Download Chapter 7 Attitudes, Beliefs and Consistency Our “self” is not the

19.03.2012
Chapter 7
Attitudes, Beliefs and Consistency
Pp 197 – 214
Our “self” is not the only thing we evaluate!

We are not neutral observers of the world. We evaluate what
we encounter:
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Other people, objects, events, ideas…
As good-bad; like- dislike; positive- negative; favor-disfavor;
approve-disapprove...
An attitude is an overall evaluation of a stimulus. A
positive, negative, or mixed reaction to a person,
object, or idea expressed at some level of intensity.
 Is relatively enduring.
 Can differ in terms of direction and strength
 Is not directly observable but guides our choices
and decisions for action. (often) influences behavior
(especially when is strong, accessible and longstanding)
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Why Study Attitudes?

We have attitudes towards “everything”
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Prejudice, liking/attraction, voting behavior, conformity, attention to
health, prosocial behavior,persuasion in advertising
Attitudes towards certain attitude objects have specific names. E.g.
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Prejudice; attitude towards social group (especially negative)
Self-esteem; attitude towards yourself
Values; attitudes towards abstract entities (e.g. Vegetarianism)
Why Study Attitudes?
Attitudes:
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are pervasive
help predict future behavior
influence our social perceptions and memories
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They operate like schemas to organize information and guide
behavior.
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Attitudes are “the most distinctive and indispensable concept
in contemporary social psychology” (Gordon Allport, 1935)
What is an attitude like?
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Is it only:
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Feeling? like vs. dislike
Cognition? Good vs bad
Mental readiness to act? Will
do vs. not do
One-component attitude
model
Three-component attitude
model

Affect

Behavior (or behavioral intent)

Cognition
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"Mmmmm... Gummi Beer."
Homer Simpson’s
Attitudes Toward
Beer
Affective
Evaluation
Beer
Homer’s
Attitude
Toward Beer
Behavior
Regarding
Beer
Cognitions
Regarding
Beer
"Oh Lisa, you and your
stories: 'Bart is a vampire',
'Beer kills brain cells'. Now
let's go back to that
building... thingy... where
our beds and TV... is."
"The other day, I was so
desperate for a beer, I
snuck into the football
stadium and ate the dirt
under the bleachers."
The ABC of Attitudes
Attitudes are made up of three parts
that together form our (general)
evaluation of the “attitude object”:
1.
An affective component, consisting
of your emotional reactions
toward the attitude object.
2.
A behavioral component, consisting
of your actions or observable
behavior toward the attitude
object
3.
A cognitive component, consisting
of your thoughts and beliefs about
the attitude object.
Positivity – Negativity of the
evaluation: Four possible reactions
Cacciopo, et al. 1997
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Attitudes also
vary by their strength
Positive
Weak
Strong
Negative
Where Do Attitudes Come From?
Genetic background

MZ twins more similar than
DZ twins

Is there a gene for “reading books”?

inherited sensory structures might
influence our attitudes toward spicy
foods or loud music

inherited body chemistry might influence
our attitudes toward stimulants such as
caffeine, alcohol, or nicotine

genetic differences in activity level might
influence our attitudes toward various
leisure activities
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Social experience and learning

Direct experience
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Mere-exposure effect
Facial expression, head movement, and body posture
Classical conditioning
Operant/ Instrumental conditioning
Observational learning / modelling
Direct experience and mere exposure

Direct experience with a stimulus provide us with information
about its attributes, and we form attitudes based on our beliefs
of how much we like/dislike them.

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First experiences are important. (e.g. Dentist).
Mere exposure effect: By simply exposing a person repeatedly
to a particular object causes them to develop a more positive
attitude toward the object.

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Has most effect when we don’t have much information about the
stimulus.
The effect of continued repeated exposure diminishes.
Ex: Mere exposure to novel stimuli
(Zajonc,
1968)

Participants were initially
shown 12 different Chinese
characters.

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either 25 times, 10 times, 5
times, twice, once or not at
all
Then were asked to indicate
how much they liked each
character:
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Attitudes are influenced by changes in facial
expression, head movement and body
posture
Facial Feedback Hypothesis, Strack, 1988
Conditioning

Classical conditioning: Pairing a neutral stimulus with an object
that evokes an attitude response can cause the neutral object
to come to evoke the same attitude response.
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Instrumental (operant) conditioning:Attitudes can be formed
/shaped by rewards/punishments.
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E.g. More persuasion when persuasive messages are repeatedly
paired with soft-drinks
E.g. Parents praise children for reading books
Observational (social/vicarious) conditioning (Modelling ):
learning in which individuals acquire new forms of behavior
(e.g., attitudes) as a result of observing others
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E.g. Media exposure
Properties of an attitude object
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Relevant information.
Classify based on positives and negatives of an evaluation
object
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Cognitive development
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As we have more information about stimuli, we from
connections and integrate information to form attitudes.
More focus on what is going on internally.
Self-perception theory – connects both behavioral and
cognitive processes
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People acquire knowledge about themselves & their attitudes
by examining their own behaviors.

People act and form attitudes without much deliberate thinking
Cognitive development
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Prior attitudes influence formation of new ones
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9Egi8EoQc8
Polarization - Attitudes become more extreme as we
think about them
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Especially true in strong initial attitude
Evaluate evidence in a biased manner
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Accept evidence that confirms attitude
Accept evidence from ingroup members
Mutual Causation Model
(Eagly & Chaiken,
1993)
Cognitive
Processes
Affective
Processes
Behavioral
Processes
– Beliefs +
– Attitude +
– Feelings +
– Actions +
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Attitudes are strongest when they

Attitude strength: The importance of the attitude
for the self
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directly affect own outcomes and self-interest
are related to deeply held values
are concerned friends, family, or social ingroups
are formed through direct experience
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Are you aware of all of your attitudes
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Dual Attitudes:
 Explicit (overt) attitudes
 Conscious evaluative response
 Implicit (covert) attitudes
 Automatic evaluative response

We can have both explicit and implicit attitudes towards
certain objects (they may even contradict)
 E.g: feeling uneasy around a new acquaintance because you
unconsciously associate him with a disagreeable person from
your past.
How do we measure attitudes?
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Measuring explicit attitudes
 Attitude scales
Measuring implicit attitudes:
 Physiological measures
 E.g. Hear rate, galvanic skin response
 Behavioral Measures
 E.g. seating distance, eye contact, amount of
recycled goods in your neighborhood.
 Implicit association test

Measures the automatic associations we make with stimuli
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Attitude scales
Please indicate the extent to which you agree with each of the
statements below, with 1 being “strongly disagree” and 5
being “strongly agree”
1. Engaging in regular physical exercise 3 times a week
promotes good health.
2. Eating a variety of foods each day, including 5 or more
servings of fresh fruits and vegetables, contributes to
wellness.
3. It is essential that all citizens exercise their right to vote if
government is to effectively reflect the will of the people.
4. It is all citizens duty to protect the environment for the
benefit of the natural environment and future generations.
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Implicit Association Test
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Similar to the attitude priming task
Classify objects and adjectives on a computer screen
using a keyboard & Assess reaction times
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Measure your attitudes :
https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/
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Physiological measures
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galvanic skin response
(GSR)
Subtle changes in the facial
muscles can be used to
detect positive and
negative reactions to
attitude objects
Attitude priming (Fazio, 1995)
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Attitudes are associations between an attitude object and
a summary evaluation.
These association vary in strength.This strength
determines the accessibility of the attitude and affects
how quickly an individual responds to an evaluative word
regarding this attitude object.
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Broccoli --- disgusting (react)
---- tastes good (react)
What if there is an inconsistency between
an individual’s cognitions (or behaviors)
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Humans are motivated to maintain consistency between
beliefs, attitudes and behaviours
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Dissonance (inconsistency) is aversive; produces physiological
arousal
One way of restoring balance is “attitude change”
Consistency theories
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Heider’s (1946) balance theory
Festinger’s theory (1957) of cognitive dissonance
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Balance Theory (Heider, 1946)
Focuses on the cognitive unit P (the person) – O (another person) – X
(attitude) and seeks balance between them.
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Balance Theory
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My friend’s friend is my friend
My friend’s enemy is my enemy
My enemy’s friend is my enemy
My enemy’s firend is my enemy
(Festinger’s) Cognitive Dissonance
Theory
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People’s attitudes or beliefs can be consonant (in line),
dissonant (at odds), or not related to each other
If dissonant, we experience psychological discomfort
We are motivated to reinstate consonance by changing beliefs
or behaviour about attitude object.
Induced compliance paradigm
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Cognitive Dissonance Theory
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People are motivated by a desire
for consistency in their beliefs,
attitudes and behaviors (selfperceptions).
If you simultaneously hold two
cognitions that are inconsistent or
engage in a behavior that is
inconsistent with your attitude,
you will experience a feeling of
discomfort, or dissonance.
 Will try to reduce this
dissonance
Also studied within the concept of
“Self – concept maintenance”
Classic experimental work
(Festinger and
Carlsmith, 1959)
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After participants perform two
extremely boring tasks for an hour, the
experimenter asks them whether they
would be willing to tell the next
participant that the task they were about
to take was very enjoyable & interesting.
IV: offered no money, $1 or $20 to lie
DV1: reported liking of the experiment
DV2: would like to participate in a
similar study
Predictions?
Results:
enjoyable
would participate similar
1.5
1
0.5
0
-0.5
-1
control
$1
$20
DV: Ratings from –5 to +5
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Dissonance and Insufficient Justification
Ways to Reduce Dissonance
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Variations of Cognitive Dissonance
Induced compliance
 Effort justification
 Free choice
 Post-Decision Dissonance
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Induced Compliance
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When people are induced to act in ways that are inconsistent
with their beliefs, when they act in a counter-attitudinal way, they
experience cognitive dissonance and seek to justify their
action.
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The Festinger and Carlsmith’s (1959) research we talked above is
an example to induced compliance.
Should use a smaller rewards to bring about a larger attitude
change.
 Foot –in-the-door tactic: If you are to ask for a big favor, or ask
people to take some risks, or do something complex - start by
making them engaging in smaller acts
Effort Justification
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The tendency for individuals to increase their liking for
something they have worked hard to attain.
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Research on effort justification
(Aronson &
Mills, 1989)
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Female college students
volunteered to join a
group that would be
meeting regularly to
discuss various aspects of
the psychology of sex.
And were exposed to one
of three screening
procedures:

Severe Initiation, Mild
Initiation; Control
Free Choice
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When individuals have to make a choice between alternative
courses of action that are equally attractive, they are feel
dissonance after they make a choice (post-decision
dissonance)
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This dissonance is reduced by enhancing the attractiveness of
the chosen alternative and devaluating the rejected
alternatives.
Post-Decision Dissonance
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As soon as we commit ourselves to a particular course of
action:
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The attractive aspects of the unchosen alternatives and the
unattractive aspects of our choice are inconsistent with our
decision.
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Dissonance increases with importance.
We alter our perceptions to reduce dissonance.
We improve our evaluation of chosen alternative.
We lower evaluation of unchosen alternative.
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Cognitive dissonance
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Earlier research claimed that cognitive dissonance could
be caused by any two conflicting cognitions (thoughts or
opinions)
Now dissonance is most powerful and most upsetting
when people behave in ways that threaten their selfesteem.
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Confront the discrepancy between who we think we are and
how we have in fact behaved.
Advances in dissonance theory
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Dissonance resemble an emotional reaction – matters only one
feels discomfort and attributes it to the inconsistent
behavior/thoughts.
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Causes an arousal state
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When the arousal was blocked (through a pill) no dissonance
It is important to act/seem consistent when in the presence of
others, than when in private
Effect of self-presentation on cognitive-dissonance
Vicarious dissonance (Cooper & Hogg, 2007)
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People can experience dissonance vicariously, especially if there is a
strong bond with the person experiencing dissonance.
Is consistency rooted in nature or nurture?
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Preference for Consistency (PFC) measures individual
differences in wanting predictability and consonance.
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Individual differences may mediate the effects found in
traditional dissonance research.
Culture: some basic drive for consistency can be found in
very different cultures, but consistency seems to be a
stronger motive in individualist than collectivist cultures.
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Within a given culture, some people are better able to tolerate
inconsistencies than others.
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Other theories of Cognitive
Dissonance
Self-Affirmation Theory (Steele, 1988)
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People want to view themselves as moral, capable individuals.
Counterattitudinal behavior threatens the feelings of self-worth.
People change their attitudes to reduce these threats to selfworth.
Self-esteem?
Self-Perception Theory (Bem, 1972)
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Individuals simply observe their own behavior and infer their
own attitudes from it.
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Self-perception works best with weak attitudes
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“I did the boring task; I must like the boring task.”
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Other theories of cognitive dissonance
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Self-perception theory and cognitive dissonance theory
may complement each other:
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When an individual’s actions fall within his/her range of
acceptance – self-perception theory best accounts for an
individual’s response
When an individual’s actions fall outside his/her range of
acceptance (or inside his/her range of rejection) – cognitive
dissonance theory best accounts for an individual’s response
Vicarious dissonance (Cooper & Hogg, 2007)

People can experience dissonance vicariously, especially if
there is a strong bond with the person experiencing
dissonance.
To sum up:
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Cognitive consistency is an important motive in many people’s
attitudes and behavior
Cognitive dissonance theory contends that if people hold
inconsistent cognitions, they experience an unpleasant emotion,
which they try to reduce.
CD does not always occur when one acts inconsistently
CD is most likely when:
 The attitude is important to the self
 The inconsistency is substantial
Need for cognitive consistency appears to be less is collectivistic
cultures
Cognitive dissonance can be reduced through self- affirmation.
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