Attitudes

Question 1

three components of attitude

Answer 1

cognitive, affective, and behavioural

Question 2

cognitively based attitude

Answer 2

attitude based primarily on people’s beliefs about the properties of an attitude object
— quickly classify + and - of objects

Question 3

affectively based attitude

Answer 3

attitude based more on people’s feelings and values than on their beliefs about the nature of an attitude object
— stems from people’s values (religious and moral beliefs) or conditioning

Question 4

classical conditioning

Answer 4

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

Question 5

operant conditioning

Answer 5

phenomenon whereby behaviours we freely choose to perform become more or less frequent, depending on whether they are followed by a reward or punishment

Question 6

behaviourally based attitude

Answer 6

attitude based on observations of how one behaves toward an object
— aka self-perception theory

Question 7

people form attitudes from behaviour only when

Answer 7

• initial attitude is weak or ambiguous
• no other plausible explanations available

Question 8

explicit attitudes

Answer 8

attitudes that we consciously endorse and can easily report
— more rooted in recent experiences

Question 9

implicit attitudes

Answer 9

attitudes that exist outside of conscious awareness (involuntary and uncontrollable)
— more rooted in childhood experiences

Question 10

when do attitudes predict spontaneous behaviours?

Answer 10

when attitudes are highly accessible to people

Question 11

what is attitude accessibility?

Answer 11

strength of the association between attitude object and person’s evaluation of the object, measured by the speed with which people can report how they feel about the object

Question 12

theory of planned behaviour

Answer 12

idea that people’s intentions are the best predictors of their deliberate behaviours, which are determined by their attitudes toward specific behaviours, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control

Question 13

how does specific attitudes work?

Answer 13

more specific the attitude toward the behaviour → better the attitude can be expected to predict the behaviour

Question 14

subjective norms

Answer 14

people’s beliefs about how others they care about will view the behaviour in question

Question 15

perceived behavioural control

Answer 15

people’s intentions are influenced by the ease with which they believe they can perform the behaviour

Question 16

how do attitudes change?

Answer 16

attitudes often change due to social influence but can also change due to cognitive dissonance

Question 17

yale attitude change approach

Answer 17

study of the conditions under which people are most likely to change their attitudes in response to persuasive messages
- source of communication
- nature of communication
- nature of audience

Question 18

source of communication

__& __ speakers? __ effect?

Answer 18

• credible & attractive speakers → more persuasive
• sleeper effect → information from low-credibility source becomes more persuasive with passage of time

Question 19

nature of communication

__, __, back to back speeches

Answer 19

• messages that do not seem to be designed to influence people → more persuasive
• two-sided argument > one-sided argument
• back to back speeches w delay → primacy effect; first message more persuasive
• back to back speeches w/o delay → recency effect; last message more persuasive

Question 20

nature of audience

Answer 20

• distracted audience → more persuasive
• lower intelligence, moderate self-esteem, ages of 18-25 → more persuasive
• western cultures → personal messages
• others → contextually appropriate messages

Question 21

elaboration likelihood model

Answer 21

model explaining two ways in which persuasive communications can cause attitude change
- central route
- peripheral route

Question 22

when does central route of persuasion work?

Answer 22

people are motivated and have the ability to pay attention to the arguments in the communication

Question 23

how are people influenced by peripheral route?

Answer 23

people do not pay attention to the arguments but are instead swayed by surface characteristics

Question 24

what is motivation determined by?

& which route should be used?

Answer 24

personal relevance of topic
- high personal relevance → central route
- low personal relevance → peripheral route

Question 24

when to use which route of persuasion?

based on type of issue & minority group

Answer 24

• issue is complex and hard to evaluate, unable to pay close attention to arguments → peripheral route
• issue is simple and easy to understand → central route
• crafting messages for minority groups → use central route

Question 25

which route is more persuasive?

Answer 25

central route, people more likely to
— maintain attitude over time
— behave consistently with attitude
— resist counter persuasion

Question 26

how to utilise fear-arousing communication?

Answer 26

moderate amount of fear + specific messages on how to reduce the fear → more motivated to analyse the message carefully and their attitudes via central route

Question 27

fear-arousing communication

Answer 27

persuasive message that attempts to change people’s attitudes by arousing their fears

Question 28

heuristic-systematic model of persuasion

Answer 28

explanation of the two ways in which persuasive communications can cause attitude change
— systematically processing the merits of the arguments
— using mental shortcuts or heuristics

Question 28

what happens when there is overwhelming fear?

Answer 28

people become defensive, deny the importance of the threat, and are unable to think rationally about the issue

Question 29

use what for which moods & which attitudes

good & bad mood; cog & affective attitude

Answer 29

• good mood → content with heuristics cues
• bad mood → sharpens skepticism and increased attention to message quality
• cognitively-based attitude → change with rational arguments
• affectively-based attitude → change with emotional appeals

Question 29

how does heuristic-systematic model of persuasion work?

Answer 29

use emotions as heuristics to determine our attitudes → “i feel good sitting on the couch” → “i like this couch” → increased likelihood to buy couch

Question 30

how does body movements influence attitude change?

Answer 30

Briñol and Petty’s (2003) headphone study on whether shaking or nodding one’s head while listening to a persuasive communication influenced the likelihood of persuasion

• strong arguments → nodding heads > shaking heads → nodding heads increased feelings of confidence
• weak arguments → shaking heads > nodding heads → nodding heads gave people more confidence that the arguments they heard were weak and unconvincing, making them less convinced

Question 31

define advertising and how it works

Answer 31

advertising — concerted effort to change the way that consumers think about and act toward a certain product

• make product personally relevant

Question 32

what is subliminal advertising?

Answer 32

words or pictures that are not consciously perceived but may nevertheless influence judgements, attitudes, and behaviours

Question 33

does subliminal advertising work?

Answer 33

• no evidence that subliminal messages encountered in everyday life have regular influence on people’s behaviour
• might work under carefully controlled laboratory conditions

Question 33

how does culture affect advertising?

Answer 33

persuasive communication work best when they are tailored to the attitude they are trying to change and the expectations and thinking styles of target audience

• western cultures → independence and individualism
• asian cultures → interdependence and collectivism

Question 34

attitude inoculation

Answer 34

making people immune to attempts to change their attitudes by initially exposing them to small doses of arguments against their position

Question 35

how does attitude inoculation work?

Answer 35

• those who have been inoculated less likely to change their attitudes
• being inoculated with weak arguments → time to think about limitations of those arguments → able to contradict stronger attack against attitude

Question 36

how does product placement work?

Answer 36

you do not realise that someone is trying to influence attitudes and behaviour → do not generate counterarguments → more vulnerable to influence

Question 37

how to resist peer pressure?

Answer 37

• can use inoculation with emotional appeals and equip with ways to combat those pressures
• eg. role-play a situation where a friend calls him a loser for not smoking a cigarette and teach him to respond by saying, “I’d be more of a loser if I did it just to impress you.”

Question 38

reactance theory

Answer 38

idea that when people feel their freedom to perform a certain behaviour is threatened, an unpleasant state of resistance is aroused, which they can reduce by performing the prohibited behaviour