Einstellungen und soziale Urteile (Attitudes and Social Judgment)

Transcription

1 Einstellungen und soziale Urteile (Attitudes and Social Judgment) Vertiefendes Seminar Sozialpsychologie (BSc Psychologie, Modul PSY11, 4 CP) Prof. Dr. Gerald Echterhoff Arbeitseinheit Sozialpsychologie 6.Sitzung

2 Topic 6: How behavior can influence attitudes 1. Key theories describing the effects of behavior on attitudes: cognitive dissonance self-perception 2. Effort justification 3. Special focus 2

3 Requirements for dissonance 1) Individual perceives action as inconsistent with the attitude Especially when attitudes are important or selfdefining 2) Individual takes personal responsibility for action (perceived free choice) Not attributed to external causes 3

4 Requirements for dissonance 3) Individual experiences uncomfortable state of arousal Anxiety, unease, 4) Individual attributes arousal to the inconsistency Not to medication, uncomfortable room, etc. 4

5 Self-perception theory Bem (e.g., 1967): People infer own attitudes on basis of own behaviors ( neo-behaviorism). tact vs. mand Feeling of negative arousal is not necessary for induced-compliance attitude change to occur More parsimonious than dissonance theory, but cannot explain some findings (like Zanna & Cooper, 1974) Synthesis offered by Fazio, Zanna, & Cooper (1977): self-perception theory better in explaining effects of attitude-congruent advocacies Dissonance theory better in explaing effects of attitudediscrepant advocacies 5

6 Application: Foot-in-the-door technique Technique of inducing someone to perform a small act favoring some object, to make attitudes toward the object more favorable Freedman and Fraser (1966) Sign a petition favoring safe driving Increases likelihood of agreeing to have large, ugly sign in front yard Similar techniques work to increase volunteering for charitable causes Attitudes and Social Judgment G. Echterhoff 6

7 Topic 7: How attitudes can influence behavior 1. Is there a correlation between attitudes and behavior? (Do attitudes predict behavior?) first-order question 2. When is there such a correlation? second-order question 3. What processes are involved in increasing the correlation? third-order question 4. Special focus: Can salient attitude attributes increase the attitude-behavior correlation? Attitudes (and Social Cognition) - Spring

8 Domain variability of attitude-behavior correlations (Eckes & Six, 1994) 8

9 Attitudes-behavior link 1. Is there a correlation between attitudes and behavior? (Do attitudes predict behavior?) 2. When is there such a correlation? two aspects: - measurement: specificity correspondence, aggregation - moderators: similarity of salient attributes, attitude strength, effort in attitude formation, individual differences Attitudes (and Social Cognition) - Spring

10 Correspondence of specificity 10

11 Aggregated behavioral measures 11

12 Moderators of the A-B link attitude strength (strong better predictors) indicators: e.g., intra-attitudinal consistency, accessibility (see Fazio, 1990); repeated expression of an attitude increases its accessibility effort in attitude formation example: religious sect individual differences (need for cognition, self awareness, selfmonitoring) 12

13 Attitudes-behavior link 1. Is there a correlation between attitudes and behavior? (Do attitudes predict behavior?) 2. When is there such a correlation? - measurement: specificity correspondence, aggregation - moderators: similarity of salient attributes, attitude strength, effort in attitude formation, individual differences 3. What processes are involved in increasing the correlation? - Theory of Reasoned Action (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975) - MODE model (Fazio, 1990) Attitudes and Social Cognition Spring

14 Theory of Reasoned Action (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975) Attitude toward the behavior = E x V E: Expectancy that the behavior has a certain consequence V: Subjective value of the consequence 14

15 Theory of Planned Behaviour (Ajzen, 1991; Ajzen & Madden, 1986) Attitudes (and Social Cognition) - Spring

16 4. Special Focus Can accessible attitude attributes increase the attitude-behavior correlation? (Shavitt & Fazio, 1991) Attitudes (and Social Cognition) - Spring