Social Psychology Behavior And Attitudes

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Leon Festinger

Back 1

concluded that the evidence showed that changing peoples attitude hardly affects their behavior

attitude and behavior works inverse to what we think

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Robert Ableson

Back 2

"very well trained and very good at finding reasons for what we do, but not very good at doing what we find reasons for"

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Attitude

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A favorable or unfavorable evaluative reaction toward someone (often rooted in one's beliefs, and exhibited in one's feelings and intended behaviors)

an efficient way for us to size up the world

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The ABC of attitude

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affect/ behavior tendency / cognitions

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Alan Wicker

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concluded from various studies people EXPRESSED attitudes hardly predicted behavior

- ex ethical position on cheating/ cheating behavior

- ex attitude towards church attendance/ church attendance

- ex racial attitudes / behaviors in actual situations

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Moral Hypocrisy

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disjunction between moral sentiments and behavior

(appearing moral while avoiding the costs of being so)

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Moral Hypocrisy

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- experiment: when morality and greed were put on a collusion course greed won

- If people don't walk the same line they talk, it's little wonder that attempts to change behavior by changing attitudes often fail

ex sex ed has not impacted sexual behaviors the way it was expected

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the 1960s position on attitude

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- the original thesis that attitudes determine actions was countered in the 1960s by the antithesis that attitudes determine virtually nothing

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1970s answered this question: why what people say differ dramatically from what people do?

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- our behavior and our expressed attitudes differ because both are subject to other influences

- many other influences

-

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When does attitude predict our behavior?

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- other influences on what we say and do are minimal

- when attitude is specific to the behavior

- attitude is potent

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When Attitude Predicts Behavior :: Social influences are minimized :: how we measure it

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- self report (conscious) attitudes + implicit reporting methods (facial muscle responses, micro smiles and frowns)

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Implicit association test (IAT)

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- comp drive assesment of implicit attitudes

- measure reaction times to measure people automatic associations between attitude objects and evaluative words

- easier pairings (and faster responses) are taken to indicate unconscious associations

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implicit or explicit attitudes?

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- taken together you get a stronger read on behavioral tendency

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Why are implicit attitudes and explicit attitudes hard to understand ...

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- implicit attitudes are formed early in life

- implicit and explicit attitudes diverge; implicit attitudes are generally the better predictor

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what brain region responsible for our implicit attitudes

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- threat center of the Brain the amygdala

- active when we evaluate social stimuli

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When other influences on behavior are minimal

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- principle of aggregation

- general attitudes are good at predicting behavior over a period of time

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When attitudes specific to the behavior are examined

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-general attitudes do not predict specific behaviors well

- specific attitudes predict specific behaviors well

- attitude on health fitness vs attitude of jogging :: predicting likelihood of jogging

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When attitudes specific to the behavior are examined :: "theory of planned behavior"

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- knowing people intended behaviors, and their perceived self efficacy and control

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Theory of Planned Behavior :: how to increase likelihood of behavior

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Attitude toward the behavior / subjective norms / perceived control => behavioral intention => behavior

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3 conditions in which attitudes predict behavior

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- social influences (and other influences) are minimized (implicit readings)

- attitude relevant to a specific behav

- when attitude is potent

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When our attitudes are potent

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- when we bring them to mind; when we focus on them; made self aware

- mirrors makes self aware => reduce moral hypocrisy

- To thine self be true

Strong Attitudes Through Experience

-when attitudes grow from direct experience they are more influential

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Theory of planned behaviors

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specific behavior and attitude across three dimensions (perceived control/ subjective norms/ self efficacy => behavior intention)

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Role

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a set of norms that defines how people in a given social position ought to behave

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Zimbardo

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"growing confusion between reality and illusion, between role playing and self identity"

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deeper lesson of role playing studies

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how what is unreal (an artificial role) can subtly evolve into what is real

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Saying Becomes Believing

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- people adjust their messages towards listeners position and having done so tend to believe the altered message

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The Foot in the Door Phenomenon

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- the tendency for people who have first agreed to a small requests to comply later with a larger request

- progressive compliance

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Take home side note

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- when people commit themselves to public behav and perceive those acts to be their own doing, they come to believe more strongly in what they have done

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Low ball technique

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- agree to initial requests and up the ante

- people who receive only the costly request are less likely to comply with it

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foot in the door technique :: CAUTION

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someone is trying to seduce us -- financially, politically, or sexually -- will often use this technique to create momentum of compliance.

The Practical Lesson: Before agreeing to a small request, think about what may follow

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Evil and Moral acts

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- evil acts cause us to demonize the people the people we hurt

- killing begets killing

- condemnation of executioners

- moral acts can also produce good behaviors (expr: chosen vs coerced => practicing moral acts makes more likely to be moral in the future)

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If you wish to love someone more ...

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- act as if you do ....

- doing a favor (or asking someone to do a favor and their compliance) engenders liking

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Interracial Behavior and Attitudes

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- legislate morality we can indirectly affect attitudes

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Social movements :: Behavior Shaping Attitudes

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- propaganda perpetuates behavior -> practiced behaviors shape attitudes

- public conformity to build a private attitude

- start small build terror/captor compliance tactic => foot in the door

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WHY DOES OUR BEHAVIOR AFFECT OUR ATTITUDES?

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- Self Presentation Theory [attitudes adjust with social situations as a form of impression management (weak)]

- Cognitive Dissonance Theory [reduce discomfort we justify our actions to ourselves (strong: well developed attitudes)

- Self Perception Theory [assumes that our actions are self revealing; when uncertain about our feelings or beliefs we look to our behavior (strong: underdeveloped attitudes)

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Cognitive Dissonance =

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Self-Justification

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Cognitive Dissonance

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- tension that arises when one is simultaneously aware of two inconsistent cognitions

- example dissonance may occur when we have acted, with little justification, contrary to our attitudes or made a decision favoring one alternative despite reasons favoring another

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Cog D :: Festinger (1957)

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- we feel tension of a lack of harmony when two simultaneously accessible thoughts or beliefs are psychologically inconsistent

- reduce unpleasant arousal we often adjust our thinking

- offers an explanation for self persuasion

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Insufficient Justification

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- Reduction of dissonance by internally justifying one's behavior when external justification is "insufficient"

- 1 dollar had insufficient justification => produced tension => change attitude

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Insufficient Justification

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dissonance theory predicts that when our actions are not fully explained by external rewards or coercion, we will experience dissonance, which we can reduce by believing in what we have done

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CD does not focus on relative effectiveness of reinforcements and punishments administered BUT INSTEAD....

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what induces a desired action

- coercion vs choice

- attitudes follow behavior for which we feel some responsibility

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Dissonance theory prediction on parental treatment

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- elicit behavior non coercively

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Does the grass grow greener on the other side?

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Dissonance theory would suggests no

- reduce dissonance by upgrading our chosen path

- this can breed overconfidence when decisiveness enhances the perceived accuracy of ones belief

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Self perception theory (Dayrl Bem 1972)

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- follows similar logic to attribution theory

- theory that when we are unsure of our attitudes, we infer them much as would someone observing us, by looking at our behavior and the circumstances under which it occurs

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Self Perception Theory

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Behavior can modify self concept

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Imitating others facial expressions...

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- makes us more aware of another's feelings

emotional contagion naturally and unconsciously mimic other peoples non verbal behaviors and feel their emotions

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Self perception thinking

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- doing influences thinking

- stereotyped behavior produced stereotyped attitudes

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Overjustification and Intrinsic Motivations

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- cost benefit :: the smallest incentive that will get people to do something is usually the most effective in getting them to like the activity and keep doing it

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Overjustification Cog D vs Self Per

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- CD overjust will not cause dissonance

- self per overjust will liken to coerced action and infer our attitude

- unnecessary rewards can have hidden cost; may lead them to attribute action to the reward

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Overjustification Effect

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The result of bribing people to what they already like doing; they may then see their actions as externally controlled rather intrinsically appealing

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Enjoyable activities (external reward vs no external reward)

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self perception(I do this because i as paid too) => extrinsic motivation

vs

self perception (no external reward i do this because I like it) intrinsic motivation

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When does the overjustification effect occur

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- occurs when someone offers an unnecessary reward beforehand in an obvious effort to control behavior

- unanticipated reward does not diminish intrinsic interest, b/c people can still attribute their actions to their own motivation

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2 explanations of why our actions genuinely affect our attitudes

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- dissonance theory: assumption that we justify our behavior to reduce our internal discomfort

- the self perception theory: assumption that we observe our behavior and make reasonable inferences about our attitudes, much as we observe other people and infer their attitudes