Attitude

1. Attitude

2. Attitude vs. Belief • Belief is a thought (cognition) about something • Raw fish is bad • Exercise is important • Attitude adds two components: ABCs • Affective: evaluation, emotion • Behavioral: tendency to take action • Cognitive: belief or thoughts

3. Components • Affective: • I hate raw fish and sushi • I enjoy exercise • Behavioral • I won’t eat sushi • I will exercise regularly • Cognitive • Raw fish is bad • Exercise is good

4. Consistency • We always want our ABCs to agree • What if we don’t have an attitude? • Behavior will shape our attitude • What if our ABCs are inconsistent? • Caveats

5. Attitudes • Explicit attitude • Implicit attitude • Involuntary, uncontrollable, often unconscious • IAT

6. Attitudes toward groups • Prejudice • Affective component • Hostile or negative attitude toward people just because they are a group member • Stereotypes • Cognitive component • Generalization in which identical characteristics are assigned to all members • Discrimination • Behavioral component • Unjustified negative or harmful action toward a group member because of their membership

7. Prejudice in the classroom • Jane Elliott • Prejudice can be taught • Told students blue-eyed people were better than brown-eyed people • Brown-eyed children had to wear collars and sit in the back of class • Over the course of one day: brown eyed children became self-conscious, depressed, and demoralized • Next day: Elliott switched the stereotypes about eye-color (brown=good) • Brown-eyed kids exacted their revenge

8. Why are stereotypes maintained? • Illusory correlation • See correlations where they don’t exist • Remember confirmatory examples more • Example: Cheerleaders are outgoing • Out-group homogeneity effect • Us vs. them • “All ______ are alike” • In-group bias • Positive feelings for people who are part of our in-group • Alumni, state residency

9. Fundamental Attribution Error • Interpret behavior as a characteristic of the individual rather than the situation • Do not take into account the situation • Person unemployed is a bad worker • Bush caused war • Jeopardy player is really smart • Maintain stereotypes: • Attribute confirmatory examples to the individual • Ignore/attribute to the situation examples which don’t fit or stereotype

10. Persuasion • Yale Attitude Change • Hovland, 1953 • The effectiveness of communication depends on who says what to whom. • Who: The persuader or source • Credibility (expertise, knowledge) • Attractiveness

11. Persuasion • What: The message • One- vs. two-sided messages • Blatantly persuasive • Primacy vs. recency • Depends on when decision is made • Fear arousing • To whom: The recipient • Distraction • Intelligence • Age

12. Persuasive techniques • Foot in the door • Door in the face • Reciprocity—create an obligation • Low-ball—obtain commitment then up the price • Sweeten the deal • Exclusivity • Prestige

13. Object Object + + -- + Self Other Self Other + -- Heider’s Balance Theory • We want to maintain consistency among our attitudes • Prefer to agree with someone I like • Disagree with someone I dislike

14. Object Object -- + + + Self Self Other Other + -- Balance Theory • What if my attitudes are imbalanced? • Change beliefs about the object • Change beliefs about the person • Change whichever is easier