Attitude Change and Persuasion

Question 1

What is cognitive consistency theories?

Answer 1

The seeking to have coherent self, attitudes, thoughts, beliefs, values and behaviours. Attitude changes to be consistent with each other and the behaviour

Question 2

What occurs when there is inconsistency among the self, attitudes e.g.?

Answer 2

There is an aversive state that arouses a desire to reduce the aversion

Question 3

Who looked at cognitive dissonance?

Answer 3

Festinger, 1957

Question 4

What is cognitive dissonance?

Answer 4

Conflict between related attitudes, cognitions, actions can lead to dissonance

Question 5

What has cognitive dissonance theory been applied to?

Answer 5

People’s feelings of regret and changes of attitudes after making a decision, why we seek social support for our beliefs, attitude change to rationalise hypocritical behaviour, attitude change in a situation when someone has said something contrary to beliefs

Question 6

How can tension be alleviated from cognitive dissonance?

Answer 6

By changing one of our existing cognitions or adding an extra one to “explain” this discrepancy

Question 7

What are the possible resolutions from cognitive dissonance?

Answer 7

Changing the behaviour, change one or more cognitions or adding new cognitions

Question 8

How can dissonance be initiated?

Answer 8

Forced compliance, decision-making, effort justification, free choice

Question 9

What is forced compliance?

Answer 9

Inconsistency due a person being persuaded in a way that is inconsistent with an attitude

Question 10

What can forced compliance induce?

Answer 10

A counter-attitudinal way

Question 11

Who looked at forced compliance?

Answer 11

Festinger and Carlsmith

Question 12

What did Festinger & Carlsmith (1959) find with forced compliance?

Answer 12

Boring task for 1 hour, persuade another person that the task was interesting. Paided with $1 or $20 for doing so

Question 13

Who looked at decision making?

Answer 13

Brehm

Question 14

What did Brehm (1958) do with decision making?

Answer 14

Rating desirability of 8 household products, product as a reward

Question 15

What occurs when there is a choice between two highly desirable products?

Answer 15

High dissonance

Question 16

What occurs when there is a choice between one highly desirable and one less desirable item?

Answer 16

Low dissonance

Question 17

What was the control for Brehm (1956)?

Answer 17

A highly desirable product but no product

Question 18

What was the findings from Brehm (1956)

Answer 18

Change in evaluation of products in high dissonance condition

Question 19

What is effort justification?

Answer 19

Inconsistency when a person makes an effort for the achievement of a modest goal

Question 20

What is the effort justification process?

Answer 20

Act is voluntary–> much effort expended–> goal first rated as negative–> cognitive dissonance–> goal then rated as positive

Question 21

Who looked at effort justification?

Answer 21

Aronson and Mills, 1959

Question 22

What were the findings from Aronson and Mills, 1957?

Answer 22

With female participants, when explicit descriptions (the severe condition) of sex were given they found the discussion more interesting compared to mild descriptions and the control

Question 23

What is the selective exposure hypothesis?

Answer 23

When possible they will avoid exposure to information that might arouse dissonance

Question 24

What is the alternative views to cognitive dissonance?

Answer 24

Self-perception and latitude of rejection and latitude of acceptance

Question 25

What occurs at the latitude of acceptance?

Answer 25

Self perception

Question 26

What occurs at the latitude of rejection?

Answer 26

Cognitive dissonance

Question 27

What is compliance?

Answer 27

A superficial public change in behaviour and expressed attitudes in response to a request by another individual

Question 28

What are the tactics for enhancing compliance?

Answer 28

Ingratiation and multiple requests

Question 29

What is ingratiation?

Answer 29

Attempting to influence others by first agreeung with them and getting them to like oyou

Question 30

What is Jones and Pittman's 5 strategies and emotions?

Answer 30

Intimidating, exemplification, supplication, self-promotion and ingratiation

Question 31

What is exemplification?

Answer 31

Eliciting guilt so others regard you as morally respectable

Question 32

What is supplication?

Answer 32

Eliciting pity

Question 33

What is self promotion?

Answer 33

Eliciting respect

Question 34

What are the 3 techniques of compliance?

Answer 34

Foot-in-the-door, door-in-the-face and low-ball

Question 35

What is the reciprocity principle?

Answer 35

If we do other people favours they will be obliged to reciprocate due to guilt

Question 36

What is the foot-in-the-door technique?

Answer 36

People are more likely to accept a large request after a small request (Freedman & Fraser, 1966)

Question 37

Who looked at when the foot-in-the-door technique won't work?

Answer 37

Foss & Dempsey, 1979

Question 38

When will the foot-in-the-door technique not work?

Answer 38

If the first request is too small or the second request is too large

Question 39

What is the door-in-the-face technique?

Answer 39

A large request is asked first and then rejected, the person is likely to agree to a smaller request which was the asker's desire in the first place

Question 40

What is the low ball tactic?

Answer 40

Once people are committed to an action they are more likely to accept a slight increase in the cost of the action

Question 41

What are the 4 steps in persuasion process?

Answer 41

Attention, comprehension, acceptance and retention

Question 42

What is the Yale Attitude Change approach?

Answer 42

Attitude chance is influenced by 3 factors

Question 43

What are the 3 factors from the yale attitude change?

Answer 43

Source (Who), message (What), audience (to whom)

Question 44

What processes occurs from the message, source and audience?

Answer 44

Attention, comprehension and acceptance

Question 45

What is the outcome from the process of the Yale approach?

Answer 45

Opinion change, perception chance, affect change, action change

Question 46

Give examples of the source that can affect attitude change

Answer 46

Expertise, trustworthiness, attractiveness

Question 47

What characteristics of the audience will effect attitude change?

Answer 47

Self-esteem, individual differences, age, third person effect, disconfirmation bias

Question 48

What is disconfirmation bias?

Answer 48

Tendency to notice and refute weak arguments that contradict prior belief

Question 49

What is the third person effect?

Answer 49

People thinking they are less likely to persuasion

Question 50

How does self-esteem effect attitude change?

Answer 50

When people have low self esteem they are less attentive and more anxious when processing a message when they have self-esteem they are more self-assured

Question 51

How does age affect attitude change?

Answer 51

There is a high susceptibility during early adulthood (openness to new information) and later life but lower in middle adulthood (core attitudes are set)

Question 52

How do individual differences effect attitude change?

Answer 52

Need for cognition and a need for closure

Question 53

What are examples of the message of the communication?

Answer 53

One sided vs two sided and facts vs feelings

Question 54

How will one sided vs two sided messages affect persuasion?

Answer 54

Effectiveness depends on the audience such as intelligence

Question 55

How does facts vs feelings effect the messages?

Answer 55

Depends on the type of attitude held such as affect or cognition

Question 56

How does repetition effect the message of the communication?

Answer 56

Repeated exposure increases familiarity

Question 57

Who found the inverted U curve hypothesis for fear?

Answer 57

Janis, 1967

Question 58

Who found the protection motivation theory for fear?

Answer 58

Rogers, 1975

Question 59

What does the protection motivation theory say?

Answer 59

There is threat appraisal (e.g. severity) and a coping appraisal (e.g. response cost) which leads to protection motivation and a behaviour

Question 60

What is the heuristic-systematic model?

Answer 60

When we attend to a message we use systematic processing or using heuristics

Question 61

What is heuristics?

Answer 61

Mental shortcuts

Question 62

What is systematic processing?

Answer 62

When people scan and consider available arguments

Question 63

When do we switch from heuristics to systematic?

Answer 63

When people have a sufficiency threshold so heuristics will be used as long as they satisfy our need to be confident in the adopted attitude

Question 64

What is the elaboration likelihood model?

Answer 64

A theory about the thinking processes that might occur when we attempt to change a person's attitude

Question 65

What is examples of elaboration?

Answer 65

Motivation (interest), ability (fatigue), opportunity (time)

Question 66

What is the route when there is high elaboration?

Answer 66

Central

Question 67

What is the route when there is low elaboration?

Answer 67

Peripheral

Question 68

What is the information processing when there is a central route?

Answer 68

Careful

Question 69

What is the information processing when there is a peripheral route?

Answer 69

Not careful

Question 70

Is there attitude change when there is high elaboration?

Answer 70

It depends on the quality of the arguments

Question 71

Is there attitude change when there is low elaboration?

Answer 71

Depends on the presence of persuasive cues

Question 72

Who looked at action research?

Answer 72

Lewin, 1943

Question 73

What is action research?

Answer 73

Attitude change is more effective if the active participator rather than a passive

Question 74

What are the 3 reasons for resistance to persuasion?

Answer 74

Reactance, forewarning, inoculation

Question 75

What is reactance?

Answer 75

People try to protect their freedom to act when they think their freedom isn't there they will act to regain it

Question 76

What is forewarning?

Answer 76

Prior knowledge to persuasive intent so there is time to rehearse counter arguments

Question 77

What is inoculation?

Answer 77

A way of making people resistant to persuasion by providing a diluted counter-argument that they are build up an effective refutation to a stronger argument

Question 78

What are the two defenses for inoculation?

Answer 78

Supportive and inoculation

Question 79

What is supportive defences?

Answer 79

Attitude bolstering and additional argument for the original beliefs