Social Psychology

Chapter 4: Behavior and Attitudes

How well do our attitudes predict our behavior?

When does our behavior affect our attitudes?
Why does our behavior affect our attitudes?
Do we smile because we’re happy, or are we
happy because we smile?
 The ABCs of Attitudes

“The ancestor of every action is a thought.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Attitude: A favorable or unfavorable evaluative reaction

toward something on someone (often rooted in one’s
beliefs, and exhibited in one’s feelings and intended
behavior).
Antecedents to Attitudes
Psychological Functions of Attitudes
Expressed
Attitudes
 How Well Do Attitudes Predict Behavior?

 Expressed attitudes are generally not good

predictors of behavior.
– “It may be desirable to abandon the attitude
concept” (Allan Wicker, 1971)
– There are as many as 40 factors that mediate
the relationship between attitudes and
behavior.
 How Well Do Attitudes Predict Behavior?
When Social Influences on What we Say are
Minimal

 We can only measure expressed attitudes

which may or may not be the same as true
attitudes.
– Sometimes we say what we think others want us to
say.
– However, if attitudes are measured in nonreactive
ways (like measuring facial muscle responses to
various statements) then we might be able to get a
true attitudes.
 How Well Do Attitudes Predict Behavior?
When Other Influences on Behavior are Minimal

 Principle of Aggregation: The effects of an

attitude become more apparent when we look
at a person’s aggregate or average behavior
rather than at isolated acts.
– I have no idea what someone will do in any one
particular situation, but I can predict the average.
– If a baseball player has a .400 average, then I
predict that for every 10 times they come to bat,
they’ll hit the ball 4 times.
 How Well Do Attitudes Predict Behavior?
When Attitudes Specific to the Behavior are
Examined

 General attitudes do not do well in predicting specific

behaviors.
– Specific attitudes do in fact predict specific behaviors.
 The Theory of Planned Behavior: One’s (a) attitudes,
(b) perceived social norms, and (c) feelings of control
together determine one’s intentions, which guide
behavior.
 How Well Do Attitudes Predict Behavior?
When Attitudes are Potent

 Well thought out attitudes predict behavior

better than those we have gained passively.
 If explicitly reminded of our attitudes our
behavior is more likely to reflect them.
 If made self-conscious (acting in front of a
mirror) then our attitudes are a better predictor
of our behaviors.
How Well Do Attitudes Predict Behavior?
Prejudicial Attitudes Predict Discriminatory
Behavior
 When Does Our Behavior Affect Our Attitudes?
Role Playing

 Role: A set of norms that defines how people in

a given social position ought to behave.
– “No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to
himself and another to the multitude without finally getting
bewildered as to which may be true.”
 Nathaniel Hawthorne
 Stanford prison experiment
 Abu Ghraib
 When Does Our Behavior Affect Our Attitudes?
The Foot-in-the-Door Phenomenon

 Foot-in-the-Door Phenomenon: The tendency

for people who have first agreed to a small
request to comply later with a larger request.
– “Drive Carefully” study
– Homeless shelter volunteering
– “Can I have a moment of your time?”
 When Does Our Behavior Affect Our Attitudes?
The Foot-in-the-Door Phenomenon

 Low-Ball Technique: A tactic for getting people to

agree to something. People who agree to an initial
request will often still comply when the requester ups
the ante. People who receive only the costly request
are less likely to comply with it.
– Car salesmen that sell the “base car” then tell you
the real price.
 When Does Our Behavior Affect Our Attitudes?
Evil and Moral Acts

 We are more likely to hurt those we dislike, but

we also come to dislike those we have hurt.
– Prisoner-of-war guards who must sometimes hurt
prisoners as part of the job often come to hate the
prisoners.
– If we harm an innocent victim, especially if we do so
voluntarily, we will often begin to disparage the
victim to justify the behavior.
 Doing a favor for someone leads to more liking
of the person.
 When Does Our Behavior Affect Our Attitudes?
Social Movements

 The act of saying the Pledge of Allegiance

everyday leads to patriotic beliefs in children.
 Brainwashing might be considered the most
extreme case of this phenomenon.
– Some of the captured American soldiers
during the Korean war came to “believe” that
communism was good following
brainwashing.
 Why Do Actions Affect Attitudes?
 Self-Presentation Theory
 Cognitive-Dissonance Theory
 Self-Perception Theory
 Why Does Behavior Affect Attitudes?
Self-Presentation: Impression Management

 Self-Presentation: The act of expressing

oneself and behaving in ways designed to
create a favorable impression or an impression
that corresponds to one’s ideals.
 We believe that making a good impression is
the way to gain social and material rewards.
 No one wants to look foolishly inconsistent.
– We express attitudes to match our actions to avoid
inconsistency.
 Why Does Behavior Affect Attitudes?
Self-Justification: Cognitive Dissonance

 Our attitudes change because we are

motivated to maintain consistency among our
cognitions.
 Cognitive Dissonance: Tension that arises
when one is simultaneously aware of two
inconsistent cognitions. For example,
dissonance may occur when we realize that we
have, with little justification, acted contrary to
our attitudes or made a decision favoring one
alternative despite reasons favoring another.
 Why Does Behavior Affect Attitudes?
Self-Justification: Cognitive Dissonance
Insufficient Justification
 If you want to buy a man's beliefs, how much should you pay him?
 Festinger and Carlsmith, social psychologists at Stanford University,
explored this question in 1956. The following aspects of cognitive
dissonance were investigated by way of laboratory experiment and
interview.
 That when an individual is forced to act in a manner that is contrary to his
private attitude, he will experience dissonance.
 That when external forces which compel him to act contrary to his attitudes
are overwhelmingly strong, the total magnitude of dissonance will be
minimal; if the forces are weak, or just barely strong enough to induce him
to act, or behave they way he does, dissonance will be maximal.
 That one way to reduce dissonance is for the individual to change his
attitude to correspond with his action/behavior. Since the pressure to
reduce dissonance is related to the magnitude of it, Festinger and
Carlsmith thought that attitude change should be greatest when the force
used to induce the action/behavior is just minimally sufficient.
 Why Does Behavior Affect Attitudes?
Self-Justification: Cognitive Dissonance
Insufficient Justification
 Insufficient Justification Effect: Reduction of dissonance by
internally justifying one’s behavior when external justification is
“insufficient”.
 Attitudes follow behaviors for which we feel some responsibility.
 Why Does Behavior Affect Attitudes?
Self-Justification: Cognitive Dissonance
Dissonance After Decisions

 After important decisions we tend to upgrade

the choice made and downgrade the choice not
made.
– Once we have made a choice, the grass does not
grow greener on the other side of the fence.
– Racetrack betters that had just placed a bet were
more optimistic about their choice than those
waiting in line to bet.
Why Does Behavior Affect Attitudes?
Self-Justification: Cognitive
Dissonance
 Why Does Behavior Affect Attitudes?
Self-Perception

 When we see someone else’s behavior we attribute

the behavior to the situation or to the person.
– We also seem to make similar attributions when we
observe our own behavior.
 Self-Perception Theory: The 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.
– William James proposed we infer our emotions by
observing our actions, we are happy because we
smile.
 Why Does Behavior Affect Attitudes?
Self-Perception
Expressions and Attitudes
 “Sit all day in a moping posture, sigh, and reply to everything
with a dismal voice, and your melancholy lingers.”
 William James
 Why Does Behavior Affect Attitudes?
Self-Perception
Overjustification and Intrinsic Motivations

 Unnecessary rewards have a hidden cost.

 Overjustification Effect: The result of bribing
people to do what they already like doing; they
may then see their actions as externally
controlled rather then intrinsically appealing.
 Why Does Behavior Affect Attitudes?
Self-Perception
Overjustification and Intrinsic Motivations
There was once a Jewish tailor who had the
temerity to open his shop on the main street of an
anti-Semitic town. To drive him out of town, a
gang of youths visited the shop each day,
standing in the entrance and shouting, "Jew!
Jew!"
After several sleepless nights, the tailor finally
devised a plan. The next time that the gang came
to threaten him, the tailor announced that anyone
who called him a Jew would get a dime. He then
handed dimes to each member of the gang.
 Why Does Behavior Affect Attitudes?
Self-Perception
Overjustification and Intrinsic Motivations
Delighted with their new incentive, members of
the gang returned the next day, shouting "Jew!
Jew!", and the tailor, smiling, gave each one a
nickel (explaining that he could only afford a
nickel that day). The gang left satisfied because,
after all, a nickel was a nickel.
Then, on the following day, the tailor gave out
only pennies to each gang member, again
explaining that he could afford no more money
than that. Well, a penny was not much of an
incentive, and members of the gang began to
protest.
 Why Does Behavior Affect Attitudes?
Self-Perception
Overjustification and Intrinsic Motivations

When the tailor replied that they could take it or

leave it, they decided to leave it, shouting that the
tailor was crazy if he thought that they would call
him a Jew for only a penny!
Why Does Behavior Affect Attitudes?
Comparing the Theories
Cognitive Dissonance-Revised
Cognitive Dissonance-Revised