Transcript Attitude change - Psychlology Teaching Resources from

Attitude change
Theories of attitude change:




Cognitive dissonance
Persuasive communication
Dual-process theory
Evidence relating to these theories
psychlotron.org.uk

Consistency principle
Affect
Cognition
psychlotron.org.uk
Behaviour
Cognitive dissonance


Based on the consistency principle
Dissonance = disagreement
Attitude change occurs when a person has a
need to reduce the dissonance between:



Different aspects of same attitude
Different attitudes
Attitude & behaviour
psychlotron.org.uk

Cognitive dissonance
Affect
Cognition
Dissonance within
attitude
psychlotron.org.uk
Behaviour
Cognitive dissonance
I enjoy
cigars
Smoking kills
people
How could
Sigmund reduce
his cognitive
dissonance?
psychlotron.org.uk
I smoke
Cognitive dissonance
Festinger & Carlsmith (1959)



PPs spent some time doing a tedious task; were
then offered either $1 or $20 to tell another PP it
was interesting & enjoyable
PPs were later asked to rate how enjoyable the
task had been
How do you think the ratings might differ
between the $1 and $20 conditions?
psychlotron.org.uk

Control
(task only)
$1 payment
$20 payment
psychlotron.org.uk
How enjoyable?
Cognitive dissonance
Persuasive communication

The idea that attitude change is brought
about by conveying information.
Success depends on 3 factors:



Source of message
Content of message
Nature of target
psychlotron.org.uk

Persuasive communication
Source:





Expert
Trustworthy
Credible
Attractive
NB: sleeper effects – nature of the source
matters less after a delay
psychlotron.org.uk

Attitude change
Cognitive dissonance
Immediate
4 weeks later
psychlotron.org.uk
high credibility
low credibility
Hovland & Weiss (1952)
Persuasive communication

Content:
Fear & anxiety


Not enough or too much and people will ignore
the message
One or two sided argument


One sided if target is already leaning towards the
source’s position
Two sided if the target is intelligent
psychlotron.org.uk

Persuasive communication
Target:



Intelligence
Age, gender
Strength of existing views
psychlotron.org.uk

Dual process theory
The likelihood of attitude change is
determined by how the target processes the
message



Superficial (peripheral) processing
Systematic (central) processing
Which ‘route’ is taken depends on the
relevance of the message to the target
psychlotron.org.uk

Dual process theory
Message
High
relevance
Central
route
Thorough
processing
Sound, logical
arguments required
Low
relevance
Peripheral
route
Superficial
processing
The elaboration-likelihood model (Petty et al, 1994)
Dual process theory


Petty et al (1981)
Student attitudes towards taking an additional
examination
Two IVs:


Level of involvement
Strength of arguments
psychlotron.org.uk

Dual process theory
Level of involvement
Strong
Low
Weak
Strength of argument
High
Petty et al (1981)
Resistance to change


Reactance
Forewarning
Selective avoidance
psychlotron.org.uk
