Transcript Chapter 5 Attitudes and Persuasion This multimedia product and its contents are protected under copyright law.

Chapter 5
Attitudes and Persuasion
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Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2005
Chapter Outline
The Nature of Attitudes
What is Persuasion?
Goals of Persuasion: Why People
Change Their Attitudes and Beliefs
Seeking Accuracy
Being Consistent
Seeking Social Approval
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The Nature of Attitudes
Attitudes spring from several sources:
Classical conditioning
Operant conditioning
Observational learning
Heredity
Name five attitudes:
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Attitude Strength
Strong attitudes
Are more likely to remain unchanged as
time passes,
Are better able to withstand persuasive
attacks or appeals specifically directed
at them.
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Attitude Strength
The two main reasons strong attitudes
resist change are
Commitment –
people are sure they are correct,
Embeddedness –
people have connected these attitudes
to other features of their self-concept,
values, and identity.
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Attitude Strength
The two main reasons strong attitudes
resist change are
Commitment –
People review information in a biased fashion,
dismissing evidence that goes against their
attitude.
Embeddedness –
Restricts change because an attitude is tied to
many other ideas of the self that would also have
to change
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Attitude-Behavior Consistency
The following factors influence the
likelihood that a person’s attitude
will be consistent with his behavior:
Knowledge
Personal relevance
Attitude accessibility
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Attitude-Behavior Consistency
Theory of planned behavior (page 149)
A theory stating that the best predictor
of behavior is one’s behavioral intention,
which is influenced by:
One’s attitude toward specific behavior,
The subjective norms regarding the behavior,
and,
One’s perceived control over the behavior.
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Theory of planned behavior
Attitude
(One’s evaluation of the
specific behavior in
question)
Behavioral
Intention
Subjective Norm
(One’s perception that
important others will
approve of the behavior)
(One’s aim to
perform the
behavior)
Behavior
Perceived Behavioral
Control
(One’s perception of how
difficult it would be to
perform the behavior)
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Example of Planned Behavior
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What Is
Persuasion?
Persuasion –
change in private attitude or belief
as a result of receiving a message
Persuasion may or may not lead to changes
in behavior, but when it does, the change
in behavior is longer lasting and
resistant to change
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Measuring Attitude Change
Covert opinion measure –
one that gauges your opinion
without you knowing about it
Example: measuring how close you sit
to a handicapped person, as opposed
to asking: "Are you prejudiced against
handicapped people?"
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Measuring Attitude Change
Covert techniques are more accurate
than self-report measures only when
participants have reason to be less
honest about true feelings
(for example, when they want to appear
more fair-minded than they actually
are).
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Measuring Attitude Change
Nonreactive measurement –
measurement that does not change a
subject’s responses while recording
them
Covert techniques are more nonreactive than self-reports.
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The After-only Design
The after-only design assesses
persuasion by measuring attitude
only after the persuasion attempt
(message).
Page 152
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Cognitive Responses: Self-Talk
Persuades
Cognitive response model –
a theory that locates the main cause
of persuasion in the self-talk of the
persuasion target
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Cognitive Responses: Self-Talk
Persuades
Counterarguments –
arguments that challenge and oppose
other arguments
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Cognitive Responses: Self-Talk
Persuades
Inoculation procedure –
a technique for increasing
individuals' resistance to an
argument by first giving them weak,
easily defeated versions of it
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Dual Process Models of Persuasion:
Two Routes to Change
Dual process model of persuasion –
a model that accounts for the two
ways that attitude change occurs—
with and without much thought
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Dual Process Models of Persuasion:
Two Routes to Change
Message recipients will consider a
communication deeply when they
have both:
the motivation
the ability- cognitive
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Dual Process Models of Persuasion:
Two Routes to Change
Factors that influence a person's
motivation to process a message
deeply:
Personal relevance of the topic (does it
matter to you?)
Need for cognition –
the tendency to enjoy and engage in
deliberate thought
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Persuasion
Attempt
Audience
Factors
Processing
Approach
Persuasion
Outcome
High
motivation
and ability to
think about
the message
Central processing,
focused on the quality
of the message
arguments.
Lasting change
that resists
fading and
counterattacks
Low
motivation
or ability to
think about
the message
Peripheral processing,
focused on surface
features such as the
communicator’s
attractiveness or the
number of arguments
presented.
Temporary
change that
that is
susceptible to
fading and
counterattacks
Message
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esearch
The Effects of
Personal Relevance
Petty & Cacioppo (1984) asked
college students to read arguments
in favor of mandatory
comprehensive exams.
Students would be required to pass
these exams before being allowed to
graduate.
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esearch
The Effects of
Personal Relevance
The issue was either highly relevant to
them
(They would personally have to take the
exams to graduate)
Or of low relevance to them
(Policy would not take effect for 10
years – long after they’d graduated).
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esearch
The Effects of
Personal Relevance
Arguments were either high quality
e.g., “Average starting salaries are higher for
graduates of schools with exams”
Or low quality
“Exams would allow students to compare
performance with other schools”
Some students heard only 3 arguments.
Others heard 9 arguments.
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Attitude Toward Exams
esearch
High
Low
Personal Relevance
Personal Relevance
Argument
Quality
High
Low
12
10
8
For students with a
personal stake, more
strong arguments
were more
convincing
6
4
2
0
3
9
3
9
Number of Arguments
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Attitude Toward Exams
esearch
High
Low
Personal Relevance
Personal Relevance
Argument
Quality
High
Low
12
10
8
But more weak
arguments left them
less convinced
6
4
2
0
3
9
3
9
Number of Arguments
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Attitude Toward Exams
esearch
High
Low
Personal Relevance
Personal Relevance
Argument
Quality
High
Low
12
10
8
6
Students who
wouldn’t be affected
didn’t process quality
4
2
0
3
9
3
9
Number of Arguments
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The Goals of Persuasion:
Why People Change Their
Attitudes and Beliefs
Individuals may yield to a persuasive
message in order to:
hold a more accurate view of the world,
be consistent with themselves, and
gain social approval and acceptance.
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Seeking Accuracy
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Good Shortcuts
When we can’t make a thorough
evaluation of a persuasive argument, we
may rely on shortcuts, such as:
Credibility of communicator
page 161
Is the person an expert? Trustworthy?
Others’ responses
page 162
Which side do other people seem to be taking?
Ready ideas
page 164
What side have I heard frequently or recently?
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What affects the Desire for
Accuracy?
• Issue Involvement
• Mood
• Done Deals
• Unwelcome Information
• Expertise and Complexity
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Issue Involvement
Cognitive resources are too limited to
think deeply about every issue.
People focus their accuracy concerns
on issues that involve them directly.
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Mood
A sad mood
Motivates people to acquire accurate
attitudes about the situation at hand
Warns of potential danger of making
errors in immediate environment.
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Done deals
Desire to be unbiased and accurate is
much stronger before a person
makes a decision.
After the decision, the accuracy
motive fades in favor of the desire to
feel good about the decision.
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Unwelcome Information
People tend not to expend cognitive
effort looking for flaws in an
argument that supports their beliefs.
Those who encounter information that
doesn't fit search for weaknesses
they can use to form
counterarguments.
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Defensiveness and Denial
Fear may lead people to deny
information, unless that information
is accompanied by a plan to reduce
the threat.
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Expertise and Complexity
People rely on the expertise of a
communicator principally when the
message is highly complex.
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Being Consistent
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Being Consistent
Consistency principle –
the principle that people will change
their attitudes, beliefs, perceptions,
and actions to make them consistent
with each other
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Balance Theory
Fritz Heider
We want to:
Agree with people we like
Disagree with people we dislike
Associate good things with good people
Associate bad things with bad people.
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Balance Theory
Cognitive system out of balance

Uncomfortable tension
To remove this tension, we will have
to change something in the system.
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Balance Theory
Rhoda is strongly pro-choice.
Mary is strongly pro-life.
Rhoda considers Mary her best friend.
+
Rhoda
Mary
-
+
Abortion
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Balance Theory
Rhoda could restore balance by
changing her feeling about abortion.
+
Rhoda
-
Mary
Abortion
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Balance Theory
Or she could restore balance by
changing her feelings about her
friend.
-
Rhoda
Mary
-
+
Abortion
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Balance Theory
Or she could restore balance by
changing Mary’s feelings about
abortion.
+
Rhoda
Mary
+
+
Abortion
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Cognitive Dissonance Theory
Leon Festinger
Cognitive dissonance –
the unpleasant state of psychological
arousal resulting from an
inconsistency within one's important
attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors
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Cognitive Dissonance Theory
Counterattitudinal action –
a behavior that is inconsistent with
an existing attitude
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Cognitive Dissonance Theory
In a study by Festinger and Carlsmith
Students first performed a boring task
(turning pegs in holes)
Then were asked to tell another student
it was interesting—and for this, they
were paid either $1 or $20.
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Cognitive Dissonance Theory
When later asked their attitudes
toward the boring task:
Those receiving $1 payment had come
to see it as more enjoyable
Those receiving $20 hadn't changed
their attitudes at all.
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Cognitive Dissonance Theory
Why? Dissonance theory explains:
$20 provided adequate justification for
misleading another student.
$1 was insufficient justification, thus
arousing dissonance.
Changing beliefs about the task reduced
the cognitive discomfort.
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Cognitive Dissonance Theory
Postdecisional dissonance is the conflict
one feels between the knowledge that he
or she has made a decision and the
possibility that the decision may be
wrong.
Just seconds after placing a bet, gamblers are
more confident their horse will win (Knox
& Inkster, 1968).
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Initiation
Dissonance
begins with:
Amplification
More dissonance
arises when the
action or decision:
Motivation
Dissonance is
experienced as:
Reduction
Dissonance is
reduced through:
is seen as freely
chosen
an action
or
decision
that
conflicts
with an
important
aspect of
the self.
cannot be justified
as due to strong
rewards or threats
unpleasant
arousal
produces negative
consequences that
were foreseeable
change
designed to
remove the
unpleasant
arousal
cannot be
withdrawn
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Arousal
No arousal = no dissonance = no need to
change
Cooper, Zanna, and Taves – participants in
an experiment who were given a
tranquilizer (eliminating any dissonant
arousal) did not change their opinions,
even after writing a counter-attitudinal
essay.
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Consequences
The more impact your behavior has
had on the world, the more you will
feel motivated to change your
attitudes to fit the behavior.
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Consequences
If you are on a committee that
recommends a harsh penalty for a fellow
student accused of cheating on a math
test,
you will maintain your negative opinion
of that student more to the extent that
the consequence is expulsion from
school as opposed to a lowered grade in
the math class.
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Salience of the Inconsistency
We must be aware of the inconsistency
Factors that make inconsistency
more salient (prominent) will
enhance dissonance, and should
produce greater change. Examples?
(page 173)
Assignment 7
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Consistent with What?
Different Ads appeal to different selfrelated motives in different cultures.
Han & Shavitt (1994) asked Americans
and Koreans to rate advertisements that
suggested either
Personal benefits (“treat yourself”),
Group benefits (“share an experience”).
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esearch
Rating of Product:
+30
Ad Focus:
Personal
Benefit
Group
Benefit
+20
+10
-10
-20
-30
Korea
U.S.
Koreans had a more
favorable reaction to ads
stressing group benefits
Americans had a more
favorable reaction to ads
stressing personal benefits
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Gaining Social Approval
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Gaining Social Approval
The motivation to achieve approval is
called impression motivation,
because the goal is to create a good
impression on others.
This motivation to create a good
impression can sometimes conflict
with the pursuit of the accuracy and
consistency goals.
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Self-Monitoring
High self-monitors were more
persuaded by ads promoting socially
appealing images associated with
particular brands of coffee, whiskey,
and cigarettes than by ads touting
the quality of the same brands
(Snyder and DeBono).
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Gender
Like high self-monitors, women tend
to be sensitively attuned to
relationships and interpersonal
issues.
This sensitivity affects the way they
respond to persuasive appeals.
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The Expectation of Discussion
People who expect to discuss a topic
tend to hold more moderate
opinions.
Opinion shifts designed to create a
good impression can become lasting
when the process of shifting causes
people to think about the topic in a
different way.
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Self-Monitoring and
Expectation of Discussion
When expecting a discussion, high
self-monitors (who pay more
attention to social rewards) shift
their attitudes and beliefs more than
do low self-monitors.
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