5: Attitudes, Behavior, and Persuasion
- Page ID
- 257579
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- Attitudes are relatively enduring evaluations of objects, people, or concepts that consist of cognitive, affective, and behavioral components, with some attitudes being inherited through genetics while others are learned through experience. The strength of attitudes varies significantly, with stronger attitudes being more cognitively accessible, resistant to change, and influential in guiding behavior. The relationship between attitudes and behavior is strongest when attitudes are strong...
- 5.3: Changing Attitudes Through Persuasion
- This section explains the psychology of persuasion and attitude change through communication. Persuasion effectiveness depends on choosing the right communicators (attractive, similar, trustworthy, and expert sources work best) and crafting messages that can be processed either spontaneously (through emotional appeals and quick judgments) or thoughtfully (through careful consideration of arguments) The route people take when processing persuasive messages depends...
- 5.4: Changing Attitudes by Changing Behavior
- This section explores how behavior can influence attitudes through two main psychological mechanisms: self-perception and cognitive dissonance. Self-perception theory suggests that people observe their own behavior and infer their attitudes from it, particularly when they engage in unexpected behaviors—leading to phenomena like insufficient justification (when mild external pressure causes internal attitude change) and over justification (when external rewards undermine intrinsic motivation).
- 5.5: Thinking Like a Social Psychologist About Attitudes, Behavior, and Persuasion
- Attitudes serve as central organizing principles in social psychology that help coordinate our beliefs, feelings, and behaviors, allowing us to quickly make sense of and respond to our environment regarding people, groups, and objects. The chapter uses examples like Obama's presidential campaign to demonstrate how persuasion techniques work, showing how communicator characteristics (attractiveness, trustworthiness, speaking style) and strong messaging create attitudes...
- 5.6: Chapter Summary
- Attitudes serve as organizing principles in social psychology that help people understand how their beliefs, feelings, and behaviors work together to make sense of their environment and react quickly to it. The chapter illustrates how persuasion techniques work through examples like Obama's presidential campaign, where his personal characteristics (attractiveness, trustworthiness, speaking style) and strong campaign messaging created powerful attitudes that motivated supporters to act.