Advanced Code of Influence. Book 5

Transcription

1 Advanced Code of Influence Book 5

2 Table of Contents BOOK 5: HUMAN ATTITUDES... 3 Attitudes... 3 How Attitudes Are Formed... 4 The Key Avenues of Attitude Formation... 5 Implicit Conditioning & Operant Conditioning... 8 The Power of Self-Perception The Functional Theory Why Attitudes Matter Exploring the Attitude-Behavior Connection Specificity Self-Awareness Attitude Accessibility Attitude Strength Attitude, Intention & Behavior Understanding Attitude Changes Attitude Change & Cognitive Dissonance When Does Dissonance Occur?

3 BOOK 5: HUMAN ATTITUDES Attitudes When a person behaves or reacts in a negative way to an event, we say that the person has a bad attitude or negative attitude to that event. The concept of attitude has been in common usage for so long but few people actually know what goes into the creation of a person s attitude. If you want to understand how attitudes are born and how these evolve over time, we have to go to into an in-depth exploration of social attitudes and how attitudes related to individuals and to society itself. But first off, what is attitude? 3

4 Social psychology defines attitude as a collection of beliefs that a person associates with a specific object. By object, we mean anything and everything that a person can focus on, including other people, events, himself or even the behavior of other people. Each person has a distinct attitude when it comes to specific stimuli and events. Attitudes, like other personal structures of belief, are held dearly by individuals. How Attitudes Are Formed Social psychology has identified four key avenues of attitude formation in people. These avenues are: - Mere exposure - Associative learning - Self-perception - Functional reasons 4

5 The Key Avenues of Attitude Formation Each key avenue is distinct because the formational coordinates are also distinct/different from each other. In mere exposure, it is believed that in order for a person to develop a more positive attitude toward a particular object (remember, an object can be anything that a person can focus on), that person must be exposed continually to the said object. So if you can increase the exposure of another person to an object (i.e. a product, service or business offer), the more positive that person s attitude will be toward that particular object. This is illustrated in a study made some years ago; test subjects were exposed to characters that resembled Chinese characters. The test subjects were told later on that the characters were actually adjectives. The subjects were then asked if they can guess which characters represented positive traits. 5

6 The study showed that the longer a person was exposed to a character, the more he associated the said character to a positive trait. A linear (or consistent upward) trend was noted in the study which proves that repetition and continual exposure does have an impact in the way people viewed the world. This key avenue shows that people can assimilate new objects if they are exposed to the said objects long enough. So remember: the longer a person sees something, more likely he will like the said object after a time. Another interesting study worth noting here is a joint study by Mita, Dermer and Knight. These three researchers showed test subjects two photographic prints. One print was a regular photograph of themselves while the other photograph showed mirror images of themselves. 6

7 So one image would be a regular photo while the other one represented what people saw when they looked into a mirror. After exposing the test subjects to the different prints, they were asked to choose which print they liked best. A majority of the test respondents states that they like the mirror prints best. There was no other explanation for this trend other than the mirror prints represented what the test subjects saw more frequently in their daily life. Though the images were almost indistinguishable from each other, the test subjects were still able to correctly identify which prints contained the mirror images. 7

8 Implicit Conditioning & Operant Conditioning The second key avenue is associative learning. Human learning, at its very core, is really a process of association. Though this is not the only step in the process, association forms the bedrock for critical thinking and creates even more space for learning. 8

9 Due to the fertile groundwork that association produces, social psychologists have turned their attention to the role of associate learning in the formation of attitudes. Researchers believe that an attitude toward an object can be established either through classical/implicit conditioning or explicit/operant conditioning. Classical conditioning refers to the process of associating emotionally-neutral stimuli with stimuli that would most likely invoke an emotional response in people. For example, the word American does not really invoke any emotional response from people. However, if we associate the word hardworking with the first concept (i.e. the hardworking American ), an emotional response would be invoked. 9

10 Researchers have discovered that to some extent, classical/implicit conditioning may influence a person to form a negative or positive attitude toward an object to a certain, limited degree. However, it should be noted that people do not always operate within the bounds of implicit conditioning. A person can still reject notions about a particular object if he wants to. If implicit conditioning does not have a large impact on people (especially people who are knowledgeable about a particular object), why does it still matter in our own exploration of attitude formation? The answer lies in the role of implicit conditioning when a person does not have a significant amount of knowledge about a particular object. 10

11 When a person does not know much about an object (i.e. other racial groups) and someone comes along and tells that person about a negative fact about that object, it is possible that the first person will become implicitly conditioned by the negative information being given by the second person. Though there is really no familiarity about the object in question, a person will begin creating conditioned associations based on whatever available information there is about the object. Unless there is a significant need to delve beyond the available information (i.e. negative attributions about the object), a person with little or no existing knowledge about the object will continue to use the available information, which may explain why some folks with prejudiced views about an issue or social group will continue being prejudiced unless an active agent comes along to change their mind again. 11

12 The second type of conditioning that falls under the associative learning is operant conditioning. Operant conditioning utilizes rewards and punishment to strengthen or weaken a particular behavior in a person. In contrast with implicit conditioning, explicit conditioning is active conditioning because the agent of change must do something to encourage the adaptation of a belief. In implicit conditioning, the agent of change does not have to do something. For example, if you heard that your favorite football team was not going to do well in the coming season, you may be implicitly adapting this belief about your favorite team. The sources of the information (i.e. sports analysts on television) do not have to do anything else other than give the information once through the television show. In operant conditioning or explicit conditioning, a person 12

13 must receive additional input from agents so that there would be a reinforcement of beliefs. During operant conditioning, things like praise are likely to boost a person s confidence about himself in relation to a specific situation or object (i.e. learning a new hobby). Things like ridicule on the other hand, reduce a person s confidence and also discourage a person from pursuing the activity again. The Power of Self-Perception The second key avenue we discussed is reliant on other people. That is, there has to be an agent involved before any attitude formation can take place. The theory of self-perception on the other hand, totally changes the landscape of attitude formation. Instead of championing operant conditioning and implicit conditioning, the theory of self- 13

14 perception champions the ability of people to form their own attitudes based on the observation of their own behaviors. When people examine their own opinions about specific objects (such as issues), attributions are made as to why such opinions exist. As we have discussed earlier in the book, there are two kinds of attributions internal attributions and external attributions. People are more likely to make internal attributions about their behaviors if the behaviors are performed freely, without coercion or interference from other people. Inferences are likely to be created when people do not have readily available information about a particular object. 14

15 The Functional Theory Utilitarian function Knowledge function Ego-defensive function Value-expressive function So far we have explored three key avenues of attitude formation: mere exposure, the power of self-perception and associative learning. What did you notice about these three avenues or theories? That s right these avenues of attitude formation are mostly unconscious avenues. People don t have to think hard in order to adapt a new attitude about an object through the first three avenues. Most of the cognitive processes needed in the first three avenues don t need a person s critical faculties. This commonality between the three 15

16 prior theories is a point of contention among social psychologists. As you can imagine, it is hard to accept that something as important as attitude formation is just the result of unconscious thought processes and so another theory was created. This time, social scientists turned their attention to attitude formation that results from introspection, critical thinking and other conscious thought processes. Do you remember our earlier discussion about people being cognitive misers and naïve scientists? Well, this theory makes use of the naïve scientist approach to analyzing how attitudes are formed. The first three theories all espoused the basic principle of the cognitive miser: people generally have limited cognitive resources, which is the reason why we use thin slices to understand the world around us. 16

17 The naïve scientist approach to attributions and attitude formation is the direct opposite. According to the basic principle of the naïve scientist approach, people like thinking about events and situations. According to the theory of the naïve scientist, humans have an intrinsic drive to analyze situations and test out their theories about the world around them. Of course, this requires a lot of cognitive resources which is why many social scientists believe that if people can be naïve scientists, people cannot be naïve scientists all the time because being in this state all the time will most likely deplete a person s limited cognitive resources. The functional theory of attitude formation presents an angle that is very different from the key avenues that we have discussed earlier. This theory showcases four different possible functions for attitude formation, which is to say that people form attitudes for a particular 17

18 function or use, not just because they can. These four potential functions are: - Utilitarian function - Knowledge function - Ego defensive function - Value-expressive function Let s talk about the utilitarian function. Let s face it we live in a tough world. We have to look out after ourselves, because in the end, we are the most dependable people around. This may be the core of the utilitarian function of attitude formation. We develop an attitude toward an object because the resulting relationship with that object (which also results from the attitude that we espouse) will help make our lives more satisfactory and happy. Here are some examples 18

19 of how the utilitarian function can be used by people: 1.Person A chooses to like his degree in the University because he s done worse in other degrees and he is not about to let go of the opportunity to graduate from college. 2.Person B chooses to keep his private life private so his colleagues at work will not talk about his family problems. 3.Person C chooses to have a positive attitude when it comes to his parents because they have been completely supportive and dependable since his childhood. 4.Person D chooses to avoid saying certain things in public (in the presence of other people) even if he feels strongly that he wants to say those things because he doesn t want to be challenged or ridiculed by other people. 19

20 Next is in line is the knowledge function. The knowledge function is really quite practical. This function states that people have different attitudes toward objects of interest because people are interested in creating meaning in their lives. Simply put: people want to make sense of the world that they live in. People are almost always uneasy when they do not understand something; developing an appropriate attitude toward a specific object gives a person some degree of control over the reality that they are trying to understand. A good example would be how people use stereotypes to form attitudes toward sub-groups in society. If subgroup A has been stereotyped as being rowdy and almost always involved in crime, people would most likely have a negative attitude toward subgroup A, even if people have not really interacted with subgroup A at all. 20

21 The attitude of avoidance, which results from the stereotyping, gives people a measure of control over their reality (i.e. if subgroup A is really a threat to people, people would be able to avoid contact with them). The third function is the ego-defensive function. The ego-defensive function acknowledges that people have different psychological needs and these needs have to be satisfied to keep people happy (or at least, as far away as possible from emotional instability, depression and chronic anxiety). The ego-defensive function acts as a barrier against self-truths that can threaten a person s ego. For example, Person A may not acknowledge the fact that Person B (who was hired around the same time that Person A was hired) was promoted to a much higher position within a few months in Person A s company. 21

22 Person A will choose to have this peculiar attitude toward the promotion of Person B because the promotion represents failure once upward social comparison takes place. The fourth and final function is the valueexpressive function. With the value-expressive function, a person chooses to develop personal attitudes that reflect his/her personal values in life. The value-expression function can express both personal beliefs and general beliefs (that may reflect societal values and mores). Here are some examples: 1.Person A does not buy software from stores because he prefers open source software (which is free). He does this because he believes that technology is democratizing and should be available to everyone. 22

23 2.Person B does not socialize as much than his friends. He does this because he feels that people are only out to influence you when you socialize. 3.Person C only buys organic food because he believes that organic foods are not only good for the health but are also good for the environment because these agricultural products have not been produced with the help of harmful chemicals. 23

24 Why Attitudes Matter Why are we even spending time talking about people s attitudes? Why are we focusing on this particular facet of the human personality? Well, the answer is simple: if you want to understand how a person thinks and acts in a particular way, you have to be familiar with the deeper processes involved in the formation of attitudes. Attitudes are the foundation of self-schemas, the source of our personal conceptualization of the self. Without attitude, people would have no way of creating fixed coordinates in their lives when they are analyzing their relationship with people, social groups and society itself. If you want to predict the behavior of a person and plan ahead, you need to understand the motivation behind attitude formation. If you are aware of the motivations behind people s behaviors, you would be able to carefully 24

25 analyze the various tendencies of people as they interact with other people. Exploring the Attitude-Behavior Connection Does attitude truly direct and predict human behavior? If an attitude is a significant component of a person s self-schema, then why is it that sometimes, it is an inconsistent predictor of behavior? This part of the book explores the various determinants between a persons attitudes and his actual behavior (speech, actions, decisionmaking, etc.) when he actually needs to interact with a particular object. 25

26 Specificity The specificity determinant states that if an attitude were to predict a particular behavior, then the two have to be on the exact same level. This equivalence between the two components will ensure a higher possibility of someone actually behaving in accordance with his known attitude toward an object. For example, if Person A is known to have a preference for Brand Y black coffee, this does not mean that he will buy Brand XYZ or Brand ABC. There is a common factor between the objects (the objects are all ground, black coffee) but it remains that the two other brands are not Brand Y black coffee and therefore, the person is not likely to buy Brand XYZ or Brand ABC because the specificity of the present condition is different. 26

27 But if the conditions were completely identical, we can expect a more positive outcome. For example, if Person B was offering Person A a discounted box of Brand Y black coffee, Person A s current attitude can be a predictor of his possible behavior toward the current offer. Self-Awareness Remember our earlier discussion of selfawareness? People can either be privately selfaware or publicly self-aware. Let s do a quick review of these two concepts. When a person is privately self-aware, he is more likely to judge himself based on his personal standards of conduct and behavior. 27

28 Inversely, when a person is publicly self-aware, he will be more concerned with society s take on what is acceptable/desirable or unacceptable/undesirable. What does this have to do with attitudes, anyway? Well, if you think about it, a person who is privately self-aware will be more likely to follow his own attitude toward an object. For example, if Person B is privately self-aware at the moment and he notices that Person D was around (a person that he disliked because of the way Person D talks to other people) then he would probably show signs of disinterest and complete avoidance. However, if Person A, D and E were also in the situation and someone greeted Person D from the distance, Person B would not show his attitude because others would frown upon such an attitude. Wearing one s heart on the sleeve is not an acceptable attitude (at least, according 28

29 to society s own take on personal relations between people, because civility is always preferred to hostility or non-tolerance). The presence of an audience will most likely affect a person s behavior there can either be suspension or activation of a particular attitude depending on the kind of attitude that a person has toward an object. If the attitude is generally socially acceptable, then a person would have no reason to suspend his attitude. Inversely, if his attitude toward something is not socially acceptable, then he would choose to suspend the attitude at the moment so that he would be able to exhibit a more acceptable behavior to the audience (i.e. friends, family, co-workers, etc.) 29

30 Attitude Accessibility Self-awareness also a plays a role in making an attitude (and consequently, a behavior) more accessible to a person as he interacts with different objects in society. A good example of this intimate association between self-awareness and attitude accessibility is the way social categorization trains a person to think and react in a particular manner when it comes to common stereotypes. If a person learns of a negative stereotype that is associated with a subgroup, then he is actually being implicitly primed to have a specific attitude toward that subgroup. This attitude will result in a corresponding behavior that will be exhibited when the conditions are right. If we expand this a bit, you can imagine how large groups of people react to a single message. 30

31 If a message that was communicated to a large audience does not trigger a common positive response in people, then it will not become an effective message because people will draw upon the most readily available attitude toward that message. If you communicate a message that requires a lot of critical thinking then it is possible that you will only effectively communicate with a limited segment of your target group. Inversely, if your message contains all the components needed to draw a common, positive response, then you are set to communicate everything persuasively. 31

32 Attitude Strength Strong attitudes Weak attitudes Behavior is not dictated by availability (or heuristics) alone. Attitude strength is another factor that should be considered if you want to predict the attitude, and consequently, the behavior of another person. Here s a good example: we all know that the environment should be cared for. Ask any second grader what should be done to protect the environment and you will get a pretty clear answer. Ask an adult how the environment can be saved and you will get a longer and perhaps more controversial answer 32

33 since the adult has access to materials from local and international pro-environment movements. But is the availability of all this information sufficient to predict that everyone who has been taught (either implicitly or explicitly) how to care for the environment will actually practice what they know on a regular basis? Not likely because people evaluate their attitudes based on their conviction to hold on to specific attitudes. If a person has a strong conviction about something, he will have a strong attitude toward the object and it won t matter if the attitude is very accessible or not. If there is conviction, the person will dig deep into his cognitive reserves to bring this strong attitude to the fore. There may be more readily available attitudes, but it won t matter if the person has this one strong attitude he will choose to follow this attitude than other readily available attitudes from the surface of his consciousness. Note that 33

34 attitude strength and attitude accessibility are independent predictors and have unique implications for a person. Attitude, Intention & Behavior We know now that attitudes and behaviors have a very complex relationship indeed and that attitude alone is not enough to predict the actual behavior of another person. There is a need to always expand our thinking when it comes to predicting the attitude or behavior of another person (or a group of people). One such theory that sheds light on attitude change and behavioral prediction is the theory of planned behavior. According to the theory of planned behavior, evaluating potential intentions is the best way to understand future behavior. Intention is determined by the 34

35 complex interaction of attitudes, subjective norms and behavioral controls. Intention on the other hand, gives rise to the actual behavior. So in essence, you have a three-step process for determining the future behavior of a person: Step # 1: Determine the person s current attitude toward the object, the subjective norms that the person believes in and the behavioral control 35

36 that the person perceives from his own point of view. Behavioral control refers to the difficulty that a person perceives as he analyzes an activity. Step # 2: Determine the intention Step # 3: Test your theory by comparing the actual behavior with the behavior that you have been able to map out. In this regard, a person who wishes to predict the behavior of another person must be aware of the various tendencies and attitudes of the other person. In addition, the person must also know where the other person is coming from. For example, if you are trying to persuade someone to try your pork dish and you were not aware that the other person comes from a country that does not eat pork due to religious reasons, would you be able to handle the 36

37 situation adequately, without offending the other person? Would you be able to handle the refusal properly, without showing signs of distress or any other negative reaction? We should always remember that norms, intentions and behavioral controls interact in a complex manner. This means that you can t just add up the intentions, norms and behavioral controls and expect a solid behavioral prediction. Also, you have to remember that each component of the model is not enough to determine a future behavior. Each component has to be taken into account before the behavioral intention is determined. Once this is determined, there is a larger percentage of being able to predict a behavior but a person can still choose to avoid a behavior if the intention is already present, because people have free will and we exercise this free will over ourselves and our decisions every single day. 37

38 Difficult Easy Now among the three components that make up a person s behavioral intention, one component stands out as a powerful predictor in terms of whether or not a person would actually go ahead and perform something and this behavioral component is the perceived behavioral control. You see, this component precedes behavioral intention but it also has a direct impact on a person s perception of behavioral possibility. 38

39 For example, a person who has been drinking alcohol for thirty years will evaluate first if the act of alcohol cessation would be easy or not. If he thinks that it is impossible and there is no way that he would survive such a drastic move, then that perception alone of the end-behavior can reduce the possibility of ever carrying out the behavior (i.e. stopping the alcohol habit). 39

40 Understanding Attitude Changes The theory of planned behavior is extremely useful in predicting rational behavior but it is almost helpless when it comes to sudden attitude changes. What happens when a person starts exhibiting behavior that defies the logic of the theory of planned behavior? Well, we have to think out of the box yet again and we have to use other tools to understand why spontaneous changes in behavior are taking place. We also have to take into account that there are many human behaviors that take place without conscious thinking. For example, a person who sees a suspicious individual in his neighborhood would automatically lock his doors and windows and if the suspicious individual shows a negative intention, he might call 911 just in case something happens. 40

41 All of this is done almost without conscious thinking and again, the person is being a cognitive miser instead of being a naïve scientist. In this type of situation, he is not expending his cognitive resources to come up with an appropriate response/behavior to the situation. Attitude Change & Cognitive Dissonance Now let us turn our attention to the phenomenon of attitude change. What drives a person to change his attitude and potentially, his intention to follow through with a specific behavior? One theory called the cognitive dissonance theory argues that when a person does something that is not in line with his existing attitude toward the object in question, a negative experience results. 41

42 Now this negative experience is quite relevant because negative experiences bring a concatenation of negative emotions. As human beings we have a natural aversion to negative emotions because naturally, we want to feel whole, happy and positive all the time. Positive feelings lead to positive actions, which in turn satisfy our psychological, social and physical needs. Negative feelings on the other hand usually lead to inaction or negative actions, which directly contradict our various individual needs. Here s a good example of how cognitive dissonance can work in a person s life. Let s say that Person W has been a vegetarian for a few years now. Now because of a special event, this person was forced to eat chicken meat in the presence of many other friends who were not vegetarians at all. 42

43 The vegetarian eats the food, but later on, he feels guilty and unhappy because he went against his own beliefs regarding the consumption of meat. Here s another example: let s say that Person X is an avowed supporter of Person C, a candidate for mayor. Person C is actually Person X s good friend for over twenty years. However, Person X decides to vote for Person Y because Person Y had a better plan for the city. Though Person X s friend was not aware of who Person X actually voted for, Person X felt terrible because Person C was a very good friend in the past and has been very helpful on many occasions. 43

44 It is normal for human beings to sometimes engage in behavior that is not completely in line or congruent to our attitudes. This happens for a variety of reasons. As we have discussed before, people have to take into consideration the things that they discover or learn as they become either privately self-aware or publicly self-aware. There are always expectations, norms, mores and standards that we have to think about because in the end, humans are social beings that want to be part of a winning social group. Unless a conscious choice is made to exclude oneself from any social group, we can safely 44

45 assume that people behave in accordance to the standards of the group that they belong to. So if you want predict the behavior and attitudes of a person, being fully aware of his social group would help immensely in the process of analyzing what you have to do to communicate with the other person effectively. What do we do when our behavior does not satisfy our present attitudes? Do we just ignore the negative experience associated with dissonant behaviors? Or do we do something about it? According to the theory of cognitive dissonance, people care deeply when their actions do not reflect their attitudes. Now we know for a fact that attitude strength is a strong determinant when it comes to the actual implementation or execution of a behavior. We can infer from this other theory that negative experiences associated with dissonant 45

46 behavior also has varying degrees. If you have a weak conviction about a certain attitude, then you won t care as much when your behavior does not really reflect the attitude. But when you do something that completely ignores an attitude that you hold with strong conviction, then you can be sure that you will feel quite awful afterward. Naturally, if a person feels negatively about a behavior because of the discrepancy between the behavior and the actual attitude, then that person will mostly likely be motivated to remedy the discrepancy or difference. This can be done in two ways: Through rationalization or explaining to themselves why it was necessary to act that way in that specific situation. 46

47 Changing the behavior partially or completely so that it will now be congruent with the existing attitude toward the target object. 47

48 When Does Dissonance Occur? Justification Freedom of choice Investment The first pre-requisite of cognitive dissonance is that a person must feel very strongly about the discrepancy between the attitude and the behavior. This experience is rooted in attitude strength. If the person does not feel strongly at all about a particular attitude, then it is possible that no negative emotional experience will occur even if 48

49 there is a marked discrepancy between the behavior or action and the subjective attitude that the person has. There are other factors that should be taken into consideration when you are trying to figure if a person will experience cognitive dissonance when he performs a particular action. These three factors are: Justification Choice Investment With justification, a person tries to rationalize why he/she performed the behavior in the first place. If the person cannot find a single good reason why he actually went against his own attitude in the first place, then dissonance would most likely occur. If they can explain why they had to go against their own attitude, then the behavior will be 49

50 relegated to the box of the past and the behavior will no longer be a cause of any emotional upheaval. The second factor that may predict whether or not a person would experience cognitive dissonance is choice. If a person was forced to do something against his attitudes or principles, then this is sufficient justification for the actual behavior. The impetus to do something is external to the person and therefore, it does not really spring forth from any self-schema. If this is the case, then no cognitive dissonance will occur. However, if the person had a choice to do or not do something and he still chose to go against his present attitude, then of course, dissonance will result because he had a choice. The third factor is investment. Investment is a person s level of involvement with a particular attitude. For example, if a person was completely enamored with one brand of clothing (he has 50

51 been buying from the same brand for fifteen years) and he chose to buy a similar product from another brand, then dissonance may occur. If the attachment or investment in the attitude is smaller, then the lower the chance of developing cognitive dissonance. 51