User:Atcovi/Spring2024/Social Psychology/Ch. 5

Attitudes, or evaluations that color our experience of any aspect of the world, can be explicit (easy to report) or implicit (not easy to report). We may get attitudes from others through social learning. Learning can be...
 * Classical conditioning - neutral stimulus becomes a stimulus.
 * Observational learning - Learn some new behaviors by observing others. Similar to subliminal conditioning and mere exposure.
 * Instrumental/operational learning - Responses that lead to positive outcomes/lessen negative outcomes are strengthened.

When we move through social networks, our attitudes may change due to social comparison.

Factors that affect the strength of the relationship between attitudes and behavior

 * Situational constraints, including pluralistic ignorance (you share the same opinion as others because you don't want to be the outcast).
 * Attitude strength: extremity, certainty, personal experience [with attitude object].

Attitudes can influence behavior through 2 means
Can give careful thought to our attitudes, and intentions that spur from attitudes STRONGLY predict behavior.
 * Theory of reasoned action
 * Theory of planned behavior
 * According to attitude-to-behavior process model, events trigger our attitudes and, simultaneously, the appropriate norms for how people should or typically do behave in a given situation.
 * According to the theory of planned behavior, our behavioral intentions are based off of 3 factors: attitude towards behavior, subjective norms, and percieved behavior control (what are the consequences of said behavior? what are people going to say about said behavior?).

Other Info
Vested Interest: You oppose raising the drinking age because you run an alcohol selling business.

"Whistle-blowers" go against corporations because their attitude is extreme, they are certain in their claims, and from their own personal experiences.

Components of Attitude Certainty

 * Attitude clarity - clear on what their attitude is (repeated expressions of attitude, ex.)
 * Attitude correctness - Feeling that their attitude is the proper one to hold.

Attitudes based on direct experience are going to be stronger.

The two factors that determine whether we engage in effortful or effortless processing of information comes down to:


 * Capacity to process information
 * Motivation level

Persuasion focuses on...

 * Source
 * Message
 * Audience

We process persuasion through systematic processing (careful attention to message content) and heuristic processing (mental shortcuts). More coffee = increase persuasion.

What are most influential when it comes to persuasion?


 * 1) Self-relevance - If its more relevant for us, we are more likely to be persuaded.
 * 2) Credibility/expertise
 * 3) Arguments against self-interests
 * 4) Attractiveness
 * 5) Who we know?
 * 6) No forewarning
 * 7) If they are positively framed or not?

When message relevance is high, people process persuasive messages more systematically and in this mode, argument strength is important. Attractiveness also increases persuasion. If you dislike someone/see someone as 'dissimilar' to you, then you will probably not be persuaded by them.

Resisting persuasion
What two factors make some people more resistant to persuasive efforts?
 * Reactance: negative reactions to efforts by others to reduce/limit our freedom.
 * Forewarning: I know you're tryna convince me! Does not work when a person is distracted/can't sustain their argument.
 * Selective avoidance: intentionally disregarding info beforehand that doesn't align with our views.
 * If we are ego-depleted, people experience increased difficulty in self-regulation (equally persuaded by weak/strong arguments).


 * 1) Engagement in conscious counter-arguing
 * 2) Bolstering one's initial attitude position

Cognitive Dissonance
...an unpleasant state that occurs when we notice discrepancies between our attitudes and behavior (the poor should just work harder --> [whilst simotaneously believing] in a religious scripture that advocates for helping the poor no matter what). Dissonance is stronger when we have little justification for our attitude-inconsistent behavior.

Smaller rewards --> greater attitude change: less-leads-to-more effect, because the person thinks they are in the right.

This takes place in "forced compliance" (forced by external factors to say/do things that are inconsistent with our attitudes).

Ways of coping with dissonance
Tightness vs. looseness: cultures differ dramatically in the extent to which people are expected to act in ways that are consistent with prevailing social norms. Tight cultures expect people to adhere to social norms (Pakistan, India) --> personal attitudes, less likely guides for behavior.
 * changing our attitudes
 * trivialization (inconsistency is unimportant)
 * indirect strategies (focusing on other positive feature of the self).
 * dissonance that is induced by making us aware of our own hypocrisy can result in behavioral changes.
 * Self affirmance - give confidence to one self in a related field in a new/unknown field.

US --> loose culture --> loose attitudes are good guides for behavior.