SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY: A622 & A276

Instructor and prepared by: Saint Mary Flordeliz B. Dampal

PART II
BEHAVIOR AND ATTITUDES

Learning Outcome

1. To determine when does our behavior affect our attitude

2. To be able to explain why our actions affect our attitude

When does our Behavior Affect our Attitudes?

If social psychology has taught us anything during the last 25 years, it is that
we are likely not only to think ourselves into a way of acting but also to act
ourselves into a way of thinking. What evidence supports that assertion?
Think about these incidents:
· Sarah is hypnotized and told to take off her shoes when a book
drops on the floor. Fifteen minutes late a book drops,
and Sarah quietly slips out of her loafers. “Sarah,” ask the hypnotist,
“why did you take off your shoes?” “Well . . . my feet are hot and
tired,” Sarah replies. “It has been a long day.” The act produces the
idea.
· Carol’s severe seizures were relieved by surgically separating her
two brain hemispheres. Now, in an experiment, psychologist
Michael Gazzaniga (1985) flashes a picture of a nude woman to
the left of Carol’s field of vision and thus to her nonverbal
right brain hemisphere. A sheepish smile spreads over her face,
and she begins chuckling. Asked why, she invents – and
apparently believes – a plausible explanation: “ Oh – that funny
machine.” Frank, another split-brain patient, has the word
“smile” flashed to his nonverbal right hemisphere. He obliges
and forces a smile. Asked why, he explains, “This experiment is
very funny.”
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY: A622 & A276
Instructor and prepared by: Saint Mary Flordeliz B. Dampal

ROLE PLAYING
Role is defined as a set of norms that
defines how people in a given social
position ought to behave. Hence, role
playing is the acting out of the part of a
particular person or character.
For example, a real-life situation wherein
you are left by your parents for work.
Four (4) of your younger siblings are
left under your care for the whole
week. In the absence of parents, you
are to play the role of a parent who
takes care and feed your siblings. At the
same time, you are
left with an authority to maintain peace and order in the family. Most of
the time, people with the same situation experience a hard time or even
break down and sometimes surrender but fortunately many also fight and
move forward and came out stronger.
As you observed in the situation, behavior is a product of both the
individual person and the situation. The deeper lesson of the role-
playing studies is not that we are powerless rather it concerns how what
is unreal (an artificial or new role) can subtly evolve into what is real. For
instance, today you are students who are reading materials given by
teachers and juggling activities but soon you will become
professionals may it be teachers, soldiers, office worker, or so
eventually you will enact a role that shapes your attitudes.
Gi panindigan nato atong gitoohan or Gitoohan nato ang atong gi
panindigan.
What do you think about this the statement above? Paused for a while and
give it some thought.
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY: A622 & A276
Instructor and prepared by: Saint Mary Flordeliz B. Dampal

SAYING BECOMES BELIEVING

People often adapt what they say to
please their listeners. Try to
remember a situation where you
need to say nothing but good
things about the other person. How
about this? As your Isip imong
Instructor mangutana ko sa
imo kung gwapa ba ko or dili? Ibutang
This can be done by not just politicians and celebrities
nato nga sa imong mga mata wala ko
but even our family, friends, and relatives do this.
nakaabot sa imong standard sa beauty
but in this situation unsa kaha ang imo
itubag sa akoa? Are you going to
say YES or NO? Either way I will
continue to ask you question why do
you think so. In my four (4) years of
working in education setting, most of
the responses of the students in this
question will always fall into positive
responses. Students will answer that
I am beautiful and will
further tell me positive things that is out
of the question like maayo mutudlo, fashionista, nindot ug tingog, etc.
These responses are either true or not. This single question,
“Am I beautiful/handsome?” is very easy yet people tend to filter and
adjust their responses towards their listener’s position, and having done
so, to believe the altered message.
The Foot-in-the-Door Phenomenon
Foot-in-the-door phenomenon is the tendency for people who have first
agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request. The
“attitude follows behavior” principle suggest that if you want people to
do
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY: A622 & A276
Instructor and prepared by: Saint Mary Flordeliz B. Dampal

a big favor for you, an effective strategy is to get them to do a small favor
first.
I do not
know if anyone can relate (ahem!
insert coughing) but for an
example, when a friend asks to
borrow a small amount of money,
then later asks to borrow a larger
amount. OR when a
friend/classmate asks for a small
favor, then later asks not just
bigger favor but often asks for
favor either small or big.
Now, how about in business field? What makes people buy such products?
Of course, there are a lot of strategies and techniques being used and
studied but let us specifically talk about low-ball technique. It is a tactic
for getting people agree to something. People who agree to an initial
request will often still comply when the requester ups the stake or
price. People who receive only the costly request are less likely to
comply with it. For example, when a car dealership lists a car for $14,000
to get you to agree to buy it and later changes the price to $16,000.
The foot-in-the-door phenomenon is a lesson worth remembering.
Someone trying to seduce us—financially, politically, or sexually—will
often use this technique to create a momentum of compliance. The
practical lesson: Before agreeing to a small request, think about what may
follow.

Evil and Moral Acts

The attitudes-follow-behavior principle works with immoral acts as well.
Evil sometimes results from gradually escalating commitments.
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY: A622 & A276
Instructor and prepared by: Saint Mary Flordeliz B. Dampal

Another way in which evil acts influence attitudes is the paradoxical fact
that we tend not only to hurt those we dislike but also to dislike those we
hurt.
Harmful acts shape the self, but so, thankfully, do moral acts. Our
character is reflected in what we do when we think no one is looking.
Researchers have tested character by giving children temptations when it
seems no one is watching. Consider what happens when children resist
the temptation.
In a dramatic experiment, Jonathan
Freedman (1965) introduced elementary
school children to an enticing battery-
controlled robot, instructing them not
to play with it while he was out of the
room. Freedman used a severe threat
with half the children and a mild threat
with the
others. Both were sufficient to deter the children.
Actions also affect our moral attitudes: That which we have done, even if
it is evil, we tend to justify as right. It is a lesson worth remembering: If
you wish to love someone more, act as if you do.

Interracial Behavior and Racial Attitudes

Similarly, our racial and political behaviors help shape our social
consciousness: We do not only stand up for what we believe, we also
believe in what we have stood up for.
Social Movements
Political and social movements may legislate behavior designed to
lead to attitude change on a mass scale.
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY: A622 & A276
Instructor and prepared by: Saint Mary Flordeliz B. Dampal

Why does our Behavior Affect our Attitudes?

Social psychology’s detectives suspect three possible sources.
1. Self-presentation theory
2. Cognitive dissonance theory
3. Self-perception theory
Self- presentation theory assumes that for strategic reasons we express
attitudes that make us appear consistent. Cognitive dissonance theory
assumes that to reduce discomfort, we justify our actions to ourselves.
Self-perception theory assumes that our actions are self-revealing (when
uncertain about our feelings or beliefs, we look to our behavior, much as
anyone else would). Let’s examine each explanation.

Self-Presentation: Impression Management

Who among us does not care what people think? We spend countless
money on clothes, diets, cosmetics, gym fee, etc. because of our fretting
or worries over what others think.
For example: A person who initially
present an image of being a good
guitarist w/o believing it to be
genuine, but after practicing
everyday, watching related videos,
and a tutorial, he/she may come to
see himself/herself as truly a good guitarist.
So, even if people present a self-image that they know to be false, they
may begin to internalize the self-image and thereby eventually come to
believe the self-presentation.

Self-Justification: Cognitive Dissonance

Cognitive dissonance is a tension that arises when one is simultaneously
aware of two inconsistent cognitions. Our attitude change because we are
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY: A622 & A276
Instructor and prepared by: Saint Mary Flordeliz B. Dampal

motivated to maintain consistency among our cognitions. Cognitive

dissonance theory offers an explanation for self-persuasion, and it offers
several surprising predictions.
In The picture children were forced
to eat vegetable which obsviously
they do not like. Murag kitang
tanan nka try jud ani na wherein
gipugos ta sa atogn ginikanan to eat
something we do not like but still
forced to because it is healthy. For us
not to get a spank or a word from
our parents we ate it
and think that it is delicious and healthy. This is an example of insufficient
justification which is the reduction of dissonance by internally justifying
one’s behavior when external justification is “insufficient”.
Insufficient justification + punishment or rewards
When a parent says, “Clean up your room, Joshua, or else expect a hard
spanking,” Joshua won’t need to internally justify cleaning his room. The
severe threat is justification enough
1. “I am cleaning up my room because I want a clean room.”
2. “I am cleaning up my room because my parents will kill me if I don’t.”
The principle: Attitudes follow behaviors for which we feel some
responsibility.
Studies found that dissonance theory predicts when our actions are not
fully explained by external rewards or coercion, we will experience
dissonance, which we can reduce by believing in what we have done.
Dissonance theory suggests that parents should aim to elicit desired
behavior non-coercively, thus motivating children to internalize the
appropriate attitudes. With simple decisions, this deciding-becomes-
believing effect can breed overconfidence (Blanton & others, 2001):
“What I’ve decided must be right.”
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY: A622 & A276
Instructor and prepared by: Saint Mary Flordeliz B. Dampal

Self-Perception

Alright, check the image above it shows a simple presentation on how the
three (3) theories explain why attitudes follow behavior.

Now to further discuss the last theory, self-perception, let us try

to remember how we see a person acts in a particular situation, and how
we attribute the behavior either to the person’s traits and attitudes
or to environmental forces. That particular situation greatly
explains self-perception theory. It is a 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.
Do people who observe themselves agreeing to a small request indeed
come to perceive themselves as the helpful sort of person who responds
positively to requests for help? Is that why, in the foot-in-the-door
experiments, people will then later agree to larger requests? Indeed, yes,
report Jerry Burger and David Caldwell (2003). Behavior can modify self-
concept.
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY: A622 & A276
Instructor and prepared by: Saint Mary Flordeliz B. Dampal

EXPRESSION AND ATTITUDE

Have you experienced feeling sad and gloomy but when your friends
came they were all happy, lively, and oozing with great energy and
voila! Gradually your feeling of being sad and gloomy was gone
and you adapt/absorb/imitate the energy you saw and received from
your friends.

TRY IT
1. Look for a bbq stick or anything that
can substitute a stick such spoon/fork,
straw, chopstick, etc. and a mirror.
Then, bite it with your lips apart while
facing the mirror. Now, take a look at
your face wearing a beautiful smile.
2. Want to feel better especially after
doing all your school works? Walk for a
minute taking long strides with your arms swinging and your eyes
straight ahead (William James, 1890). You may also do this while
wearing a smile on your face and a breathing exercise.
The implication: To sense how other people are feeling, let your own face
mirror their expressions. It also makes for “emotional contagion,”
which helps explain why it’s fun to be around happy people and
depressing to be around depressed people.
OVERJUSTIFICATION AND INTRINSIC MOTIVATIONS
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.
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY: A622 & A276
Instructor and prepared by: Saint Mary Flordeliz B. Dampal

However, we also have what we call overjustification effect. It is the

result of bribing people to do what they already like doing; they may
then see their actions as externally controlled rather than intrinsically
appealing.
Example: Pay people for playing with puzzles. And they will later play
with the puzzles less than will those who play for no pay. Promise
children a reward for doing what they intrinsically enjoy (for
example, playing with cars), and you will turn their play into work.

If we want to change ourselves in some important way, it’s

best not to wait for insight or inspiration. Sometimes, we need
to act it out even if we do not feel like it.

Reference
Myers, D. (2010). Social Psychology (10th Edition). McGraw-Hill. Avenue of the Americas,

New York, NY 10020.