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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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