Attitudes

What is an attitude?
Attitude:

an evaluation, either positive or negative, of a person, object, event, etc., that is exhibited in thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

Three

parts:

1. Cognition (thoughts) 2. Affect (feelings) 3. Behavior (intentions)

Are attitudes useful

Does

knowing peoples attitudes buy us anything in predicting their behavior?

Are attitudes useful?

Please indicate the extent to which you agree with each of the statements below, with 1 being strongly disagree and 5 being strongly agree 1. Engaging in regular physical exercise 3 times a week promotes good health. 2. Eating a variety of foods each day, including 5 or more servings of fresh fruits and vegetables, contributes to wellness.

Are attitudes useful?

1=strongly disagree; 5=strongly agree 3. It is essential that all citizens exercise their right to vote if government is to effectively reflect the will of the people. 4. Homelessness is a serious social problem that needs attention

Are attitudes useful?

Indicate whether each of the following statements are true or false: 1. I take time to engage in regular physical exercise at least three times a week. 2. I regularly eat at least five servings of fresh fruits and vegetables each day.

Are attitudes useful?

True or false? 3. I voted in the last election for which I was eligible. 4. Within the last year, I have personally done something to address the problem of homelessness (e.g., made a charitable contribution, talked with a homeless person, wrote my congressman regarding the problem of homelessness).

Are attitudes useful?

Did

your attitudes predict your behavior?

Why did they? Why didnt they?

Attitudes are not useful

LaPiere

(1934): wrote to ask 251 restaurants and hotels whether they would accept Chinese people as guests

--> 92% of 128 respondents say no --> BUT, 6 months previously, all but one of these places had accepted Chinese people as guests

Attitudes are not useful

Wicker

concluded, in a meta-analysis (statistical review and summary of studies), that attitudes do not add much to the prediction of behavior

Attitudes are useful

Fishbein

& Ajzen: attitudes and behavior must be measured at the same level of specificity

Will attitude toward religion predict whether one will go to church on a particular Sunday? Will attitude toward attending church predict whether one will go to church on a particular Sunday?

Attitudes are useful

Will

attitude toward attending a particular church on a particular Sunday predict whether one will attend a particular church on a particular Sunday?

B=f(P,E)

When are attitudes related to behavior?

1.

Other influences on behavior are minimized 2. Attitude and behavior are measured at the same level of specificity

When are attitudes related to behavior?

What

else might increase the effects of attitudes on behavior?

Youre grocery shopping: Are you more likely to act in line with your attitude toward healthy eating if:
Youve just filled out a questionnaire about how you feel toward vegetables? Youre in a hurry to finish grocery shopping so you can rush home to study social psychology?

 So,

the salience of our attitudes can affect whether we act in accordance with them.

When are attitudes related to behavior?

The more our attitudes are on our minds, the more our behavior will follow.

How

can attitude salience be increased?

Have people think about their attitudes Have people focus on themselves -- e.g., by putting them in front of a mirror

Attitude salience
Are

some attitudes naturally more salient than others?

Which of your attitudes are more salient -tend to be more on your mind? How did you get these attitudes?
Did you have discussions with others? Did they come from direct experience?

If our attitudes come from direct experience, they tend to be more salient

Attitudes lead to behavior

If

other possible influences (e.g., impression management concerns) are minimized If the specificity of the attitude and behavior match If the attitude is salient

Can behavior lead to attitudes?

cognitive

dissonance theory: we feel a sense of anxiety if our behavior does not match our attitudes; we have a drive to ensure that they do match

Cognitive dissonance
If

our behavior does not match our attitudes, what can we do?

Change behavior Frequently, we cannot take back our behavior So, what can we do?
1. Change cognitions 2. Add new cognitions 3. Change the importance of relevant cognitions

The boring task study

How to test cognitive dissonance?

Set up situation in which behavior and cognition do not match See if people change their cognitions

Festinger and Carlsmiths boring task study What would you predict would happen to the attitudes of the $20 people? What would you predict would happen to the attitudes of the $1 people? What did they find?

Cognitive dissonance and boring task

Rating

of enjoyment of experiment (+5- -

5)
1.5 1 0.5 0 -0.5 $1.00 $20.00 Control (no Lie)

Other examples of cognitive dissonance

Toothbrushing

essay study

Write essay to be shown to elementary students for or against toothbrushing

When will cognitive dissonance occur?

Insufficient

justification for our behavior

Lying for $1 vs. $20

People

feel responsible for their behavior People feel they had a choice People think they should have foreseen the consequences

Post-decisional dissonance
Post-decisional

dissonance is a state of psychological dissonance that often occurs after making an important decision.

Post-decisional dissonance
Brehm

(1956) - the first published dissonance experiment: studied postdecisional change in the ranking of products

Post-decisional dissonance

original

postdecisional

1 = radio 1 = radio 2 = blender 2 = blender 3 = mixer 3 = toaster 4 = toaster 4 = mixer 5 = hair dryer 5 = Cuisinart 6 = Cuisinart 6 = pie pan 7 = pie pan 7 = hair dryer 8 = cookie sheet 8 = cookie sheet This is an example of the spreading of alternatives

Examples of postdecisional dissonance

Choosing

a college Other examples?

When does postdecisional dissonance occur?

1) important decisions arouse more dissonance than unimportant ones 2) the more equal the attractiveness of the alternatives, the more difficult the decision 3) the less similar the alternatives, the more dissonance will be aroused

Dissonance assumptions
People

have many pre-existing attitudes. People prefer consistency among attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors Inconsistency creates an aversive state of arousal People may resolve the dissonance (i.e., get rid of the arousal) by changing their attitudes

Non-dissonance explanations

Self-perception theory: Bem (1972): We do not change our attitudes in response to our behavior; instead, we infer our attitudes from our behavior

Do I like Chinese food? I eat it fairly frequently, even when I have the choice of other food. Therefore, I must like it.

Self-perception is a theory of attitude formation; dissonance is a theory of attitude change

Example of selfperception
Fazio

et al. (1981): Had people answer questions that highlighted either their introverted or extroverted aspects, then had them rate their personality Predictions?

If people infer their attitudes from their behavior, who would rate themselves as more extroverted? as more introverted?

Example of selfperception theory

extra. 50

48
People's Ratings of Their Own Personalities intro. 46 44 42 40

answered extroverted questions

answered introverted questions

Assumptions of self-perception theory

People

do not have many pre-existing attitudes We infer others attitudes from their behavior, so we also infer our own attitudes from our own behavior

Implication of self-perception theory

Overjustification

effect: If people think they had external reasons for behaving as they did, they will underestimate the role of their attitudes in their behavior

Example of overjustification effect

Lepper

& Greene (1979):

Two groups of children:

One group rewarded for playing with magic markers Other group not rewarded

After reward no longer given, who continued to play with the magic markers?
The rewarded group? The non-rewarded group?

Non-dissonance explanations
Self-presentation:

We do not have a drive to be consistent; instead, we simply want to see ourselves and have others see us as a consistent person. How is this different from cognitive dissonance?

Motivation: We are not driven by arousal; instead, we want to have an identity as a consistent person

Non-dissonance explanations
Self-affirmation:

Steele: We need to assert self-adequacy

We feel foolish when we think were being inconsistent, so we try to restore our selfesteem This can be done in ways other than changing our attitudes

Example of selfaffirmation
Steele

had people write an essay that was either consistent or inconsistent with their attitudes Half the participants were then given the opportunity to affirm their self-esteem (by filling out a survey about a different attitude that was important to them) Participants then answered questions about their attitude concerning the essay topic

Example of selfaffirmation
If

there is a drive to maintain consistency, self-affirmation opportunity should not matter Those who feel they had a choice in writing the essay, regardless of whether they had a self-affirmation opportunity, should subsequently report more attitude change

Example of self-affirmation: Amount of attitude change

12 10 8 6 4 2 0 Low Choice High Choice High Choice/Not Affirmed High Choice/Affirmed

Summary of behaviorattitude theories

Cognitive

dissonance: people have a drive to be consistent Self-perception: people infer their attitudes from their behavior Self-presentation: people do not have a drive to be consistent, but want to present themselves -- to themselves and others -as consistent Self-affirmation: people want to feel good about themselves

Balance theory
So,

attitudes can affect behavior and behavior can affect attitudes. One of the bottom lines of behavior affecting attitudes is a desire for consistency This desire for consistency can also lead to predictions about the relationships between attitudes and our relationships with other people

Balance theory
Balance

theory: The relationship between my view of a person, my attitude toward an object, and their attitude toward an object should all be consistent

Is there consistency if my friend and I both like a painting? Is there consistency if my friend loves a painting that I hate? What about if my enemy hates a painting that I love?

Balance theory
A

triangle can be created from these elements: person A

person B

object

Balance theory
Is

this balanced? person A + + + object

person B

Balance theory
Is

this balanced? person A + + object

person B

Balance theory
Is

this balanced? person A + object

person B

Next class
Will

discuss prejudice and discrimination Before this class: go to IAT website there is a link to it on the class website