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PSYC1001 Social Psychology Lecture 2:
Attitudes
Dr Lisa A Williams

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 Attitudes
Outline
• What are attitudes?
• Components of attitudes
• Affect/Cognition ← ? → Behaviour

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An attitude is…
“…the tendency to think, feel, or act
positively or negatively towards objects
in our environment”
Banaji & Heiphetz, 2010

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Affective states

Behaviour

Cognition

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 ABC Model of Attitudes

Cognition

Affective states Behaviour

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7
 ABC Model of Attitudes
Puppies are
the best!
(C)ognition

Joy! Joy! Cuddle!

(A)ffect (B)ehaviour

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9
 ABC Model of Attitudes
It’s toxic
black glue!
(C)ognition

Ewww!
Spit it out!
Blech!
(A)ffect (B)ehaviour

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ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS IN ‘LECTURE RECORDINGS’

How do you feel about puppies?
A. Very negative
B. Slightly negative
C. Slightly positive
D. Very positive
How do you feel about Vegemite?
A. Very negative
B. Slightly negative
C. Slightly positive
D. Very positive

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 Attitude Correspondence

?
AFFECT/COGNITION BEHAVIOUR

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AFFECT/COGNITION

Intuitively, affect and cognition should

impact behaviour.
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 When will attitudes guide our
behaviour?
1. When the attitude is specifically relevant to the
behaviour.

2. When outside influences are minimal – free from

social pressures

3. When we are very aware of that attitude.

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 Attitude Specificity
Attitude-Behaviour
Attitude Measure
Correlation

Attitude toward birth control .08

Attitude toward birth control pills .32

Attitude toward using birth control pills .53

Attitude toward using birth control pills .57

during the next two years

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 When will attitudes guide our
behaviour?
1. When the attitude is specifically relevant to the
behaviour

2. When outside influences are minimal – free from social

pressures.

3. When we are very aware of that attitude.

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AFFECT/COGNITION

But sometimes behaviours influence affect

and cognition!
 Minor behaviours can influence
affect/cognition
Wells & Petty (1980) asked
participants to make vertical or
horizontal head motions while
listening to a editorial advocating
tuition increase.

Research question: Which group agreed more

with the proposed tuition increase?
The vertical nodding head group agreed with the
editorial more (↑$) than the horizontal shaking
head group (↓$).
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 Minor behaviours can influence
affect/cogntion
Cacioppo & colleagues (1993) asked non-
Chinese speaking/reading participants to rate
Chinese characters while pulling upwards from
the bottom of the desk or pushing downward
from the top of the desk with their hands.

Research question: Which group rated the

characters more positively?
The upward pull group liked the characters more
than the downward push.
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Minor behaviours can influence
attitudes

Why?
Both nodding and pulling things towards you are
compatible with positive attitudes whereas shaking
your head and pushing away are compatible with
negative attitudes. Engaging in these behaviours
forms a type of bodily feedback that comes to
influence attitudes.

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Thinking deeper:
Behaviour influences affect &
cogniton
• How might the ‘minor behaviour effect’
be applied in a situation where you
wanted to shape your own attitudes?
• How about those of others?

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 ANSWER THIS QUESTION IN ‘LECTURE RECORDINGS’
Lou and Ruby were paid to lie to other students that it’s easy
to commute to UNSW on the 891/893 bus.
Lou was paid $10.
Ruby was paid $100.

Later, Lou and Ruby were asked about their attitudes about
the 891/893 commute.

Predict the outcome:

(A) Lou’s attitudes were more positive than Ruby’s.
(B) Lou and Ruby’s attitudes did not differ.
(C) Ruby’s attitudes were more positive than Lou’s.
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 Cognitive Dissonance Theory
When behaviours are inconsistent with affective
attitudes and cognitive attitudes, it leads to tension -
“cognitive dissonance”.

To reduce dissonance, we can…

• Change the behaviour
• Change the attitude

The amount of dissonance is determined by

situational factors such as reward and the reason…

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Dissonance → Affective Attitude Change

Festinger & Carlsmith (1959) asked participants to

complete a REALLY boring task for > 1 hour.

Control condition: No lie

Lie condition 1: “SO FUN!” for $1
Lie condition 2: “SO FUN!” for $20

Research question: How much did you enjoy the

task? Do you want to participate in another similar
experiment?

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 1.5
Affective attitude change

Control Condition
1 Lie for $1
Lie for $20
0.5

-0.5

-1

Enjoyment Complete a similar

study

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 Dissonance → Affective Attitude Change
Attitude-discrepant behaviour performed for small rewards

I acted in a
manner Large
I wasn’t Large amount
inconsistent amount of
rewarded for of affective
with my dissonance
doing so attitude change
affective
attitude

Attitude-discrepant behaviour performed for large rewards

I acted in a
Small Small amount
manner
I was rewarded amount of of affective
inconsistent with
for doing so dissonance attitude
my affective
change
attitude

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Dissonance → Affective Attitude Change

Is dissonance-driven affective attitude change

determined by the reason for the discrepancy
between their affective attitudes and their actions?
Participants were asked to eat as many
fried grasshoppers as they could by either…
• A “nice” experimenter
• A “nasty” experimenter

Participants then rated how much they

liked the grasshoppers, and how willing
they were to endorse the grasshoppers to
other participants.

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Participants who had the nasty experimenter stated
that they liked the grasshoppers more and were
willing to endorse eating them more than
participants with the nice experimenter

YUM!

EWW!

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 Dissonance → Affective Attitude Change
Attitude-discrepant behaviour performed for no good reason

I acted in a
manner Large
I no good Large amount
inconsistent amount of
reason for of affective
with my dissonance
doing so attitude change
affective
attitudes

Attitude-discrepant behaviour performed for good reason

I acted in a
manner Small
I had a good Small amount
inconsistent amount of
reason for of affective
with my dissonance
doing so attitude change
affective
attitudes

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Thinking deeper:
Cognitive Dissonance
• Can you recall a time where reward or
reason gave rise to dissonance or
prevented it?
• Design a scenario where you might be
able to use dissonance to your own
advantage in efforts to shift another’s
attitudes.

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 Attitudes
Summary
• What are attitudes?
• Components of attitudes
• Affect/Cognition ← ? → Behaviour
• Affect/Cognition → Behaviour
• Specificity, low social pressure, accessibility, personal relevance
• Behaviour → Affect/Cognition
• Minor behaviours
• Cognitive dissonance

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