Download File - Teaching psychology

Attitudes & attitude change
Seminar 5:
Seminar outline
1.
2.
3.
4.
What is an attitude?
How do attitudes form?
Persuasion: attitude change
Advertisements
Today’s Puzzle
When was the last time someone tried to…
•Convince you to buy something you didn’t need?
•Do something you didn’t like?
Did you give in?
Why or why not?
Why study attitudes?
Attitudes are important because:
• You have an attitude towards almost anything.
• Attitudes strongly influence how we think, feel
• Attitudes presumably influence our behavior
What is an attitude?
An opinion? A viewpoint?
Structure of attitudes (aka. attitude bases)
Thoughts and beliefs one has
about an attitude object
Cognition
Attitude object
Behavior
The way one behaves when
exposed to an attitude object.
Affect
Emotional reaction one has
toward an attitude object
Weightage differs by attitude object
Cognition
Cognition
Laptops
Donald Trump
Behavior
Affect
Behavior
Affect
Weightage differs by person
Cognition
Cognition
Car
Car
Behavior
Affect
Behavior
Affect
Weightage differs by situation
Starving
Satiated
Cognition
Cognition
Chocolate
Chocolate
Behavior
Affect
Behavior
Affect
How can you measure attitudes?
Explicit measure
You ask.
But be careful what/how you ask.
(Recall Tutorial 1)
“What is your attitude toward research on animal
cloning?”
vs.
“If research on animal cloning could be used to advance
our ability to prevent cancer, would you be in favor of
such research?”
Implicit measures
Social
desirability
“true”
attitude
• Fundamental problem: “how much” of response is due
to one factor or other.
• The IAT (implicit attitude test) is not the only implicit
measurement.
https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/india/selectatest.js
p
• In fact, there are many others (e.g., name-letter effect),
some more valid than others.
• Beware of implicit attitude tests on “Facebook”
What other implicit measures can there be?
• Example 1A: Covert behaviors
• Imagine you’re on Delhi’s metro.
Where will you sit?
1
2
3
4
What other implicit measures can there be?
• Example 1B: Covert behaviors - Lost letter
technique
• Stamped and self-addressed envelopes dispersed in
public places (“lost letters”)
What other implicit measures can there be?
• Example 2: Word stem completion tasks
“What do you think psychology is?”
“Complete the word stems.”
FR _ _D
FREUD or FRAUD
What other implicit measures can there be?
Example 3: Evaluative decision tasks
prime
target
decision
“Is it a good or
a bad word?”
chocolate
desirable
response
xxxxxx
desirable
response
Many more…
• Affect misattribution paradigm (Keith Payne)
• Lexical decision task
• Sentence completion task
• Word association task, sometimes called free
association task (sounds Freudian, but more
scientific – Freud asked leading questions)
• Go-No-Go task
How do attitudes form?
How do attitudes form?
• Genetics
• Social learning
• Mere exposure
• Our behavior (covered previous class)
Genetics
• Somewhat controversial
• Only some attitudes are “heritable” (Are attitudes
phenotypes controlled by genes?)
• Large-scale well-controlled genetic experiments
about attitudes are rare
• Even when a candidate gene is found, what does
the gene actually do?
Example: Genopolitics
The study of the genetic basis of political behavior
and attitudes
Suppose these genes
Gene
monoamine oxidase A (MAO-A)
serotonin transporter (5HTT)
dopamine receptor (DRD2, DRD4)
regulate impulsivity.
How do you think it
would affect Trump
and Clinton voters?
Attitudes
Political affiliation
Political ideology
Fowler et al. (2008). Genetic variation in political participation. Am Pol Sci Rev.
Attitude Formation
• social learning - acquire attitudes from others
• classical conditioning- learning based on association
• instrumental conditioning - learn to hold the “right” views
• observational learning - learning by observing actions of
others and exposure to mass media
The mere exposure effect
Manipulation phase
Subliminal presentation (4 ms)
|我|爱|新|加|坡|
Test phase
– “old” vs. and “new” symbols
|我|爱|新|加|坡|在|印|度|工|作
– Recognition task: chance level
– Liking: old symbols preferred
Zajonc. (1980). Feeling and thinking: Preferences need no inferences. Am Psy.
Attitude change
The debate
“Emotional appeals work better”
“Just focus on the message”
“Colored ads are better than greyscale ads”
“Let’s put a sexy model in our ad”
So, what works best?
Elaboration-Likelihood Model
A jargon for a simple concept
Message
unimportant,
uninteresting
Heuristic
processing
Peripheral Route
Message
important,
interesting
Systematic
processing
Central Route
Nonverbal
cues
important
Argument
strength
unimportant
Nonverbal
cues
unimportant
Argument
strength
important
Source and message characteristics
• Nonverbal cues
• Credibility
• expertise
• trustworthiness
• Attractiveness
• Speaking style
• Message characteristics
• Strong arguments
Factors influencing information processing
• We tend to use systematic processing when:
• we are strongly motivated (e.g., issue is personally
relevant)
• we have a high ability to do so (e.g., not under stress)
• We tend to use heuristic processing when:
• we are unmotivated
• we lack the ability to systematically process info
Summary: ELM
Audience Processing Persuasion
Central
Route
Analytical
&
Motivated
High effort;
Elaborate;
Agree &
counterargue
Strong
arguments
cause
enduring
agreement
Persuasive
Appeal
Peripheral
Route
Response
Not
analytical
or
involved
Low effort:
Use
peripheral
cues,
heuristics
Cues
trigger
liking
&
acceptance
Matching attitude bases to persuasion type
• Recall:
Most persuasive appeal
Cognition
Cognition
Homosexuality
Laptops
Behavior
Behavior
Affect
Affect
Most persuasive appeal
Analyze the following advertisements
What are the cues?
What is the message?
What route(s) to persuasion was/were intended?
Discuss in your groups.
Applications: Does subliminal
advertising work?
Historical Background
• The James Vicary incident (late 1950s)
• Popcorn sales increase by 50%, he says.
• Media reaction:
• Minds have been “broken and entered” (The New
Yorker, 9/21/57)
• “The most alarming and outrageous discovery”
since the invention of the machine gun (The
Nation, 10/5/57)
• Subliminal advertising banned
Evidence?
• Vicary’s claims were fabricated!
• No evidence that subliminal advertising works
in real-life contexts
• Note: Regular advertising is effective; strangely
people believe that they are immune to it.
Wilson & Blake (1994). Mental contamination and mental correction. Psy Bull.
Subliminal influence in laboratory settings
Subliminal
priming phase
“Thank you for your participation. Take
a complimentary beverage home!”
Verwijmeren et al. (2011). The workings and limits of subliminal advertising: The role of habits. J Consumer Psy.
Something to think about…
Why is North Korea so effective at
convincing its citizen to love their leaders?
Is indoctrination a kind of persuasion?
Summary
• The structure of attitudes affect persuasive
attempts.
• Effective persuasion depends on the receiver’s
characteristics.