention (I):

Consequences (C)

+ Affect
(A)

Behavioural Intention
(I)

+
Social Factors (S)

How attitudes influence

behaviour

Theory of planned behaviour: individuals consider the implications of their actions before deciding to perform various behaviors Also called the theory of reasoned action A rational process that is goal-oriented and follows a logical sequence We consider our behavioral options, evaluate the consequences/outcomes of each, and reach a decision as to how to act or not to act This decision is reflected in our behavioral intentions (our intentions to act a certain way)

Theory of planned behavior: Example

You are considering getting a piercing or tattoo You will likely ask three questions to yourself:

1) what are my attitudes towards this behavior? 2) how will other people react to this behavior? (subjective norms) 3) how easy/difficult will this behaviour be to accomplish? (perceived behavioural control)

Theory of planned behavior

Attitudes Subjective norms Perceived control Behavioral Intentions

Behaviour

Attitudes and immediate behaviours

What about when we dont have time to consider these factors or we act impulsively? Attitude-to-behaviour process model

a more automatic process

The process is initiated when a situation activates an attitude thus the attitude becomes more accessible

Attitude-to-behavior process model

E.g., you typically dont think about your attitude towards panhandling until you are confronted by a panhandler Once activated, the attitude influences your perceptions of the attitude object Knowledge of social norms is also activated (i.e., you may politely so sorry, no change to the panhandler rather than yell and swear at them) Together, the newly-accessed attitude and the social norms influence behavior

Gender or culture differences in the attitude-behaviour link?

Limited evidence Blanchard et al. (2003): Exercise behaviour For students of European heritage, the attitudebehaviour link is stronger for females For students of African heritage, the attitudebehaviour link is stronger for males More research is necessary

Summary: Attitudes and Behaviour

Although attitudes tend be strongly related to behaviour, the link is not always that clear When attitudes influence behaviour depends on:

Aspects of the situation The attitudes themselves

How attitudes influence behaviour is explained

by:

the theory of planned behaviour the attitude-to-behavior process model

Next lecture: how attitudes can be changed,

and what happens when our attitudes differ from our behaviour

Topic 1: Attitudes

Attitude Change and Attitude-Behaviour Discrepancies

Lecture #3 of 3 Kevin M. Williams July, 2005

Persuasion

Evidence suggests that attitudes are very stable and resistant to change Persuasion = attempts to change someones attitudes but what makes a persuasion effective?

Hovlands Three Component Model

There are three components involved in persuasion:

Source

The communicator The communication The audience (can be a person or group)

Message

Target

The communicator

Various aspects of the communicator increase their persuasiveness:

Credibility

expertise, trustworthiness, sincerity

good looks, popularity, likeability rapid speech suggests expertise

Attractiveness

Speaks rapidly

The message

Similarly, aspects of the message increase its persuasiveness:

Non-obvious persuasion

seems like the goal of the message is apparently not to influence especially if the audience is knowledgeable about the issues refute an opponents perspective e.g., use of fear is effective if the level is moderate and ways to avoid the feared situation are included

Present both sides of the issue

Arousing emotion

The audience

Finally, aspects of the audience are also important Research suggests that some audiences are easier to influence:

Low/moderate self-esteem Younger age groups

i.e., less than 25 yrs old

How does attitude change occur?

A cognitive approach The Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM): Petty & Cacioppo, 1990 Persuasion can occur in either of two different ways: Central route:

Peripheral route:

systematic processing of information message content use of persuasion cues: information concerning the status or expertise of the persuader

ELM: A tale of two routes

Peripheral route relies on heuristic processing: mental shortcuts (rules of thumb)

low cognitive effort e.g., experts can be trusted

Central route requires more cognitive effort

Central vs. Peripheral routes

Decision to use central vs. peripheral depends on our mental capacity and our motivation We tend to use the central route when:

We are knowledgeable about the subject We have sufficient ability/time to engage in careful thought We are highly motivated Issue is important to us

Applications of ELM

Persuaders tend to target the peripheral route b/c it is more conducive to attitude change

When a topic is unimportant, the arguments related to message/content have virtually no impact on persuasion

e.g., attractive spokespersons, well-dressed, wellspoken (as opposed to message content)

People are more easily persuaded when they are distracted

Because the audience is using the peripheral route

capacity to process info is limited, thus audience adopts heuristic processing

Long-term effects of ELM

Attitude change via peripheral route is more effective initially, but Attitudes that are changed via the central route seem to last longer than those changed via the peripheral route (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986) Central route persuasion is also more resistant to subsequent change (Petty et al., 1994) Central route attitudes are more closely linked to behavior Central route attitudes are stronger

Cultural values and persuasion cues

Han & Shavitt, 1994 North American, European magazines contain advertisements with more individualistic slogans

individuality self-reliance competition

Eastern Asian magazines contain more collectivistic slogans

family/group well-being harmony

Ad slogans

Individualistic slogans:

A leader among leaders Shes got a style all her own You, only better Sharing is beautiful The dream of prosperity for all of us Successful partnerships

Collectivistic slogans:

Do these differences matter?

Han & Shavitt (1994) also found that: American subjects were more persuaded by individualistic ads Korean subjects were more persuaded by collectivist ads Thus, cultural factors play an important role in persuasion

Resisting persuasion

Despite the fact that we are constantly exposed to persuasion attempts (e.g., ads) our attitudes tend to remain stable Why? Some main reasons:

Reactance Forewarning Selective avoidance Biased assimilation Attitude polarization

Reactance

Our negative reaction to perceiving that our personal freedom is being threatened Occurs anytime we feel that a persuader is simply trying to get us to do what they say Extreme reactance leads to negative

attitude change:

we do the opposite of what the persuader is asking

Advance knowledge that someone is going to try to persuade us We are less likely to be persuaded if forewarning is present Being caught off guard makes persuasion more effective Why? Advance knowledge of persuasion allows us to build up our defenses:

Forewarning

Forewarning is especially useful at resisting persuasion when the topic is personally important

form counterarguments recall relevant info and facts from memory

Selective avoidance

Tendency to direct attention away from information that challenges existing attitudes e.g., changing the TV channel on when we encounter something we dont agree with The opposite also occurs: pay more attention to information that supports our views Together, these two processes are called

selective exposure

Not only is this method used as a defense against attitude change, but it is also a strong method of reinforcing our existing attitudes

Biased assimilation

Evaluating information that disconfirms our existing views as less convincing or reliable than information that confirms our views e.g., gun owners evaluate gun control research as poor quality; pro-gun research as high quality People who dislike guns make the opposite evaluations, even though both parties read the same research

Attitude polarization

Tendency to evaluate mixed evidence in such a way as to strengthen our initial views and make them more extreme People pick out the aspects of the evidence that confirm their existing attitudes Why? One reason: people tend to react negatively (e.g., annoyance, contempt) to information that conflicts with their own attitudes One consequence is of these negative reactions is the hostile media bias:

perceiving that the source of conflicting information is biased

Cognitive dissonance = an unpleasant internal state that results when individuals notice inconsistency between:

Changing our own attitudes: Cognitive dissonance

two or more attitudes, or between attitudes and behaviour i.e., being hypocritical situations in which we are forced by circumstances to say/do something that contradicts our attitudes

e.g., Induced compliance (forced compliance):

Often, behaving in ways that are inconsistent with our attitudes causes us to change our attitudes Attitude change decreases the discrepancy and thus reduces negative affect

How do we reduce dissonance?

There are direct and indirect modes of reducing dissonance Three direct modes of reducing dissonance: 1) actual change of attitudes/behavior so that they are consistent 2) acquiring new info i.e, that is consistent with attitudes or actions that seem inconsistent at first 3) trivialization minimizing the importance of the inconsistency by minimizing the importance of the attitude or behavior

Indirect strategies

Indirect strategies leave the discrepancy intact but reduce the unpleasant internal state i.e., making ourselves feel better while ignoring the discrepancy Indirect strategies more likely to be used when the discrepancy involves important attitudes

Self-affirmation

One indirect strategy for reducing cognitive dissonance is self-affirmation:

restoring positive self-evaluations that are threatened by the dissonance

Self-affirmation is accomplished by focusing on positive self-attributes (i.e., good things about yourself) e.g., I broke my diet today, but Im still a healthy person in general Other indirect strategies:

drinking alcohol engaging in distracting activities simple expressions of positive affect (e.g., smiling)

The Less-Leads-to-More Effect

If there are strong reasons for behaving in ways that contradict our attitudes:

Dissonance will be low or non-existent No motivation to make our attitudes match our behaviour

But, if there is no good reason for your counterattitudinal behaviour:

Dissonance will be strong Strong motivation to make our attitudes match our behaviour

Hence, the Less-Leads-to-More effect

The Less-Leads-to-More Effect

Good reason for hypocritical behaviour Low Dissonance small attitude change

No good reason for hypocritical behaviour

High Dissonance

LARGE attitude change

The Less-Leads-to-More Effect

The Less-Leads-to-More effect occurs only under certain conditions:

Person believes they have a choice as to whether or not to perform the attitude-discrepant behavior Small rewards lead to greater attitude change only when person believes that they are personally responsible for both the chosen course of action and any negative effects it produces Occurs only when person perceives the reward they receive as a well-deserved payment for their action, not as a bribe

Using dissonance for the forces of good

Dissonance can be used to produce beneficial changes in behaviour e.g., promoting non-smoking, seat-belt use, etc. Dissonance especially useful when used to generate feelings of hypocrisy

publicly advocating some attitude or behavior and

then acting in a way that is inconsistent with this attitude or behavior

For example

Public attitude-behaviour discrepancies

January 1998
August 1998

I did not have sexual relations with that woman.

Oops.

Public attitude-behaviour discrepancies

March 2005
July 2005

I have never used steroids. Period.

Oops.

Dissonance and beneficial behaviour change

For this strategy to work, several conditions must exist:

persons in question must publicly advocate the desired behaviors must be induced to think about their own failures to show these behaviors in the past must be given access to direct means for reducing their dissonance

Does dissonance actually work in promoting beneficial behaviour?

Dissonance theories suggest that when discrepancies are public, the dissonance should be so strong that indirect methods of reducing it will not work Research has demonstrated that dissonance is effective in promoting safesex behavior

Aspects of the three main elements of persuasion communicator, message, and audience influence the effectiveness of persuasion The Elaboration Likelihood Model states two routes to persuasion: central or peripheral Peripheral is more effective initially, but central produces more lasting changes Cultural factors are important in persuasion We use several strategies to resist persuasion, including reactance and selective avoidance Cognitive dissonance motivates us to resolve attitudebehaviour discrepancies, using either direct or indirect strategies

Summary: Attitude change and attitude-behaviour discrepancies