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ATTITUDECHANGE
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Research strandsEarly phase 40s-50s: interest in attitudechange & empirical research on persuasivecommunication
60s-70s: focus on attitude organization interms of maintenance of cognitiveconsistency (e.g., dissonance theory)80s-90s: back to attitude change, more
general theories (e.g., ELM, HSM)
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Moderator variables:Under what conditions do what kinds of
attitudes of what kinds of individuals predictwhat kinds of behaviour?
Situational moderators; attitudinal qualities;personal moderators, individual differences;
behavioural properties
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Three componentsThoughts (information)Feelings (classical conditioning)
Actions (instrumental conditioning/modelling)
Can we change attitudes by changing thesecomponents?
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Attitudes changed by persuasivemechanisms (central/peripheral)
Attitudes also changed on foot of changingbehaviour
Counter-attitudinal advocacy
Cognitive dissonance/Self-perception theory
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Thoughts
Changed by persuasive communications (i.e.,new information)
What qualities makes a communicationpersuasive?How does persuasion occur?When do people resist persuasivecommunications?
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Qualities of communicationThree important factors:1. Source
2. Content3. Audience
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How does persuasion occur?By what psychological mechanisms do attitudes
guide behaviour?Two Dual Process models of persuasion (drawn
from memory research - Depth of Processing)
Petty & Cacioppo 1981 Elaboration-LikelihoodModel ELMChaiken 1980 Heuristic Systematic Model HSM
Deliberative (reasoned action, planned behaviour models) vs. automatic processing modes
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2 routesPeripheral, relatively spontaneous
resultant attitude change = temporary, unlikely topredict behaviour, susceptible to further change
Central, relatively deliberateresultant attitude change = relatively permanent,
likely to predict behaviour, resistant to further change
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When do people resist?When forewarned, psychological reactance
When innoculated by previous success in
counterarguing persuasive communications
When high need for cognitive closure
When use Defensive strategies (e.g., Denial; Bolstering;Differentiation; Transference)
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2 ways to change people s attitude feelings:Put people in a good moodClassically condition the attitude
Do feelings ever change without thought? Conditioning without awareness
Mere exposure
Match attitude change with attitude basis
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ActionsChanged through rewards & modelling
Induced compliance
If negatively aroused by inconsistencyWhere no strong attitudes, infer thoughts/feelings from actions
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Cognitive Dissonance Theory
Festinger 1957http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Festinger/http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/index.htm
We change our attitudes to reduce the aversivearousal we experience when we have twocognitions or thoughts that contradict each other or are dissonant.
To change thoughts, get people to actcounterattitudinally
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Circumstances when attitudes change
because of cognitive disssonance
Postdecisional dissonance
Effort justificationInsufficient justification (Festinger & Carlsmith 1959)Insufficient deterrence (Aronson & Carlsmith 1963)
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Attitude change occurs only when:There are aversive consequences to the action
Person assumes personal responsibility for causing those consequences
Person who performs action experiences aversivearousal that is attributed to action
Person has no attractive way to reduce arousalother than through attitude change
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Do people infer their attitudes from their actions?
Self perception theory Bem 1967
People who do not have strong attitudessometimes infer their thoughts and feelingsfrom their own actions.
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Attitude change occurs when:The action is one that logically implies a correspondingattitude
People do not spontaneously remember what their
attitude used to be and draw the same conclusion fromtheir action as an uninvolved observer
People experience no physiological arousal that theyneed to explain
A previously attractive option becomes dictated byexternal controls
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Cognitive Dissonance TheorySome critics suggest actually testing:
Sociological mores not psychological lawsNot consistency but norms of conduct inwhich inconsistency looks badImpression management (Goffman 1959)
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