lecture 7 - attitudes and persuasion - future...

ATTITUDES AND PERSUASIONOctober 2nd, 2009 : Lecture 7

LECTURE OVERVIEW

• Midterm 1

• Extra Credit Assignment

• Attitudes Overview

• Cognitive Dissonance

• Liking

• Balance Theory

• Attitude change: Persuasion & Persuasion Tactics

MIDTERM 1

• Date:

• Friday, October 16th

• Time:

• 3 - 4 pm

• Locations:

• AA 112, AC 223, SW 309

MIDTERM 1

• Format:

• 26 Multiple choice questions

• 3% each

• 11 Matching

• 2% each

MATERIAL COVERED BY MIDTERM 1

• Lectures 1 - 7

• Chapters 3, 4, 5, and 6 (except pages 91 - 96)

• TEXTBOOK IS MANDATORY

PREPARING FOR EXAM

• Review sheet and practise questions:

• http://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/psyb10/exams.html

PREPARING FOR EXAM

• How to use review sheet:

• Questions will be asked on a subset of topics

• FOR EACH TOPIC:

1.Write a few sentences in your own words of what the topic means

2.Come up with an example from your life of when that happened

PREPARING FOR EXAM

• Practise questions:

• 5 multiple choice

• Example matching

• Give you a flavour of the way I ask questions

PREPARING FOR EXAM

• External factors:

• Get 8 hours sleep before exam

• Eat both breakfast and lunch on 10/16

• Eat a snack around 2:30

• MAKE SURE THEY ALL INCLUDE PROTEIN

EXTRA CREDIT ASSIGNMENT

• “Elimination Slate”

• Will Become Available on Blackboard at the end of the 10/4 Premiere

• Will only remain available until midnight on 10/10

DEMO OF ELIMINATION SLATE

WEEKLY ANALYSIS

• Each week:

• Watch that week’s episode

• Think about how something from the class relates

• Email your analysis to: [email protected] WITH YOUR STUDENT ID AS THE SUBJECT

MARKING

• 0% - 2% based on # of complete analyses:

• 0% for ! 2 complete analyses

• 1% for 3 - 5 complete analyses

• 2% for " 6 complete analyses

“COMPLETE ANALYSIS”

• A complete analysis has two elements:

• Refers to something that happened THAT WEEK in Battle of the Blades

• Relates at least ONE topic you learned in this course

DEMO OF SUBMITTING WEEKLY ANALYSIS

WHAT ARE ATTITUDES?

• A like or dislike that influences our behaviour toward someone or something

WHAT ARE ATTITUDES?

• ABCs:

• Affective: What you feel about something

• Behavioural: What you are likely to do

• Cognitive: What you think about something

WHAT GOES INTO AN ATTITUDE?

• Valence

• Bipolar dimension from good to bad

• Strength

• Intensity of the attitude

ATTITUDE TYPES

• Explicit Attitudes

• Implicit Attitudes

EXPLICIT ATTITUDES

• Attitude stored in the form of a statement of which you are fully aware

IMPLICIT ATTITUDES

• Attitude stored as an association in your semantic network

• Association between the object of the attitude and the concepts of “good” and “bad”

• You may or may not be aware of it

ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIOUR

• Which comes first?

Your Belief About Something

Your Behaviour in Relation to That Thing

COGNITIVE DISSONANCE

• A change in people’s behaviour alters their attitudes (Festinger, 1957)

• Dissonance:

• Unpleasant feeling of tension


• You experience unpleasant tension (dissonance) when:

• You experience contradictory attitudes

• You behave inconsistently with your attitudes


• To relieve this tension ...

• You change your attitude since you cannot change your behaviour

• Or, you reappraise the situation so that your behaviour no longer indicates anything about your attitudes

• Overjustification Effect


• Festinger & Carlsmith (1959)

• Method:

Thanks for participating.

1 WeekLater

“HowEnjoyable

WasThe

Study?”

I’ll give you $1 to tell the next participant it was very

enjoyable.

I’ll give you $20 to tell the next participant it was very

enjoyable.


• Festinger & Carlsmith (1959)

• Results:

-1.00 -0.50 0 0.50 1.00 1.50 2.00

“How Enjoyable Was This Experiment?”

$20

$1

Control

Experimental Condition


• To relieve this tension ...

• You change your attitude since you cannot change your behaviour

• Or, you reappraise the situation so that your behaviour no longer indicates anything about your attitudes

OVERJUSTIFICATION EFFECT

• If one can justify an attitude-inconsistent behaviour, then they will not experience dissonant feelings

POST-DECISION DISSONANCE

• Dissonance aroused after making a decision, typically reduced by:

• Enhancing the attractiveness of the chosen alternative,

• Devaluing the rejected alternatives


• Brehm (1956):

• Method:

20 MinutesLater


• Brehm (1956):

• Results:

-1.00 -0.50 0 0.50 1.00

Change from Initial Rating

Chosen Item

Rejected Item

LIKING

• Positively-valenced attitude

BALANCE THEORY

• To reduce cognitive dissonance, we desire to keep a positive “balance” between our opinions and those of others

Self

Friend

Issue

BALANCE THEORY


Self

Friend

Issue

+

(+)*(+)*(+)=+

In Balance

+

+

BALANCE THEORY


Self

Friend

Issue

+

(+)*(+)*(-)=-

Unbalanced

+

-

BALANCE THEORY

• Options when unbalanced:

• Try to change friend’s attitude

Self

Friend

Issue

+

(+)*(+)*(+)=+

In Balance

+

+

BALANCE THEORY



• Change your attitude toward the issue

Self

Friend

Issue

+

(+)*(-)*(-)=+

In Balance

-

-

BALANCE THEORY



• Change your attitude toward the issue

• Change your liking

of your friend

Self

Friend

Issue

-

+

-

(-)*(-)*(+)=+

In Balance

ATTITUDE CHANGE

• Persuasion

• The altering of an existing attitude or the adoption of a new attitude

“ROUTES” OF PERSUASION

• Central route to Persuasion

• When a person invests the necessary decision-making time and effort to evaluate the evidence and logic behind each persuasive message

• Peripheral route to Persuasion

• When people attend to indirect factors to make a decision about a persuasive message (e.g., speaker’s appearance)

6 BASIC TENDENCIES TO SAY “YES”

1. Reciprocation

2. Consistency

3. Social Proof

4. Liking

5. Authority

6. Scarcity

RECIPROCITY NORM

• A social norm stating that we should try to repay in kind what another person has given us

• The power of a gift

CONSISTENCY

• People will go to extremes to try to appear consistent in their behaviour

• Public commitments are powerful determinants of behaviour

“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds”- Ralph Waldo Emerson

CONSISTENCY

• Example: Restaurant Reservations

• If told, “Please call if you need to cancel”

• 3/10 = no call, no show

• If asked, “Will you please call if you need to cancel?” and wait for response, “Yes I will.”

• 1/10 = no call, no show

SOCIAL PROOF

• We follow the lead of similar others, and accept “personal stories” as proof of a product’s promises

“I love the product and so do my kids. I have attached a couple of pictures just to show you how good your product looks … not that you didn’t already know that.”Beckie M.Pickering, Ontario

SOCIAL PROOF AS INFORMATION

• Other people’s “stories” is a very effective means of persuasion

• The experiences of others are used as pieces of information for decision-making


• Method:

• On a cold winter New York morning, a man stops on a busy sidewalk and gazed skyward for 60 seconds, at nothing in particular

• IV: Varied number of skyward lookers


• Results:

0

10

20

30

40

50

# o

f Passersb

y who

Joined

1 5 15

Size of Initial Group of Skyward Lookers

LIKING

• If you like someone, you are more likely to do what they want you to do

LIKING AS A PERSUASIVE TOOL

• Effective campaigns using Liking:

• Tupperware Parties

• Close friends gather for a party

• Party is organized by Tupperware

• Big Catch: Friends are selling to friends

AUTHORITY/CREDIBILITY

• We are much more likely to be persuaded if we perceive the source of the persuasive message to be credible or respectable

• E.g., Celebrities, actors dressed in lab coats

AUTHORITY / CREDIBILITY

• Method:

?

AUTHORITY / CREDIBILITY

• Results:

• The man could increase the number of pedestrians who followed him by 350% by wearing a suit & tie

SCARCITY

• An item or opportunity becomes more desirable as it becomes less available

“The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost”

- GK Chesterton

PERSUASION STRATEGIES

• Door-in-the-face technique

• Foot-in-the-Door technique

• Low-balling

• Bait-and-switch

• That’s-Not-All Technique

• Emotional/Traumatic Messages

• Fearful messages

DOOR-IN-THE-FACE

• After making someone refuse a large, unreasonable request, they will be more likely to agree to a more reasonable second request

DOOR-IN-THE-FACE

• Cialdini et al. (1975)

• Method:

• Ask college students moderate request:

• Taking juvenile delinquents to the zoo for 2 hours

• Half were first asked a big request:

• Counsellor at juvenile correction facility for 2 hours per week for 2 years

DOOR-IN-THE-FACE

• Cialdini et al. (1975)

• Results:

0

13

25

38

50 % A

greeing to M

oderate R

equest

Moderate Request Only Large Then Moderate

FOOT-IN-THE-DOOR

• After agreeing to a small request, people are more likely to agree to a larger request than they might have been without the first small request

• Works through desire for consistency

FOOT-IN-THE-DOOR

• Freedman & Fraser (1966)

• Method:

• Ask homeowners moderate request:

• Put “Drive Carefully” sign on lawn

• Ask some homeowners for small request first:

• Sign safe driving petition two weeks earlier

FOOT-IN-THE-DOOR

• Freedman & Fraser (1966)

• Results:

0

15

30

45

60 % A

greeing to M

oderate R

equest

Moderate Request Only Small Then Moderate

LOW-BALLING

• Inducing a customer to agree to purchase a product at a very low cost, and then claiming there was an error at the last minute

• Relies on consistency

LOW-BALLING

• Cialdini, Cacioppo, Bassett, & Miller (1978)

• Half participants:

• Experimenter : “Will you participate in my experiment?”

• 56% of Potential Participants: “Yes.”

• Experimenter : “It’s at 7 am.”

• 95% of participants showed up

• Other half of participants:

• E: “Will you participate in my experiment at 7 am?”

• 24% of Potential Participants: “Yes.”

•

BAIT-AND-SWITCH

• Drawing someone in by making a desirable offer, but then changing the deal or switching the terms at the last minute

THAT’S NOT ALL!

• Padding an offer with an additional offer before the person has responded to the initial offer

THAT’S NOT ALL

EMOTIONAL / TRAUMATIC MESSAGES

•Messages which involve emotionally arousing content

FEARFUL MESSAGES

• Persuasive messages which evoke fear and arousal

• Effectiveness:

• Slightly fearful = persuasive

• Moderately to very fearful:

• Provide a solution?

• Yes: Very persuasive

• No: Very Unpersuasive

SLEEPER EFFECT

• A delayed persuasion technique where an initially rejected message is adopted later

• Mechanism:

• Works through Source Monitoring Errors

SOURCE MONITORING ERRORS

• The tendency to forget the source of a memory before we forget the source’s message

• Episodic memory decays before declarative memory

• Provides a back door for underhanded persuaders

PROPAGANDA AND SOURCE MONITORING ERRORS

• Donald Rumsfeld on CBS Face the Nation

RESISTING PERSUASIVE TECHNIQUES

• Forewarning Effect

• Inoculation Effect

FOREWARNING EFFECT

• Simply informing people that they are about to hear a persuasive speech activates their resistance and weakens the effect of the message on their attitudes

INOCULATION EFFECT

• A person is more likely to reject a moderately good persuasive communication if the person first heard a weaker argument as opposed to hearing no prior argument

PROPAGANDA OF THE DAY:

“YOU WILL EVALUATE THIS CLASS VERY HIGHLY ...” !

• Next Lecture (10/7):

• Conformity and Dissent

• Relevant websites:

• http://projectimplicit.org

• http://www.cbc.ca/battle

lecture 7 - attitudes and persuasion - future...

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