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