Chapter Seven

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Chapter Seven

• Attitude Change

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Dissonance Theory

• Cognitive dissonance theory is based on a small
  set of principles
• cognitions can be either consistent or
  inconsistent with one another
• inconsistent cognitions produce dissonance
• dissonance can be reduced by changing our
  attitudes, changing our behavior, or adding a
  third cognition to mediate between the other two

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An Example of Cognitive Dissonance

• Your professor holds the attitude No make-up
  exams
• You persuade the professor to give you a make-up
• The professors attitude and behavior are now
  dissonant with one another
• the professor will be motivated to reduce her
  cognitive dissonance

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Dissonance Reduction

• Options available to our professor
• change the behavior not likely, the make-up
  exams been given
• change attitude maybe
• professor might decide that make-up exams arent
  so bad after all
• find a mediating element could be
• professor might still hold attitude, still
  perform behavior, but decide its a one-time event

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How Dissonance Reduction Works

• To reduce dissonance and restore consonance, an
  individual might
• change her attitude to be consonant with her
  behavior
• change her behavior to be consonant with her
  attitude
• maintain both the attitude and the behavior, but
  introduce an additional cognition to restore
  consonance between them both

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Early Research Induced Compliance

• Festinger and Carlsmith (1959)
• people engage in a boring task
• these same people convince others that the task
  is fun and enjoyable
• some people get paid 1 for saying this, others
  get paid 20 for saying this
• The 1 group showed greater positive attitude
  change
• Brought their attitudes in line with behavior

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Early Research Effort Justification

• Aronson and Mills (1959)
• severity of initiation leads to greater liking
  for the group
• Dissonance reduction is used to justify the
  expenditure of effort
• this is horribleI must really like it

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Early Research Free Choice

• Festinger (1957)
• having to choose between two desirable
  alternatives can produce dissonance
• the bad elements of the chosen alternative are
  dissonant with the decision
• the good elements of the unchosen alternative are
  dissonant with the decision
• people engage in post-decision dissonance
  reduction to restore consonance

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Post-Decision Dissonance Reduction

• As a consequence of having to choose one of two
  desirable alternatives, people will
• improve their evaluation of the chosen
  alternative
• lower their evaluation of the unchosen
  alternative
• Doing so reduces dissonance and restores
  consonance

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Self-Perception Theory

• An alternative to dissonance theory
• perhaps people simply observe their own behavior
  and infer their own attitudes from it
• Im eating pistachio ice cream I must like
  pistachio ice cream
• I did the boring task I must like the boring
  task
• Self-perception works best with weak attitudes

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Impression Management Theory

• An alternative to dissonance theory
• people want to make a good impression
• in dissonance studies, they may not want to
  appear inconsistent
• self-presentation goals would predict their
  behavior

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Self-Affirmation Theory

• An alternative to dissonance theory
• people want to view themselves as moral, capable
  individuals
• counterattitudinal behavior threatens these
  feelings of self-worth
• people change their attitudes to reduce these
  threats to self-worth

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Recent Research Hypocrisy

• Early dissonance research focused on the negative
  consequences of behavior
• Even people who promote a proattitudinal position
  can experience dissonance
• hypocrisy produced by advocating a proattitudinal
  position but engaging in counterattitudinal
  behavior leads to dissonance
• if you promote conservation, youd better recycle!

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Recent Research Individual Differences

• Preference for Consistency (PFC) measures
  individual differences in wanting predictability
  and consonance
• Individual differences may mediate the effects
  found in traditional dissonance research

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Recent Research Explicit/Implicit Attitudes

• Almost all research on dissonance theory has
  focused on explicit attitudes
• Recent research has examined dissonance and
  implicitly-held attitudes
• dissonance affects explicit attitudes
• dissonance has little effect on changing implicit
  attitudes

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Cognitive Response Theory

• Information-based persuasive communication also
  changes attitudes
• Cognitive response theory argues that the
  effectiveness of an attitude change message
  depends on the thoughts evoked by that message
• positive thoughts lead to adoption of the
  advocated position
• negative thoughts lead to rejection of the
  advocated position

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Argument Strength

• Strong arguments tend to produce strong attitudes
• strong attitudes should predict greater attitude
  change
• Weak arguments tend to produce weak attitudes
• weak attitudes provide poor support for the
  advocated position

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Processing the Message

• Strong arguments should be presented in a clear
  way
• capitalize on targets uninterrupted processing
  of good arguments
• Weak arguments may fare better with distraction
  present
• you dont want the target to pay a lot of
  attention to lousy arguments!

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Heuristic Persuasion

• Heuristic persuasion relies on factors other than
  the strength of the arguments presented
• relevance of the message
• credibility of the communicator
• likeability of the communicator
• attractiveness of the communicator
• positive mood and emotion

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Two Routes to Persuasion

• Systematic processing occurs when people attend
  to and think about the message
• Heuristic processing occurs when people rely on
  simple cues to make judgments, rather than the
  strength of the arguments
• Central route processing is analogous to
  systematic processing
• Peripheral route processing is analogous to
  heuristic processing

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Concept Review
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Motivation and Ability

• Systematic/central route processing when
• the recipient of the message is motivated to
  expend the energy needed to process the
  information
• the recipient of the message has the ability to
  process the information

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Personal Relevance Message Complexity

• An attitude change message should be relevant to
  the target
• if not, little attitude change
• Undue message complexity should work against
  attitude change
• if you cant understand the message, it makes it
  difficult to process the message

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Effects of Aging on Attitude Change

• Null hypothesis no age-related changes
• Increasing persistence people become more
  resistant to influence as they age
• Impressionable years lots of attitude change
  when young, less when older
• Life stages greater susceptibility to persuasion
  when young, again when old
• this is an issue that has not been settled

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Effects of Culture on Attitude Change

• People from collectivist cultures may not feel
  the same urge to behave in ways that are
  consistent with their attitudes
• this would reduce the effects of cognitive
  dissonance in shaping behavior
• Collectivism may also predict differences in
  responses to persuasive messages

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Persuasion and Health Fear Appeals

• The arousal of fear has been used in many
  health-related attitude change messages
• Protection Motivation Theory describes this
  process
• believe the problem is severe
• assume personal susceptibility
• believe the steps to ameliorate
• capable of performing those steps

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Propaganda

• Persuasion that is motivated by a specific
  ideology and that is biased in its presentation
• wars often inspire propaganda messages
• cults often inspire propaganda messages

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Aspects of Cult Indoctrination

• Selective targeting of potential recruits
• Isolation of recruits
• Sleep deprivation
• Love-bombing
• Repetition
• Foot-in-the-door
• Denial of privacy
• Reciprocity
• Fear-mongering

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Everyday Propaganda

• Common sources of a biased message promoting a
  specific ideology
• advertising
• movies and television
• education
• religious institutions

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Resisting Persuasion

• Inoculation
• exposure to a weakened form of arguments makes us
  less susceptible to attitude change
• Reactance
• limits to personal freedom lead to motives to
  restore that freedom
• Personal preparation against unscrupulous
  attitude change messages is a good idea