CHAPTER 5

Outlines

● How are attitudes formed?

● The relationships between attitudes and behaviors: Why? When? How?

● How can attitudes be changed?  Cognitive Dissonance

 Persuasion

ABCs of attitude:

- Affective

- Behavioral

- Cognitive

Theories of Attitudes

● Learning theory:
 Classical learning

 Instrumental learning= brain enforcement = celebrity and product to sell

 Observational/ social learning = observe other people behavior and internalize it in our minds and
react when come in contact with object

 ●  Self-perception theory (Bem) = we use our behavior to determine our attitude towards
the object

 in this case the become becomes before than the attitude

 ●  Cognitive consistency theories

 Balance theory (Heider)
 Cognitive dissonance theory (Festinger)

● Cognitive processing theories

 Central vs. peripheral routes (Cacioppo)
Figura 1

You want to watch tv and ur girlfriend doesn’t = 1) change ur attitude towards tv 2) you try to change
ur girlfriend attitude towards tv 3) you change the relation with the girlfriend.

 Is the balance pressure stronger when we like or dislike the person? When we like the person

Attitudes and Behaviors: How

● Theory of reasoned action

● Theory of planned behavior

!!!Attitude do not always predict behavior!!!

WHAT AFFECTS BEHAVIOR IS INTENTION.

WHAT AFFECTS INTENTION IS

1. SUBJECTIVE NORMS
2. SOCIAL INFLUENCES
3. PERSONAL BEHAVIORAL CONTROL
● Attitude-to-behavior Process Model

We are not thinking all the times, we use are pre-existing attitudes to react to the
situation immediately. = It is not implicit, it is just automatic

Dissonance means inconsistency

 The one dollar is insufficient for people to justify their behaviour
 is dissonance really unpleasant? Yes

How to reduce dissonance?

1. Changing our behavior (often difficult)
2. Trivializing the dissonance
3. Changing the attitude

You cannot do it too much otherwise the person will have a phycological reactance –
he will though that you manipulate him = he will feel he doesn’t have control over his
actions.

DUAL PROCESSING THEORY

- Central route VS peripherial rule = how can we understand when persuasion lat
and whether not

Attitude Change: Persuasion Other Factors

● Forewarning
● Selective avoidance
● Active defense
● Individual differences in resistance to persuasion

● State of mind

 Ego depletion

 Mood

● Communicator’s characteristics ● Framing of message