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Social Psychology
Attitudes and Attitude Change
Attitudes

Enduring orientations with cognitive, affective,
and behavioral components.
 Cognitive
 Affective
 Behavioral

A favorable or unfavorable evaluative reaction
toward something or someone, exhibited in
one’s beliefs, feelings or intended behavior
Attitude Development
External Stimuli
 The Target
 Intervening Processes
 The Response

Intervening Process: Learning
Attitudes as Habits – Carl Hovland (1953)
 Processes

 Association
 Reinforcement
 Imitation
Association

Message Learning
 Weak
relationships
 Motivation

Transfer of Affect
 Associations
between two objects
Reinforcement
Rewarded for attitudes that fit with values
of group, society, culture
 May initially change behavior

 Then
accept the underlying value
Reinforcement: Incentive Theory
Adopt attitude that maximizes gains
 Consider importance and value
 Cognitive response theory

 Respond
to proposition with thoughts =
attitude

Expectancy value theory
 Consider
likelihood & value
Imitation
Model our behaviors (and related
attitudes) after others
 Aronson & O’Leary

 Water

conservation
Cialdini
 Littering
Intervening Process:
Cognitive Consistency

Gestalt influence: Seek coherence

Attitudes must be interpreted in context
 Balance
theory (Heider, 1958)
 Cognitive dissonance (Festinger, 1957)
Balance Theory
Key
P = Person (self)
O = Other
X = Attitude Object
(issue, person, etc.)
Unit or Sentiment
Relations
+ sign = Link/Like
- sign = No Link/Dislike
P
+ or -
+ or -
+ or -
Triads can be:
Balanced = signs
multiply to positive (+)
Unbalanced = signs
multiply to negative (-)
O
X
Cognitive Dissonance
(Leon Festinger)

Cognitions can have 3 relations
 Irrelevant
 Consonant
 Dissonant
Dissonance
Dissonance = A feeling of discomfort that
is caused by holding 2 or more
inconsistent cognitions
 Dissonance = # and importance

How do you get rid of it?

How do you restore a sense of consistency?
 Change your behavior
 To be consistent
 To compensate
 Change your cognitions
 Add consonant cognitions (mis-remember
things, rationalize your behavior)
 Alter importance of cognitions
Cognitive Dissonance Theory:
Study Example (Festinger & Carlsmith, 1959):
Insufficient Justification
Participants are asked to engage in a very
boring task
 After that, they either:

 Were
told the study was over
 Were paid $1 to lie to another participant about
the task
 Were paid $20 to lie to another participant about
the task

Then, participants’ (real) attitudes about the
task were measured
Applications
Therapy
 Cults

 Festinger

– “When Prophecy Fails”
Daily situations
Self Perception Theory





Bem (1972)
Rational cognitive
process
Behaviorist
Infer attitudes for
others
Zanna & Cooper
(1974)
Consistency: Reactions to
Discrepancy

Modes of resolution
 Derogating
the source
 Distorting the message
 Blanket Rejection
Elaboration Likelihood Model
(Petty & Cacioppo, 1986)

Two routes
 Central

Based on thoughtful consideration of facts
 Peripheral
Based on thoughtless affective evaluations
 Leads to acceptance of weak messages


Route depends on motivation &
opportunity
Controlling Cognitive Responses

Counterarguing
 Active
processing
 Implicit or explicit
 Verbal or nonverbal

Depends on quantity and quality
ELM: Communicator

Credibility
 Expert
 Trustworthy


Reciprocity
Reference
ELM: Communication
Discrepancy
 Motive arousal

 Anger
 Fear
ELM: Target

Ego involvement
 Commitment
 Issue
involvement
 Response involvement

Defense – McGuire
 Supportive
 Inoculation
ELM: Situation
Forewarning of position
 Forewarning of intent
 Distraction

Cults
Changed norms
 Gradual
 Powerful leader
 Unquestioned authority

Applications
War
 Token economies
 Presentations
 Office politics
