2. Attitudes
• Tendency to evaluate stimuli with some degree of favor
or disfavor
• 3 components of an attitude
o Affective
o Behavioral
o Cognitive
3. Theory of Planned Behavior
• Change specific attitudes toward a behavior
• Emphasizes subjective norms
4. Persuasion
• The deliberate attempt to change attitudes
• Components of persuasion
o Source – speakers more persuasive when credible
o Message – fear appeals, content/information
o Attitude strength – stronger attitudes harder to change
5. Persuasion
• Elaboration Likelihood Model
o Use central route to change attitudes when:
• Recipient attitude strength is strong
• Recipient motivated to think about message arguments
o Using distractions (glitzy campaigns, jingles) to impede
rational/conscious processing causes annoyance
6.
7. Persuasion
• Elaboration Likelihood Model
o Use peripheral route to change attitudes when:
• Recipient not likely to engage in high-effort cognitive
thought processing (“superficial processing”)
• Useful when attitude is weak
o Recipient will not carefully consider the pros/cons of
issue or message
8.
9. Persuasion
• Requests that shift from small to large:
• “Foot-in-the-Door”
o Small request first get compliance then larger request
• “Low-Balling”
o Reasonable request first get compliance reveal hidden
costly details (i.e., mistaken price suddenly discovered)
10. Persuasion
• Requests that shift from large to small:
• “Door-in-the-Face”
o Unreasonable first request immediate smaller request
• “That’s-Not-All”
o Large request discount/bonus immediately follows
11. Other Types of Influence
• Scarcity – Rare things are highly valued (Home Shopping network,
“Limited Time Only”/“Supplies Limited” sales)
• Reciprocity – First the source gives you something. Once you
accept, may feel obligated to give something back
• Comparison rule – When others stop and stare, so do you
(“salting the collection plate”)
12. The Self
• Cognitive Dissonance Theory
o Perceived discrepancy between an attitude and a
behavior creates psychological tension/anxiety
o Individual motivated to either change the attitude,
behavior, or perception of inconsistent information
• Festinger & Carlsmith (1959)
o Monotonous task experiment ($1 vs. $20)
13. The Self
• Festinger & Carlsmith (1959)
o Participants performed boring motor coordination task
for 30 minutes
o Subjects given either $1 or $20 to tell next subject the
(boring) experiment was fun
o Those paid $20 to lie evaluated the study as much less
favorable than those only paid $1
• Why?
14. The Self
• Festinger & Carlsmith (1959)
o In $20 condition, dissonance (lying about a boring task)
was weaker – subjects knew why they lied
o In $1 condition, dissonance was higher – subjects could
not justify their behavior on external grounds (only $1)
• One option to reduce dissonance was to modify
attitude toward the task – “It was kind of interesting.”
15. The Self
• Halo effect
o A person considered good (or bad) in one category is
likely to be similarly evaluated in other categories
o Dissonance avoidance?
• Attributing someone as good at one thing and bad at
another would make an overall evaluation difficult
16. The Self
• Fundamental Attribution Error (Ross, 1977)
o Attribute events which happen to other people to their
internal states (mood, personality, motivations)
o Attribute events involving ourselves to external influences
o Especially true when we know little about the other person
17. The Self
• Mere Exposure Effect (Zajonc, 1968)
o The more we are exposed to something, the more we
come to like it
o “Familiarity breeds liking”
o There is some benefit to simply being near someone
you’re interested in
18. Conformity
• Zimbardo’s (1971) Stanford Prison Experiment
o 2 groups
o “Prisoners” detained by California police on a Saturday
morning, deloused, chained, and jailed
o “Guards” wore uniforms, given billy clubs, whistles, and
instructed to maintain order in the prison
o Experiment cancelled after only a few days as guards
became progressively abusive
19.
20. Conformity
• Milgram’s Obedience Experiments (1963)
o Participants told study was about the effect of punishment on
learning
o Confederate was the “Learner” in other room, participant was
the “Teacher” who administered the shocks
o Shocking apparatus operated with 15v (mild) to 450v (lethal)
o The more mistakes the “Learner” made, the higher the shock
the participant/“Teacher” was asked to give
21. Conformity
• Results:
o 65% of participants “killed” the victim
o What determined such obedience to authority?
o Participant heard by victim but not seen
o Prestigious location (Yale laboratory)
o High social status of “expert” authority figure
o Authority figure present to push participant to continue
o When participants in same room, only 30% lethally
shocked victim
22. Groups
• Social facilitation
o Individual performance (esp. competitive tasks) is
altered due to the presence of others
Performance improves on simple or familiar tasks
Performance may not improve on complex or new
tasks
23. Groups
• Social loafing
o Individual effort decreases as size of group increases
o Influenced by:
- Diffusion of responsibility
- Decreased evaluation apprehension
- Group productivity illusion (“They’re doing fine”)
- Level of identification with the group
24. Groups
• Deindividuation
o In a crowd, people:
- Become less self-aware + feel anonymous
- Become more impulsive, less rational and more
suggestible
- Behave in more extreme ways
25.
26. Groups
• Stereotypes
o Generalizations about the "typical" characteristics of
individuals or members of a group (can be + or -)
o Ex: “Someone who wears glasses is intelligent”
• Prejudice
o Unreasonable feelings (negative attitudes) regarding others’
racial/ethnic, sexual, political, or religious group status
• Discrimination
o Behavior (action) toward others based on negative attitudes
27. Bystander Effect
• Latane and Darley (1968) study
o Participants told to discuss problems faced by students in a
high pressure urban environment
o Discussions took place over intercoms to maintain “the
absolute importance of anonymity”
o Participants believed they were talking to 1, 2, or 5 other
people
