What are attitudes?
• Attitude: A positive, negative, or mixed
evaluation of people, objects, or ideas.
How do attitudes develop?
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Processes in the development of attitudes:
Classical conditioning
Instrumental/operant conditioning
Modeling
Direct experience
Do attitudes predict behavior?
• Richard LaPiere (1934): Traveled through
U.S. with Chinese couple
• 183/184 restaurants served them
• Later asked if provide service to Chinese
people. 91% (of 128 who replied) said,
“No.”
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When are attitudes poor predictors of
behavior?
• (1) Low correspondence between the attitude and the
behavior (Aizen & Fishbein)
• (2) Strength of attitude is weak
(strength=more knowledge; based on direct experience;
more important; more accessible.)
When do attitudes change?
• Cognitive dissonance (Leon Festinger,
1957): We feel tension (dissonance) when
two of our thoughts (cognitions) are
psychologically inconsistent. We change
our thinking to reduce this tension.
Ways to Reduce Dissonance
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TECHNIQUES
Change your attitude
EXAMPLES
“I don’t really need to be on a
diet.”
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Change your perception
of the behavior
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Add consonant cognitions
“Chocolate mousse is very
nutritious.”
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Minimize the importance
of the conflict.
“I don’t care if I’m
overweight— life is short;
mousse is great.
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Reduce perceived choice.
“I had no other choice; it was
prepared for the occasion.
“I hardly ate any mousse.”
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• Video clip of Festinger & Carlsmith (1959)
study
Festinger and Carlsmith
• IV: $1 or $20 to lie by saying a boring task
was very interesting
• DV: How much the participant reported
enjoying the dull task
• Results: Ps in the $1 condition said the
dull task was more enjoyable than did
those in the $20 condition. $1=insufficient
justification for lie
Importance of Festinger &
Carlsmith study
• Demonstrates self persuasion
• Contradicted long-held belief that big
rewards produced attitude change
“less [money] leads to more [attitude
change]” effect
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Insufficient justification
• Aronson & Carlsmith (1963)
• Forbidden toy study
• IV: Mild threat (I won’t like it) or severe threat
(will be spanked)
• DV: later liking for the toy
• Results: Those faced with a mild threat liked the
toy LESS than those faced with a more severe
threat. Those in the mild threat group had
“insufficient justification” for their behavior, and
therefore internalized the attitude.
Four steps to dissonance arousal
(Cooper & Fazio)
• The attitude discrepant behavior must
produce unwanted negative
consequences.
• Must feel personally responsible for
unpleasant consequences.
• Must experience physiological arousal
• Must attribute the arousal to your own
inconsistent behavior
Cognitive dissonance theory
• Generated a lot of research
• Explanations for effects are still being
debated, but inconsistency appears to be
important.
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Discuss “Weapons of Influence”
• How are fixed-action patterns among
animals similar to some patterns in
humans? How are they different?
• What are the benefits and risks of
automatic responding in humans?
• Components of a “weapon of automatic
influence”
• Applications
Discuss “Reciprocation”
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Rule for reciprocity & its importance
Components of reciprocity rule
Rejection-then-retreat
Applications
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