4

• CHAPTER

Behavior and Attitudes

Social Psychology 13th edition

©McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. Authorized only for instructor use in the classroom. No reproduction or further dis tribution permitted without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
 PREVIEW

How well do our attitudes predict our behavior?

When does our behavior affect our attitudes?
Why does our behavior affect our attitudes?
 How Well Do Our Attitudes
Predict Our Behavior?

Attitude: feelings, often influenced by our beliefs, that predispose us to

respond favorably or unfavorably to objects, people, and events
Figure 1 The ABCs of Attitudes
You can remember the three dimensions of attitudes as the ABCs:
Affect (feelings), Behavior tendency, and Cognition (thoughts).
 When Attitudes Predict Behavior (1)

Our attitudes do predict behavior when:

• Other influences on what we say and do are minimal
• Attitude is specific to the behavior
• Attitude is potent
 When Attitudes Predict Behavior (2)

Implicit association test (IAT): a computer-driven

assessment that uses reaction time to measure how
quickly people associate concepts
 When Attitudes Predict Behavior (3)

Personal attitudes are not the only determinant of

behavior; the situation matters, too

Specific, relevant attitudes do predict intended and

actual behavior
Figure 2 The Theory of Planned Behavior
Icek Ajzen, working with Martin Fishbein, has shown that one’s a) attitudes,
b) perceived social norms, and c) feelings of control together determine
one’s intentions, which guide behavior. Compared with their general
attitudes toward a healthy lifestyle, people’s specific attitudes
regarding jogging predict their jogging behavior much better.
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©Jozef Polc/123RF
 Group Wiki Activity
Create a short wiki on Blackboard on the theory of planned behavior
Explain the theory using two examples
The examples should have
one negative attitude
One positive attitude
 When Attitudes Predict Behavior (4)

Attitude predicts behavior better when the attitude

is potent
 When Does Our Behavior Affect
Our Attitudes?

Attitudes follow behavior

 Role Playing

Role: a set of norms that defines how people in a given social position
ought to behave
 Saying Becomes Believing

People often adapt what they say to please their

listeners; and, often, they begin to believe what they
are saying
 Evil and Moral Acts (1)

Evil sometimes results from gradually escalating

commitments
Evil and Moral Acts:
Interracial Behavior and Racial Attitudes

Do positive interactions between people of different

races reduce racial prejudice?
 Social Movements

Nazi Germany provides an example of when laws and

norms legitimize hate
• People faced with an inconsistency between behavior and
belief consciously made themselves believe

Political rituals such as saluting the flag can

establish and reinforce belief in a similar manner
 Why Does Our Behavior Affect
Our Attitudes?

Social psychologists suspect three possible reasons

for why behavior affects attitude
• Self-presentation theory
• Cognitive dissonance theory
• Self-perception theory
Self-Presentation: Impression Management

We all care about what other people think of us

Self-presentation theory assumes that for strategic
reasons we express attitudes that make us appear
consistent
Self-Justification: Cognitive Dissonance (1)

Cognitive dissonance: tension that arises when one

is simultaneously aware of two inconsistent
cognitions

Insufficient justification: reduction of dissonance

by internally justifying one’s behavior when
external justification is “insufficient”
Self-Justification: Cognitive Dissonance (2)

Having made a decision between two equally

attractive choices, people often become aware of
dissonant cognitions
 Self-Perception

Self-perception theory: the theory that when we

are unsure of our attitudes, we infer them much as
would someone observing us—by looking at our
behavior and the circumstances under which it
occurs
Figure 5 Three Theories Explain
Why Attitudes Follow Behavior
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Figure 6 Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation
When people do something they enjoy, without reward or coercion, they attribute
their behavior to their love of the activity. External rewards undermine intrinsic
motivation by leading people to attribute their behavior to the incentive.
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 Comparing the Theories (1)

Self-presentation theory explains why our actions might only seem to

affect our attitudes
Assumptions of dissonancy theory and self-perception theory explain
why our actions genuinely affect our attitudes
• Dissonance theory: we justify our behavior to reduce our internal discomfort
• Self-perception theory: we observe our behavior and make reasonable
inferences about our attitudes
• Apparent contradiction between the two theories illustrates the human element
in scientific theorizing