Social
Social
Social
Chapter 16
Why Study Attitudes?
Attitudes are important because they:
strongly influence our social thought
help to organize and evaluate stimuli (e.g.,
categorizing stimuli as positive or negative)
presumably have a strong affect on behavior
help to predict people’s behavior in wide range of
contexts (e.g., voting, interpersonal relations)
4.5
Attitudes
How are attitudes formed?
Do attitudes influence behavior?
How are attitudes changed?
4.4
Definition
Evaluations of any aspect of our social world.
Automobiles
Abortion
President Bush
Attitude Structure
Gun Control
Co
t
fec
whenever possible.”
io n
Cognition: “Guns in the house
increase the likelihood of children
accidentally shooting themselves.”
Behavior
Attitude Formation
social learning- acquire attitudes from others
classical conditioning- learning based on
association
subliminal conditioning- without awareness
60%
40%
8% 9%
20%
Back 0%
Restaurants Hotels, Motels
Attitude Change
Dissonance Theory
Persuasion
Elaboration-Likelihood Model
Attitude Formation & Change
Cognitive Dissonance Theory
Asked how
Boring
much they
Tasks
enjoyed experiment
20
15
10
0
Control $1 Condition $20 Condition
Condition
Reward Conditions
Cognitive Approach to Attitude Change
Persuasion
efforts to change attitudes through various kinds of
messages.
Early persuasion research focused on:
The communicator (source)
What they said (message)
How they said it (channels)
Who was listening (audience)
Research suggests there are two routes through
which information is processed
The Elaboration-Likelihood Model
Elaboration-Likelihood Model
Nonverbal
cues
Message important
Heuristic
unimportant,
processing
uninteresting
Argument
strength
Peripheral Route unimportant
Nonverbal
cues
Message unimportant
Systematic
important,
processing
interesting
Argument
strength
Central Route important
Figure 16.10 Overview of the persuasion process
Factors Influencing Information
Processing
We tend to use systematic processing when:
we are strongly motivated
accuracy motivation
impression motivation
defensive motivation
we have a high ability to do so
We tend to use heuristic processing when:
we are unmotivated
we lack the ability to systematically process info
Competing Collaborating
High
Distributive
Dimension Integrative
Concern for Your Goals
Dimension
Compromising
Accommodating
Low Avoiding
Low High
Concern for Other’s Goals
Factors That Influence Strategy Selection
Skills
Willingness of other participant
Perception of future relationship
Attributions about others’ behavior
Person Perception:
Forming Impressions of Others
Effects of physical appearance
Cognitive schemas
Stereotypes
Prejudice and discrimination
Subjectivity in person perception
Evolutionary perspectives
Attribution Processes: Explaining
Behavior
Attributions
Internal vs. External
Kelley’s covariation model
Biases in attributions
Fundamental attribution error
Defensive attribution
Self-serving bias
Cultural influences