Attitude and

pro-social
behavior

Unit - 3
Syllabus

Definition, nature, components, functions. Attitude formation and

change. Attitude Vs Actions, Attitude and behaviour (briefly).
LaPierre’s study. Persuasion. Resistance to persuasion (briefly).
Cognitive dissonance. Hypocrisy. (Illustrations and analyses of
Indian/ Tamil Nadu cases)
Responding to emergency steps. Classic studies and experiments.
The helpers and those who receive help (briefly). Altruistic
personality, volunteering. Explaining pro-social behaviour:
Empathy altruism model, negative state relief model, empathic
joy hypothesis, genetic determinism
In this 3rd unit, will see

• How attitude is connected with persuasion, cognitive dissonance

and prosocial behavior.
Attitude

• Refer to people’s evaluation of almost any aspect of the world.

• People can have favorable or unfavorable reactions to issues,

ideas, objects, action, a specific person or entire social group.
• Schema facilitates the process for evaluation of attitude objects.
An attitude is a “psychological tendency that
is expressed by evaluating a particular entity
with some degree of favor or disfavor” (Eagly
& Chaiken, 1993, p. 1).
Cont…..
A learned predisposition to respond in a uniformly
favorable or unfavorable manner with respect to a
given object. [Fishbein and Ajzen (1975)]

Eagly and Chaiken (1993)

Attitude is a psychological tendency that is
expressed through evaluating a scrupulous entity
with some degree of favor or disfavor.
Attitude comprises

•Our opinions, emotions,

perceptions, beliefs,
expectations, values.
Attitudes can be:

1. Positive: Favorable, supportive, or optimistic.

2. Negative: Unfavorable, critical, or pessimistic.
3. Neutral: Indifferent, impartial, or unbiased.
4. Ambivalent: Mixed or conflicting feelings.
Attitudes can influence:

1. Perception: How we interpret information. ( how do you see things

whereas attitude is the way of approach after subjective assessment of
how things would affect.) .
2. Decision-making: Choices and judgments.
3. Relationships: Interactions and communication.
4. Performance: Motivation and achievement.

This slide is not needed.

Example

Attitude towards the self is described self-esteem, negative attitudes towards

specific groups are described prejudice, attitudes towards individuals are

described interpersonal attraction, and attitude towards own job is described

job satisfaction. Simply defined, attitudes are usually positive or negative

views of a person (including one) place, thing, or event (the attitude object).
Nature of attitude

• Explicit attitude – consciously accessible attitudes –

controllable & easy to report.
• Overtly expressed or keep to oneself.
Implicit attitude – unconscious association between objects &
evaluative responses.

For example, someone may have a positive, explicit attitude

toward his job; however, unconsciously, he may have a lot of
negative associations with it (e.g., having to wake up early, the
long commute) which results in an implicitly negative attitude.
• (Schema + priming) or (new exposure) ------ evaluate the object
-------{ decide your behavior or you keep it within your
mind(explicit)}/-------- {store that as added information about that
particular object that done by a subliminal process (implicit)}-----
bias/prejudice/attributions.

• E g., Dog – use schema to analyze the behavior or body language

of a dog and finally you decide whether to approach or avoid
( behavior or thought
Characteristics of attitude
• Attitude has an object
• Attitudes are learned
• Attitudes are predisposition
• Attitudes are relatively stable phenomena
• Attitude has an emotional component
• Attitude influence human behavior
Attitude – components

• ABC MODEL/TRI-COMPONENT
• Affective
• Behavior
• Cognitive
Affective

• Refers to feelings or emotions associated with an attitude object

• Feelings affect attitudes is due to affective reactions that are

aroused in the individual after exposure to the attitude object.
Cognitive

• The cognitive component of attitudes refers to beliefs, thoughts

and attributes we associate with a particular object.
Behavior

• How you respond to someone or something that is based on

your set of feelings and beliefs that you have onto that
particular attitude object. This can be a verbal or a physical
response.
How attitudes can be
changed through ?
Attitudes can be changed through:

1. Experience: New information or situations.(e.g., before and after effect)

2. Social influence: Interactions with others, persuasion
3. Learning: Education and personal growth.
4. Reflection: Self-awareness and introspection.

And other factors would influence us.

Attitude formation

classical conditioning
Instrumental conditioning
Social learning theories
 Obsevational learning
 Social comparison
1. Classical conditioning
Classical conditioning

• Classical conditioning – association

• Unconscious or subliminal process
• Repeated exposure and pairing-- attitude formation
• Memory link formed – even the unconditioned stimulus is
presented for short period of time – it will become conditioned.
{E.g., ads (actors)}
• If negative emotions are attached with that particular stimulus –
hard to change your attitude towards that stimulus. Especially
threats.
• E.g., we still hesitate to trust China, Pakistan & Srilanka gov.
Arthur and Carolyn Staats (1958) were two of
the first researchers who systematically studied
the classical conditioning of attitudes. They
mannered an experiment in which the goal was
to condition positive and negative attitudes to
the names of countries (Sweden and Holland)
which previously were regarded neither
positively nor negatively.
Throughout 108 conditioning trials, two
nationalities were always followed through a
negative word (e.g. failure), two were paired with
positive adjectives (e.g. happy, gift), and two others
were paired with neutral words (e.g. table). At the
end of the experiment, it was indeed found that
participants held more positive attitudes towards
the nationalities associated with positive words and
more negative attitudes toward those associated
with negative words.
Which state would you like
to visit?
• Canberra
• Albany
• Broome
• Toowomba
Canberra
Albany
Broome
Toowomba
2. Instrumental conditioning

• Rewards shape our attitudes toward stimuli.

• +Ve reinforcement – strengthen our attitude expression/behavior
• -ve reinforcement – weaken our attitude expression/behavior.

• Our old attitude can be changed if a new setting expects or

demand a different view.
• E.g., peer group pressure, moral development….
Eg.,
Child: ―Mummy, doesn‘t Mausi look nice in her green dress? She really knows how
to carry herself.‖ Mother: ―You are absolutely right dear. I‘ve felt that for some time
now and was hoping you would agree. Your dress sense is really getting evolved. You
can now suggest me what to wear the after that time we go out.‖ This kind of
conversation illustrates quite clearly the role of reinforcement in attitude formation.
Following her mother‘s agreement, it is likely that the child‘s initial responses of a
positive attitude in relation to the Mausi will be reinforced. Of course, had the child
remarked that Mausi looks awful; the mother might have reacted with displeasure,
thereby punishing the remark. Following reward, the child‘s attitude is likely to be
strengthened; whereas punishment would almost certainly lead to a weakening of the
attitude.
3. Attitudes are formed through social
learning
• Observational learning (Modeling & Imitation)

Attention retention

Reproductio
Motivation
n

• Social comparison – reference group or person.

• We more likely to adopt the view of a person whom you admire and
trust and whom you think that you both share more similarities.
• And also if you desire to be like that particular person, you also follow
the attitude of that person. E.g., following celebrities ideas and
opinions.
Peer group….
• Easily influenced by the people we like or with whom we share
similarities.
• Relevance and feeling – strong components for anyone to be
influenced
e.g.,
For instance, you might develop a negative attitude towards the
college
canteen if you saw someone throwing up after having a meal there.
That person’s behavior - observational learning.
your negative attitude - instrumental conditioning.

The rationale behind commercials of say, Pizza Hut which show

someone ordering and then obviously enjoying a pizza is that the
viewer will also form a positive attitude vicariously and imitate
such behavior in the future.
Attitude &
Behavior
How attitude formation
influence our behavior?
Attitudes and Behaviour

• Incongruence of attitude and behavior

• LaPierre study (1934) – not act as per their attitude, modify

behavior depends on social pressure.
Role of Social context in the link btw. Attitude
and behavior. (result of all the three learning
theories)
• Social consequences – We choose how to behave irrespective of
our attitude.
• Greater certainty – link to behave
• If you believe or think that your certain attitudes are stable – for
a long run – your will be certain about that attitude– you will act
on them naturally & spontaneously.

• We can unlearn the attitudes, but if you are standing firmly by

holding that attitude, then its quite hard for changing the attitude.
CONT….

• Wanting to express their attitude – if it’s in the direction of

perceived group norms.
• If their norms are against your view – you hesitate to express.

• Applies for people who highly identify themselves with that

particular group.
• Self-reliant and people who desires to be unique, who set clear
boundaries from others --- without hesitation share their view.
Strength of Attitudes -
stable – hard for persuasion
• Moral convictions – intense feeling that whether it’s right to hold –
Others can strongly predict your behavior based on the moral values
you follow.
• Extremity of an attitude – determine by our emotions
• Degree of certainty – aware of one’s attitude
• Personal experience with the attitude object – that determines our
attitude, whenever we encounter same situation or persons

• These three factors determine - accessibility.

Attitude extremity

• Strong paired emotions. E.g., fear, guilt, anger, emotional

attraction, love….
Attitude certainty

• Attitude clarity – clear about one’s attitude

• Attitude correctness – feeling one’s attitude is right to hold.

• In social context – we prefer attitude correctness over clarity.

Role of personal experience

• Personal experience & relevance – stronger than implicit

attitudes.

• Resistant to change

• E.g., your own experience of dealing emotional issues vs. Your

friend’s experience.
How do attitudes guide
behavior?
• Reasoned action/theory of planned behavior
• Attitude towards the behavior
• Subjective norms
• Perceived behavior control
• Attitude & spontaneous behavioral reactions
Persuasion
The science of persuasion

• has someone tried to convince or demanded to change your

attitude for these past two weeks?
Why do we listen to some
and change our attitude?
Persuasion elements

• Communicators, messages & audiences

Communicators

• Credible – expertise in the content

• Similarities
• Physically attractive. E.g., advertisement.
• Perceived likability (we like cricket players, they will be a spokespersons for
some ads.)
• Known persons (word of mouth marketing) e.g., friends opinion,
recommendation

• E.g., COVID – NURSE INTERNS

Messages

• messages which are aimed to persuade others – mostly people

won’t respond to it.
• Messages that arouse strong emotions
• Fear appeals – not effective
• Evoking fear - effective
• Simply giving information and focusing on the benefits (positive
framing of sentence) – attracts quite a lot of people.
Audiences

• When we are distracted, we will be easily influenced.

• Lack of awareness on the content of conversation.
Even an expert speaks, we may
not be persuaded. Reason?

• Need
• Motivation
• Interest
• Relevance
• Awareness
• Relationship with the attitude object
The cognitive process
underlying persuasion.
How do we process information?
Cognitive approaches -
Persuasion

Systematic processing

Heuristic processing
 Systematic processing
• Systematic processing – central route to persuasion
We make a conscious effort in analyzing info.
If we have more knowledge & time – engage in most effortful &
systematic process
Message is perceived important to analyze accurately.

• Caffeine – helps you to use this process (active)

• When people are not distracted – can well engage in systematic
process.
Heuristic processing

Heuristic processing – peripheral route to persuasion

Based on our beliefs, prior knowledge or you feel good, when you
hear the info. – automatic process
Information may not be important or We may not have proper
cognitive resources to access or
• not able to retrieve or time is not sufficient.
• Our motivation to access our cognition is less.
• When the info. Is not relevant to you or situation – you may use
this heuristic method to process the info.

• Ads, politicians, sales persons make us to use Heuristic process

– you will be easily persuaded.

• If messages contain cues (experts, likeable person, seemingly

expert,..) – induced to use heuristic method
Elaboration – likelihood
model
Persuasion occurs in one of two ways – central route or peripheral
route.
Persuasion effectiveness – focus on
the following aspects from receivers’
view.
• Relevance
• Motivation
• Need
• Awareness
• Relation
Resisting Persuasion
Attempts
• Reactance – protect the personal freedom – feel threatened to
their individuality & image of being an independent person.
• Forewarning: prior knowledge of persuasive intent.
E.g., commercials. We aware of other’ s I tent. We stay firm,
when we know that other person is going to influence or
manipulate you.
• Selective avoidance of persuasion attempts.
• Actively defending our attitudes
• Individual differences in resistance to persuasion
• Ego-depletion
• Inoculation
• Biased assimilation
• Attitude polarization
• Cognitive dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance

• Festinger to had the thought that people experience a sense of

guilt or uneasiness when two connected cognitions are
inconsistent, such as when there are two conflicting attitudes in
relation to the topic, or inconsistencies flanked by one’s attitude
and behavior on a certain topic.
The basic thought of the Cognitive Dissonance Theory relating to
attitude change, is that people are motivated to reduce
dissonance which can be achieved through changing their
attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors (action).
• There is a gap between attitude and behavior.
• Incongruence – discomfort – elevated activity in left region of
brain – we try to change our attitude even in the absence of
strong external pressure – so that will be in consistent with our
overt behavior.
Cont…

• Changing the behavior

• Self-affirmation (indirect tactics)
Pro-social Behavior