Social Psychology: Nimrah Ahmed 13/ OCTOBER/ 2016,17 OCTOBER 2016, 18 OCTOBER 2016 & 19 OCTOBER 2016
Social Psychology: Nimrah Ahmed 13/ OCTOBER/ 2016,17 OCTOBER 2016, 18 OCTOBER 2016 & 19 OCTOBER 2016
Psychology
NIMRAH AHMED
13/ OCTOBER/ 2016,17TH OCTOBER 2016, 18TH OCTOBER 2016 & 19TH OCTOBER 2016
Attitudes
Attitude Formation
Myers, D.G. (2014). Social Psychology, 11th Edition. McGraw Hill.
International Edition. p. 46, 50, 51, 86, 87 and pp 123 - 127
Define Attitude?
A favorable or unfavorable evaluative reaction toward
something or someone (often rooted in ones belief, and
exhibited in ones feelings and intended behavior)
(p.124)
CONTROL EXPLAINS
S
CONTROL EXPLAINS
S
FALLACY OF
ANALYSING OUR
FEELINGS
Answer for Q.1 based on gut Answer for Q.2 based on analyzed
feeling feelings
When you dont have to think too When you think and analyze,
much or dont pay too much attention gets dispersed to many
attention to feelings, that is quite factors. Not based on gut feeling,
a predictor future behavior useless in predicting future behavior
Important reading- pg 51, dating example.
Summary of what we are studying
The relationship between what we are (on the inside) with what
we do (on the outside)
We want to see whether attitudes (underlying beliefs) always
predict behavior
In the beginning, it was thought that changing ones attitude will
change their behavior, but Leon Festinger (p.123) disagreed with
this notion
We are studying to see the relationship between attitudes and
behavior
Dual Attitude System (p. 51)
Affect
(feelings) Feelings and thought
process interact and
predict how we might
Cognition act
Behavior
(thoughts)
To answer the question, Alan Wicker (1969), did a bit of study
Looked at different research studies and found out that : peoples
expressed attitudes hardly predicted their varying behaviors
Student attitudes toward cheating bore little relation to the
likelihood of their actually cheating
Attitudes toward the church were only modestly linked with
worship attendance on any given Sunday
The disjuncture between attitudes and actions is what Daniel Batson and
his colleagues (1997, 2001, 2002; Valdesolo & DeSteno, 2007, 2008) call
MORAL HYPOCRISY (what is this). appealing task with a possible $30
prize and a dull task with no rewards. Only 1 in 20 believed that
assigning the positive task to themselves was the more moral thing to
do, yet 80 percentPEOPLES
did so. (further: coin toss) ATTITUDES
EXPRESSED
HARDLY PREDICTED THEIR VARYING
BEHAVIORS
When do attitudes predict
behavior then? PREDICT PEOPLES BEHAVIOR BETTER THAN
BOTH EXPLICIT AND IMPLICIT ATTITUDES
EITHER ALONE
Behavior and expressed attitude differ due to multiple influences, such
as social influences, so when these factors are minimal, attitudes predict
behaviors
Tests have been discovered to help assist in measuring the tiniest signs
that will help see true implicit attitudes
A newer and widely used attitude measure, the implicit association
test (IAT) , uses reaction times to measure how quickly people
associate concepts (Greenwald & others, 2002, 2003).
Example: One can, for example, measure implicit racial attitudes by
assessing whether White people take longer to associate positive words
with Black faces than with White faces. Implicit attitude researchers
have offered various IAT assessments online (projectimplicit.net)
Remember the dual attitudes system?
Implicit Bias
Bias at a level below consciousness
Eg, Bias against Muslims
The three characteristics of implicit bias:-
1. Implicit biases are pervasive. For example, 80 percent of
people show more implicit negativity toward the elderly
compared with the young
2. People differ in implicit bias. Depending on their group
memberships, their conscious attitudes, and the bias in their
immediate environment, some people exhibit more implicit bias
than others
3. People are often unaware of their implicit biases. Despite
thinking themselves unprejudiced, even the researchers exhibit
some implicit biases (negative associations with various social
groups).
Attitudes
What is persuasion?
Bad Good
persuasion - persuasion-
Propaganda Education
2. Al Gores case
This individual for three decades has been raising awareness
about the negative impact of pollution. From melting ice caps to
rising seas to climate waring etc
Through many means he is working towards creating awareness
and changing peoples attitude towards pollution, he is involved in
MASS PERSUASION
Is his work education or propaganda? Whatever it is, persuasion
is everywhere
3. NASA faked moon landing
Claim happens to be that in 1969, NASA put two men down on
the moon
Many believe it to be a fake landing and a fake set up
Over the years, there were many rebuttals claiming that the
landing was a fact and not faked
Two sides, which one persuaded better?
Be a safe
driver
Nearly all consented
76% consented
2. Lowball (p. 135- 136)
It is a variation of foot in the door phenomenon
A tactic for getting people to agree to something. People who
agree to an initial request will often still comply when the
requester ups the ante. People who receive only the costly
request are less likely to comply with it.
E.g. if the students first agreed to participate in an experiment
without knowing the time and only then were asked to participate
at 7:00 a.m., 53 percent came
Initially compliance to a small request only to reveal later
additionally cost involved
3. door in the face (p.256)
A strategy for gaining a concession. After someone first turns
down a large request (the door-in-the face), the same requester
counteroffers with a more reasonable request.
When Robert Cialdini and colleagues (1975) asked some of their
Arizona State University students to chaperone delinquent
children on a zoo trip, only 32 percent agreed to do so. With
other students the questioner first made a very large request
that the students commit 2 years as volunteer counselors to
delinquent children. After getting the door-in-the-face in
response to this request (all refused), the questioner then
counter offered with the chaperoning request, saying, in effect,
OK, if you wont do that, would you do just this much? With this
technique, nearly twice as many56 percentagreed to help.
Cognitive dissonance and
Persuasion
Cognitive dissonance is at the heart of many form of persuasion
With all the information presented, dissonance is experienced
After which either a belief undergoes change or the action
The person trying to persuade would want to persuade and take
advantage of the dissonance