Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Elliot Aronson
University of California, Santa Cruz
6th edition
Timothy D. Wilson
University of Virginia
Robin M. Akert
Wellesley College
Chapter 7
Attitudes and Attitude Changes:
By persuading others,
we convince ourselves. Junius
Advertising can have powerful effects. Until the early twentieth century, men bought 99% of cigarettes sold. Then advertisers began targeting female buyers. In 1955, there were twice as many male as female smokers in the United States. Although the smoking rate has decreased overall, women have almost caught up to men. In 2004 23% of adult men smoked, compared to 19% of adult women.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.
Although the smoking rate has decreased overall, women have almost caught up to men. In 2004 23% of adult men smoked, compared to 19% of adult women. But is advertising responsible? To what extent can advertising shape peoples attitudes and behavior? Exactly what is an attitude, anyway, and how is it changed?
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.
Cognitively Based Attitude An attitude based primarily on peoples beliefs about the properties of an attitude object.
Sometimes our attitudes are based primarily on the relevant facts, such as the objective merits of an automobile. How many miles to the gallon does it get? Does it have side-impact air bags?
Affectively Based Attitude An attitude based more on peoples feelings and values than on their beliefs about the nature of an attitude object.
Sometimes we simply like a car, regardless of how many miles to the gallon it gets. Occasionally we even feel great about something or someone in spite of having negative beliefs.
If affectively based attitudes do not come from examining the facts, where do they come from? They can result from: 1. Peoples values, such as religious and moral beliefs, 2. Sensory reaction, such as liking the taste of chocolate , 3. Aesthetic reaction, such as admiring a painting or the lines and color of a car, 4. Conditioning.
Classical Conditioning
The phenomenon whereby a stimulus that elicits an emotional response is repeatedly paired with a neutral stimulus that does not until the neutral stimulus takes on the emotional properties of the first stimulus.
Operant Conditioning
The phenomenon whereby behaviors that people freely choose to perform increase or decrease in frequency, depending on whether they are followed by positive reinforcement or punishment.
In operant conditioning, behaviors we freely perform become more or less frequent, depending on whether they are followed by a reward (positive reinforcement) or punishment. How does this apply to attitudes? Imagine: A 4-year-old white girl goes to the playground and begins to play with an African American girl. Her father expresses strong disapproval, telling her, We dont play with that kind of child. It wont take long before the child associates interacting with African Americans with disapproval, thereby adopting her fathers racist attitudes.
Operant Conditioning
Although affectively based attitudes come from many sources, we can group them into one family because they: (1)Do not result from a rational examination of the issues, (2)Are not governed by logic (e.g., persuasive arguments about the issues seldom change an affectively based attitude), and (3)Are often linked to peoples values, so that trying to change them challenges those values.
Implicit Attitudes
Attitudes that are involuntary, uncontrollable, and at times unconscious.
Persuasive Communication
Communication (e.g., a speech or television ad) advocating a particular side of an issue.
How should you construct a message so that it would really change peoples attitudes?
Compared to people who base their attitudes on peripheral cues, people who base their attitudes on a careful analysis of the arguments will be: More likely to maintain this attitude over time, More likely to behave consistently with this attitude, More resistant to counterpersuasion.
Fear-Arousing Communications
Fear-Arousing Communications Persuasive messages that attempt to change peoples attitudes by arousing their fears.
Fear-Arousing Communications
Do fear-arousing communications work?
If a moderate amount of fear is created and people believe that listening to the message will teach them how to reduce this fear, they will be motivated to analyze the message carefully and will likely change their attitudes via the central route.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.
A group of smokers who watched a graphic film depicting lung cancer and then read pamphlets with specific instructions about how to quit smoking reduced their smoking significantly more than people who were shown only the film or only the pamphlet.
Fear-Arousing Communications
Fear-arousing appeals will also fail if they are so strong that they overwhelm people. If people are scared to death, they will become defensive, deny the importance of the threat, and be unable to think rationally about the issue.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.
Emotions as a Heuristic
HeuristicSystematic Model of Persuasion An explanation of the two ways in which persuasive communications can cause attitude change: either systematically processing the merits of the arguments or using mental shortcuts (heuristics) (e.g., thinking, Experts are always right)
Emotions as a Heuristic
Interestingly, our emotions and moods can themselves act as heuristics to determine our attitudes. When trying to decide attitude about something, we often rely on the How do I feel about it?-heuristic. If we feel good, we must have a positive attitude; if we feel bad, its thumbs down.
Emotions as a Heuristic
The problem with the How do I feel about it? heuristic is that we can make mistakes about what is causing our mood, misattributing feelings created by one source to another. If so, people might make a bad decision. Once you get a new couch home, you might discover that it no longer makes you feel all that great. Advertisers and retailers want to create good feelings while they present their product (e.g., by playing appealing music or showing pleasant images), hoping that people will attribute at least some of those feelings to the product they are trying to sell.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.
Gender stereotypes are particularly pervasive in advertising imagery. Men are depicted as doers, women as observers.
Social Psychology
Elliot Aronson
University of California, Santa Cruz
6th edition
Timothy D. Wilson
University of Virginia
Robin M. Akert
Wellesley College