Chapter 4: Behavior and Attitudes

Question 1

Attitude

Answer 1

• How we evaluate an event or person
• Revealed by beliefs, feelings, or intended behavior
• Can be positive (Coffee) or negative (neighbour)

Question 2

ABC’s of Attitudes

Answer 2

• A: Affect (feelings)
• B: Behaviour (tendencies)
• C: Cognition (thoughts)

Question 3

Moral Hypocrisy

Answer 3

Appearing moral without acting the same way (raffle tickets)

Question 4

When Attitudes Predict Behaviour

Answer 4

• Social influences are low
• Attitudes are strong

Question 5

Explicit Biases

Answer 5

Conscious attitudes

Question 6

Implicit Biases

Answer 6

• Subconscious attitudes
• Amygdala is the center for these

Question 7

IATs

Answer 7

• Reaction time measures concept associations
• Implicit biases are pervasive through groups
• People are often unaware of these
• Implicit biases can harm others
• Confirms DUAL PROCESSING capacity for controlled and automatic thinking

Question 8

IAT Criticisms

Answer 8

• Not reliable enough to assess individuals
• Motivation behind biases are unclear (past experiences shape these)
• Can’t measure positive or negative associations

Question 9

When Influences on Behavior are Minimal: Principle of Aggregation

Answer 9

Actions over time can be used to identify patterns

Question 10

When Influences on Behavior are Minimal: Behavior-Specific Attitudes

Answer 10

• While general attitudes aren’t indicative of behavior, specific attitudes are
• Altering specific attitudes can affect behavior

Question 11

The Theory of Planned Behavior

Answer 11

• Attitude, Subjective norms, and Perceived control all contribute to a BEHAVIOR INTENTION which results in a BEHAVIOR

Question 12

When Attitudes are Potent

Answer 12

• Reflecting on attitudes makes them more likely to affect our behavior
• Self-awareness promotes behaviors that reflect our attitudes
• Attitudes are more potent when they come from experiences

Question 13

Behavior Affecting Attitudes: Role Playing

Answer 13

• We tend to adopt the norms of whatever role we are playing in society
• Most people feel dissonance at first, but most will eventually join in the norms

Question 14

Behavior Affecting Attitudes: Gender Roles

Answer 14

We make an effort to fit the norms that are expected of us, including those of our gender

Question 15

Behavior Affecting Attitudes: Saying Becomes Believing

Answer 15

• People will believe something more after expressing it, even if they are prompted to express
• We adjust our messages based on who is listening, which can affect our attitude on the matter

Question 16

Behavior Affecting Attitudes: Foot-in-the-Door Phenomenon

Answer 16

• People agree to more after agreeing to something small
• When people do something voluntarily, it influences their attitudes which increases the likelihood they will do it more

Question 17

Behavior Affecting Attitudes: Low-Ball Technique

Answer 17

• When someone agrees to something, they are now more likely to accept a stronger request

Question 18

Behavior Affecting Attitudes: Door-in-the-face Technique

Answer 18

After someone denies a large request, they are more likely to accept a smaller one

Question 19

Behavior Affecting Attitudes: Immoral and Moral Acts

Answer 19

• Moral sensitivity is compromised when doing immoral stuff, which makes it more likely they will do it again
• When people perform moral acts with more perceived choice, they are more likely to internalize this choice and be more moral

Question 20

Behavior Affecting Attitudes: Social Movements

Answer 20

• When people can’t say what they believe, they will eventually believe what they say
• POWs were more tolerant of communism after being forced to say communist affirmations

Question 21

Why Behavior Affects Attitudes: Self-Presentation Theory

Answer 21

Even when actions are impacted by external forces (system 1, outward influences), we feel a need to express attitudes that correspond with our actions to appear consistent

Question 22

Why Behavior Affects Attitudes: Festinger’s Cognitive Dissonance Theory

Answer 22

We feel tension when two thoughts or beliefs are inconsistent, which causes us to shift our thinking

Question 23

Cognitive Dissonance: Selective Exposure

Answer 23

Minimizing dissonance by selectively exposing ourselves to things that confirm our beliefs (confirmation bias)

Question 24

Cognitive Dissonance: Insufficient Justification Effect

Answer 24

• People who feel less justified in their actions feel more dissonance and shift their beliefs more readily
• People who got paid more felt less inclined to say the experiment was interesting because they had a greater incentive to explain their behavior

Question 25

Cognitive Dissonance: Dissonance After Decisions

Answer 25

• Dissonance after decisions causes us to shift our perceptions to justify our choice (like what we bought more than what we didn’t)
• We often feel better about our decisions after making them

Question 26

Cognitive Dissonance: Culture

Answer 26

Collectivist cultures feel less cognitive dissonance about decisions made for the self, but more around decisions made for others

Question 27

Cognitive Dissonance: How to Resolve it

Answer 27

i. What are the cognitions
ii. What action would fix it
iii. Do I need to change specific behaviours or is it my mindset
iv. How important is it to resolve

Question 28

Why Behavior Affects Attitudes: Self-Perception Theory

Answer 28

• When attitudes are ambiguous, our actions develop these attitudes
• William James: Emotions follow behaviors (wake up early on a big lecture day and then assume we are stressed)
• May explain foot-in-the-door: as we agree to tasks, we start to have the attitude that I am someone who does tasks for people

Question 29

Self-Perception Theory: Expressions and Attitude

Answer 29

• James Laird: Our expressions affect our attitudes
• Botox makes people’s brains worse at reading emotions
• We unconsciously mirror the emotions of others to help us understand them

Question 30

Self-Perception Theory: Over-Justification Effect

Answer 30

• Getting a big reward for something makes us believe we only did it for the reward
• Intrinsic motivations are more powerful than extrinsic
• We will read less if we are given an amount that we have to read, even when its less than what we would typically read

Question 31

Cognitive Dissonance vs Self-Perception Theory

Answer 31

• CDT says we change our attitudes when we observe conflicts between behaviours or attitudes
• SPT says we infer attitudes based on our actions

Question 32

Cognitive Dissonance Theory Strength

Answer 32

The arousal component makes this theory strong because we all can relate to the feeling

Question 33

Self-Perception Theory Strength

Answer 33

The correlation of perceived responsibility with attitudes lends itself since this proves that our ambiguous attitudes follow behaviors that seem like our choice