Attitudes

Attitude: (a) A relatively enduring organisation of beliefs, feelings and behavioural

tendencies towards socially signi cant objects, groups, events or symbols.

(b) A general feeling or evaluation – positive or negative – about some person, object or
issue.

Attitude structure:

One component: An attitude consists of a ect towards or evaluation of the object.

Two components: An attitude consists of a mental readiness (predisposition that

in uences how we decide what is good/bad, desirable/undesirable, etc.)to act. It also
guides evaluative ( judgemental) responses.

Three components: An attitude consists of cognitive, a ective and behavioural

components. This threefold division has an ancient heritage, stressing thought, feeling
and action as basic to human experience. Attitudes are relatively permanent, limited to
socially signi cant events or objects and are generalisable and capable of abstraction.

Problem: this model presents a problem by prejudging a link between attitude and
behaviour.

Attitude functions:

Attitudes are useful, each serving di erent function, such as:

-knowledge

-instrumentality (means to an end or goal)

-ego-defence (protecting one’s self-esteem)

-value-expressiveness (allowing people to display values that uniquely identify and de ne

them)

-They save cognitive energy (don’t have to think how to relate to a particular object or
situation), it’s a bit similar the schemas.

Cognitive consistency theories:

A group of attitude theories stressing that people try to maintain internal consistency,
order and agreement among their various cognitions.

Cognition: The knowledge, beliefs, thoughts and ideas that people have about
themselves and their environment. May also refer to mental processes through which
knowledge is acquired, including perception, memory and thinking.

Balance theory:

According to Heider, people prefer attitudes that are consistent with each other over
those that are inconsistent. A person (P) tries to maintain consistency in attitudes to, and
relationships with, other people (O) and elements of the environment (X).

The principle of consistency that underlies balance theory means that in unbalanced
triads, people may feel tense and be motivated to restore balance. Balance is generally
restored in whatever way requires the least e ort.

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Sociocognitive model:

Sociocognitive model: Attitude theory highlighting an evaluative component. Knowledge

of an object is represented in memory along with a summary of how to appraise it.

An attitude object is represented in memory by:

-an object label and the rules for applying that label;

- an evaluative summary of that object; and


-knowledge structure supporting that evaluation.

For example, the attitude object we know as a ‘shark’ may be represented in memory as
a really big sh with very sharp teeth (label); that lives in the sea and eats other sh and
some- times people (rules); is scary and best avoided while swimming (evaluative
summary); and is a scienti cally and ctionally well-documented threat to our physical
well-being (knowledge structure).

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 Decision-making and attitudes:

Information processing approaches emphasise how complex it is to acquire knowledge

and to form and change our attitudes. According to information integration theory
(Anderson, 1971, 1981; see Chapter 2), we use cognitive algebra to construct our
attitudes from information we receive about attitude objects. People are sophisticated
problem-solvers and vigilant evaluators of new information. How we receive and combine
this information provides the basis for attitude structure. The salience of some items and
the order in which they are received become important determinants of the way in which
they are processed. As new information arrives, people evaluate it and combine it with
existing information stored in memory.

Information integration theory: The idea that a persons attitude can be estimated by
averaging across the positive and negative ratings of the object.

Cognitive algebra: approach to the study of impression formation that focuses on how
people combine attributes that have balence into an overall positive or negative
impression.

Information processing: The evaluation of information; in relation to attitudes, the means

by which people acquire knowledge and change attitudes.

People’s attitudes are underpinned by implicit and automatic judgements of which they
are unaware. Because these judgements are automatic and unconscious, they are less
in uenced by social desirability bias.

Dispute over the best way to characterise attitudes continues and shows little sign of
abating. Is an attitude a directive and organised state of readiness (Allport), an outcome of
algebraic calculation (Anderson) or an automatic judgement (Devine)?

Can attitudes predict behaviour?

What gradually emerged was that attitudes and overt behaviour are not related in a one-
to-one fashion, and not all behaviours can be predicted accurately from verbally
expressed attitudes. There are conditions that promote or disrupt the correspondence
between having an attitude and behaving (Doll & Ajzen, 1992; Smith & Stasson, 2000). For
example, attitude–behaviour consistency can vary according to:

• ●  how accessible an attitude is

• ●   whether an attitude is expressed publicly, say in a group, or privately,

such as when responding to a questionnaire;

• ●   how strongly someone identi es with a group for which the attitude is
normative.
Let us now look at research that has explored why attitude–behaviour
correspondence is often weak, and what factors may strengthen the
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 correspondence. 


Beliefs, intentions and behaviour

In this equation, we need to know both how strong and how valuable a person’s beliefs
are: some beliefs will carry more weight than others in relation to the nal act. For
example, the strength or weakness of a person’s religious convictions may be pivotal in
their decision- making processes regarding moral behaviour – moral norms may play a
very important role in attitude–behaviour relations (Manstead, 2000). Without this
information, prediction of behaviour is a hit-or-miss a air.

Speci c attitudes:

Ajzen and Fishbein believed that behaviour was better predicted by measuring attitudes
that were very speci c to the behaviour. An example of a speci c attitude predicting
speci c behaviour would be a student’s attitude towards a psychology exam predicting
how diligently he or she studies for that exam. In contrast, an example of a general
attitude predicting a general class of behaviour would be attitudes towards psychology as
a whole, predicting the behaviour generally relevant to learning more about psychology,
such as reading magazine articles or talking with your tutor. How interested you are in
psychology generally is not likely to be predictive of how well you prepare for a speci c
psychology exam. The closer the question was to the actual behaviour, the more
accurately the behaviour was predicted.

Meta analysis: Statistical procedure that combines data from di erent studies to measure
the overall reliability and strength of speci c e ects.

Multiple-act criterion: Term for a general behavioural index based on an average or

combination of several speci c behaviours.

General attitudes:

However, general attitudes can sometimes predict behaviour – but only if we adopt a
multiple-act criterion (term for a general behavioural index based on an average or
combination of several speci c behaviours). The idea here is that general attitudes predict
multiple behaviours (acts) much better than they predict a speci c single behaviour,
because single behaviours are usually a ected by many factors. (For example, the
speci c behaviour of participating in a paper-recycling programme on a given day is a
function of many factors, even the weather. Yet a person engaging in such behaviour may
claim to be ‘environmentally conscious’, a general attitude. Environmental attitudes are no
doubt one determinant of this behaviour, but they are not the only, or even perhaps the
major, one.)

!Theory of reasoned action:

Fishbein and Ajzen’s theory of the relationship between attitudes and behaviour. A
speci c attitude that has normative support predicts an intention to act, which then
predicts actual behaviour. The theory of reasoned action emphasises not only the
rationality of human behaviour but also the belief that the behaviour is under the person’s
conscious control: for example, ‘I know I can stop smoking if I really want to’. However,
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 some actions are less under people’s control than others. It depends if the attitude is
favourable then the behaviour will occur more likely. Intention matters!


Theory of planned behaviour:

Modi cation by Ajzen of the theory of reasoned action. It suggests that predicting a
behaviour from an attitude measure is improved if people believe they have control over
that behaviour.

habits, no thinking through

Protection motivation theory:

Another theory, related to the theories of reasoned action and planned behaviour, that
focuses on how people can protect their health, maintain better practices and avoid risky
behaviour is protection motivation theory: Adopting a healthy behaviour requires cognitive
balancing between the perceived threat of illness and one’s capacity to cope with the
health regimen.

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Attitude accessibility (lisada juurde)

-Accessible attitudes can be recalled from memory more easily and expressed more
quickly.

-Accessible attitudes exert a strong in uence on behaviour (are associated with grater
attitude-behaviour consistency.)

-Accessible attitudes are more stable, more selective in judging relevant information and
more resistant to change.

-Accessible attitudes orientate visual attention and categorisation process.

Only an attitude that is strong allows the automatic activation of an attitude.

Automatic activation of an attitude: attitudes that have a strong evaluative like to

situational cues are more likely to come automatically to mind from memory.

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 Attitude behaviour link:

As attitudes are being formed, they correlate more strongly with a future behaviour when:

• ●  the attitudes are accessible (easy to recall); 


• ●  the attitudes are stable over time; 


• ●  people have had direct experience with the attitude object; 


• ●  people frequently report their attitudes.

The attitude–behaviour link is stronger when relevant information – such as persuasive

arguments – is relevant to the actual behaviour, one-sided and supportive of the attitude
object, rather than two-sided. 


Moderated variables:

DEF: A variable that quali es an otherwise simple hypothesis with a view to improving its
predictive power (e.g. A causes B, but only when C (the moderator) is present).

They specify when the attitude–behaviour relationship is stronger or weaker. Moderators

include the situation, personality, habit, sense of control and direct experience. The
attitude itself can also act as a moderator – for example, an attitude that expresses a
person’s self-concept and central values has stronger attitude–behaviour correspondence
than one that simply maximises rewards and minimises punishments.

Situational variables:

-Aspects of situation or context van cause people to act in a way that is inconsistent with
their attitudes.

-Social norms that are contextually salient overwhelm people’s underlying attitudes.

-Norms have always been considered important in attitude–behaviour relations, but they
have generally been separated from attitudes: attitudes are ‘in here’ (private, internalised
cognitive constructs), norms are ‘out there’ (public, external pressures representing the
cumulative expectations of others).

Individual di erences:

-Mood, habits, self identity

-Cognitive biases: A cognitive bias is a systematic error in thinking that occurs when
people are processing and interpreting information in the world around them and a ects
the decisions and judgments that they make. The human brain is powerful but subject to
limitations.

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 Forming attitudes:

Attitude formation: The process of forming our attitudes, mainly from our own
experiences, the in uences of others and our emotional reactions.

1) E ects of direct experience:

-mere exposure: repeated exposure to an object results is greater attraction to that object
(has most impact when we lack information about an issue)

-classical conditioning: repeated association may cause a formerly neutral stimulus to

elicit a reaction that was previously elicited only by another stimulus.

-evaluative conditioning: a stimulus will become more likes or less liked when it’s
consistently paired with stimuli that are either positive or negative.

-instrumental conditioning: behaviour that is followed by positive consequences is

reinforced and is more likely to be repeated.

-observational learning: modelling: tendency for a person to reproduce the actions,

attitudes and emotional responses exhibited by a real-life or symbolic model.

2) Cognitive development:

-Cognitive consistency theory:Cognitive consistency is a psychological theory that

proposes that humans are motivated by inconsistencies and a desire to change
them. Cognitive inconsistencies cause imbalance in individuals and the tension from this
imbalance motivates people to alter these inconsistencies.

-Information-integration theory:

-Self-perception theory: Bem’s idea that we gain knowledge of ourselves only by making
self-attributions; for example, we infer our own attitudes from our own behaviour.

-attitude formation can also be viewed as a cognitive process where we build

connections between more and more cognitive elements. As the number of related
elements increases, it’s more likely that a generalised concept-an attitude-is being
formed.

A di erence between cognitive and behavioural approaches is the relative weight that
each gives to internal events versus external reinforcement.

One interesting approach with both a behavioural and a perceptual avour is Bem’s
(1972) self-perception theory.

Concepts related to attitudes:

1) Values:A higher-order concept thought to provide a structure for organising attitudes.

(Terminal values (e.g. equality and freedom) and instrumental values (e.g. honesty and
ambition)

2) Ideology: A systematically interrelated set of beliefs whose primary function is

explanation. It circumscribes thinking, making it di cult for the holder to escape from
its mould.

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 SUMMARY:

• ●   Attitudes have been a major interest of social psychologists for many

years. They have been described as the most important concept in social
psychology. 


• ●  Theories of attitude structure agree that attitudes are lasting, general

evaluations of socially signi cant objects (including people and issues). Some
emphasise that attitudes are relatively enduring organisations of beliefs and
behavioural tendencies towards social objects. 


• ●   Attitude structure has been studied mostly from a cognitive viewpoint.

Balance theory and the theory of cognitive dissonance (see Chapter 6) suggest
that people strive to be internally consist- ent in their attitudes and beliefs. 


• ●   The link between attitudes and behaviour has been a source of

controversy. The apparently poor predictive power of attitude measures led to a
loss of con dence in the concept of attitude itself. Fishbein argued that
attitudes can indeed predict behaviour. However, if the prediction concerns a
speci c act, the measure of attitude must also be speci c. 


• ●   The interrelated theories of reasoned action and planned behaviour

emphasise the need to relate a speci c act to a measure of the intention to
perform that act. Other variables that a ect the predicted behaviour are norms
provided by other people and the extent to which the individual has control
over the act. 


• ●   A strong attitude has a powerful evaluative association with the attitude

object. It is more accessible in memory and more likely to be activated and the
related behaviour performed. A more accessible attitude can involve a cost;
high accessibility can lead to insensitivity to change in the attitude object. 


• ●  Attitudes that are accessible are more likely to be acted on. 


• ●   The prediction of behaviour from an attitude can be improved partly by

accounting for moderator variables (situational and personality factors). 


• ●   Attitudes are learnt. They can be formed by direct experience, by

conditioning, by observational learning and by drawing inferences from our
own behaviour (self-perception). 

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 • ●   Parents and the mass media are powerful sources of attitude learning in
children – peers and the Internet quickly become important as well. 


CHAPTER 6

Persuasion and attitude change

Attitude change: Any signi cant modi cation of an individual’s attitude. In the persuasion
process this involves the communicator, the communication, the medium used and the
characteristics of the audience. Attitude change can also occur by inducing someone to
perform an act that runs counter to an existing attitude. (Reasoning with people)

Cognitive dissonance: State of psychological tension produced by simultaneously having

two opposing cognitions. People are motivated to reduce the tension, often by changing
or rejecting one of the cognitions. Festinger proposed that we seek harmony in our
attitudes, beliefs and behaviours and try to reduce tension from inconsistency among
these elements. (Persuaded by people)

The persuasion process is a series of steps in which the audience has at least to pay
attention to the communicator’s message, understand the content and think about what
was said. The audience’s thoughts are critical in this process ; the message will ultimately
be accepted if it arouses favourable thoughts, but rejected if the recipients argue strongly
against it in their minds.

Persuasive communication: message intended to change an attitude and related

behaviours of an audience. Three general variables involved in persuasion:

• 1  the communicator, or the source (who); 


• 2  the communication, or message (what); 


• 3  the audience (to whom).

Third-person e ect: most people think that they are less in uenced then others by
advertisements.

Discon rmation bias: The tendency to notice, refute and regard as weak, arguments that
contradict our prior beliefs.

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Source credibility:

-source attractiveness

-similarity

The message:

-both sides of an argument if people are intelligent and against it

-ons side of the argument: less intelligent people

-repetition increases familiarity

-fear-arousing messages may enhance persuasion

The medium and the message: use of medium depends on the di culty of the message.

The sleeper e ect: the impact of a persuasive message can increase over time because
we forget the source of the message.

The audience:

-distracted audience is more easily in uenced

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 Dual-process models of persuasion:

The two most prominent dual process models are the elaboration likelihood model and
the heuristic systematic model. They both postulate that persuasion operates via two
di erent modes of information processing. One is more e ortful and more deliberate,
whereas the other is less resource demanding and less analytical.

1)Elaboration-likelihood model: Petty and Cacioppo’s model of attitude change: when

people attend to a message carefully, they use a central route to process it; otherwise
they use a peripheral route. This model competes with the heuristic–systematic model.

Persuasion follows two routes, depending on whether people expend a great deal or very
little cognitive e ort on the message. If the arguments of the message are followed
closely, a central route is used. We digest the arguments in a message, extract a point
that meets our needs and indulge mentally in counter-arguments if we disagree with some
of them. If the central route to persuasion is to be used, the points in the message need
to be put convincingly, as we will be required to expend considerable cognitive e ort –
that is, to work hard – on them.

2) Heuristic-systematic model: Chaiken’s model of attitude change: when people attend

to a message carefully, they use systematic processing; otherwise they process
information by using heuristics, or ‘mental short-cuts’. This model competes with the
elaboration– likelihood model.

Systematic processing occurs when people scan and consider available arguments. In
the case of heuristic processing, we do not indulge in careful reasoning but instead use
cognitive heuristics, such as thinking that longer arguments are stronger. Persuasive mes-
sages are not always processed systematically. Chaiken has suggested that people will
some- times employ cognitive heuristics to simplify the task of handling information.

At what point would we switch from heuristic to systematic processing? People seem to
have a su ciency threshold (Petty & Wegener, 1998): heuristics are used as long as they
satisfy our need to be con dent in the attitude that we adopt, but when we lack su cient
con dence we switch to more e ortful systematic processing.

Compliance:

Compliance: Super cial, public and transitory change in behaviour and expressed attitudes in
response to requests, coercion or group pressure.

Conformity: the process whereby people change their beliefs, attitudes, actions, or perceptions to
more closely match those held by groups to which they belong or want to belong or by groups
whose approval they desire.

Tactics for enhancing compliance:

-intimidation: attempt to elicit fear by getting others to think you are dangerous

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 -exempli cation: attempt to elicit guilt by getting others to regard you as a morally
respectable individual

-supplication: is an attempt to elicit pity by getting others to believe you are helpless and
needy

-self-promotion: get people to think you are competent and to get people to like you

-ingratiation: get people to think you are competent and to get people to like you

Multiple request:

Tactics for gaining compliance using a two- step procedure: the rst request functions as a set-up
for the second, real request.

1) Foot-in-the-door tactic: Multiple-request technique to gain compliance, in which the focal

request is preceded by a smaller request that is bound to be accepted.

2) Door-in-the-face tactic:

3) Low-ball tactic:

Cognitive dissonance and attitude change:

For dissonance to lead to attitude change, two sets of attitudes need to be in con ict (see
Box 6.6). Because dissonance is unpleasant, people tend to avoid exposure to ideas that
produce it. According to the selective exposure hypothesis: people tend to avoid
potentially dissonant information. Exceptions are when their attitude is either: (1) very
strong, and they can integrate or argue against contrary information, or (2) very weak, and
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 it seems better to discover the truth now and then make appropriate attitudinal and
behavioural changes (Frey, 1986; Frey & Rosch, 1984).

Selective exposure hypothesis: people tend to avoid potentially dissonant information.

A virtue of cognitive dissonance theory is that it is stated in a broad and general way. It is
applicable in many situations, particularly ones involving attitude or behaviour change.
For instance, it has been used to understand: 




E ort justi cation:

A special case of cognitive dissonance: inconsistency is experienced when a person

makes a considerable e ort to achieve a modest goal.

Induced compliance:

Induced compliance: A special case of cognitive dissonance: inconsistency is

experienced when a person is persuaded to behave in a way that is contrary to an
attitude.

Post-decisional con ict: The dissonance associated with behaving in a counter-

attitudinal way. Dissonance can be reduced by bringing the attitude into line with the
behaviour.

Self-a rmation theory:

Self-a rimation theory: The theory that people reduce the impact of threat to their self-
concept by focusing on and a rming their competence in some other area.

From a dissonance perspective, negative behaviours are particularly threatening to one’s

sense of self. People who have high self-esteem can respond via self-a rmation – they
experience no dissonance. However, people who have low self-esteem and are therefore
less able to self-a rm do experience dissonance.

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 Vicarious dissonance:

There is some intriguing evidence that people can experience dissonance vicariously.
When two people share a strong bond, such as identifying strongly with the same group,
dissonance experienced by one person may be felt by the other.

Alternative views to dissonance:

Cognitive dissonance theory remains one of the most widely accepted explanations of
attitude change and much other social behaviour

Self perception theory:

-Bem’s idea that we gain knowledge of ourselves only by making self-attributions: for
example, we infer our own attitudes from our own behaviour.

To understand the domain of applicability of each theory, imagine that there are latitudes
of attitude acceptance and rejection around your attitudes (Sherif & Sherif, 1967). If you
are in favour of keeping the drinking age at 18, you might also agree to 17 or 19. There is
a latitude of acceptance around your position. Alternatively, there is also a latitude of
rejection: you might de nitely oppose a legal drinking age of either 15 or 21. Mostly we
act within our own latitudes of acceptance. Sometimes we may go outside them: for
instance, when we pay twice the amount for a dinner at a restaurant than we planned. If
you feel you chose freely, you will experience dissonance.

A new look at cognitive dissonance:

The new look model, countered some of the objections to cognitive dissonance theory.
One controversy was how to retain and defend the concept of attitude when a person’s
observed behaviour and beliefs are in contradiction. According to Cooper and Fazio,
when behaviour is counter-attitudinal, we try to gure out what the consequences might
be. If these are thought to be negative and fairly serious, we must then check to see if our
action was voluntary. If it was, we then accept responsibility, experience arousal from the
state of dissonance that follows and bring the relevant attitude into line, so reducing
dissonance

Resistance to persuasion

Main processes of resistance to attitude change: reactance, forewarning and inoculation.

1)Reactance: Brehm’s theory that people try to protect their freedom to act. When they
perceive that this freedom has been curtailed, they will act to regain it.

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 People are more easily persuaded if they think the message is not deliberately intended to
be persuasive. Where a deliberate persuasion attempt is suspected, a process of
reactance can be triggered. Research suggests that when we feel this way, we can
engage in covert counter-argument and attempts to under- mine source credibility (Silvia,
2006), and go on to shift more overtly in the opposite direction, an e ect known as
negative attitude change.

2)Forewarning: Advance knowledge that one is to be the target of a persuasion

attempt. Forewarning often produces resistance to persuasion.

Forewarning is prior knowledge of persuasive intent – telling someone that you are going
to in uence them. When we know this in advance, persuasion is less e ective (Cialdini &
Petty, 1979; Johnson, 1994), especially regarding attitudes and issues we consider
important (Petty & Cacioppo, 1979). When people are forewarned, they have time to
rehearse counter-arguments that can be used as a defence.

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 3)Inoculation: A way of making people resistant to persuasion. By providing them with a
diluted counter-argument, they can build up e ective refutations to a later, stronger
argument.

As the term suggests, inoculation is a form of protection. In biology, we can inject a

patient with a weakened or inert form of disease-producing germs to build resistance to a
more powerful form. In social psychology, we might seek an analogous method to provide
a defence against persuasive ideas.

McGuire applied the biological analogy of inoculation to persuasive communications,

distinguishing two kinds of defence:

1 Supportive defence – this is based on attitude bolstering. Resistance could be strength-

ened by providing additional arguments that back up the original beliefs.

2 Inoculation defence – this employs counter-arguments and may be more e ective. A

per- son learns what the opposition’s arguments are and then hears them demolished.

SUMMARY: ●   The Yale research programme was an in uential study of communication

and persuasion. It focused on three classes of factors: the source of a message (who
factors), the message itself (what factors) and the audience (to whom factors). 


• ●  A well-researched communicator variable is source credibility, and a well-

researched message variable is fear-based appeals. The sleeper effect is a phenomenon
where some messages gain impact after the passage of time.

• ●  Social psychological research on persuasion and attitude change has had a

signi cant in uence on two areas of our everyday life – commercial advertising and
political propaganda.

• ●  There are two main models of how a persuasive message is learnt. Petty and
Cacioppo’s elabora- tion–likelihood model proposes that when people attend to a
message carefully, they use a central route to process it; otherwise they use a peripheral
route. Chaiken’s heuristic–systematic model suggests that people use systematic
processing when they attend to a message carefully; other- wise they use heuristic
processing. The models are not in con ict.

• ●  There are many techniques to induce another person to comply with our requests:
these include ingratiation, reciprocity and guilt arousal. There are also multiple-request
techniques (foot-in-the- door, door-in-the-face and low-balling), in which a rst request
functions as a set-up for the second, real, request.
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 • ●  Festinger’s cognitive dissonance theory explains attitude change in terms of
con ict between a person’s beliefs, and discrepancy between behaviour and underlying
attitudes, and behaviour and self-conception. There are three ways in which dissonance
is brought about: effort justi cation, induced compliance and free choice.

• ●  Reactance is an increase in resistance to persuasion when the communicator’s

efforts to persuade are obvious. Techniques for building up resistance include
forewarning and inoculation. In recent years, manufacturing companies have used
inoculating media releases to shore up consumer loyalty.

• ●  Defensive strategies against attacks on peoples’ wider ideologies and value

systems may require different or additional cognitive and social resources to those
involved in defending against attacks on speci c attitudes.

•
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