PSY 102 Lecture 6: #6 attitude/cognitive dissonance
Document Summary
Attitude: a favorable or unfavorable evaluative reaction exhibited in beliefs, feelings, and intended behaviors. Measured by self report, behavioral (nonverbal behavior), physiological, reaction time. Attitude can conflict with other powerful determinants of behavior (implicit association test, affective priming task) Attitude is measured at the same level of specificity as the behavior (racial and political attitudes) The behavior is fresh in one"s mind (cognitively accessible) People infer attitudes from their behavior and attitude changes without feeling of arousal. Thought #1: i said the tasks were fun. Thought #2: therefore, i must have enjoyed them. Cognitive dissonance: negative affective state when two cognitions are inconsistent. Dissonance discomfort motivation to reduce dissonance. Change cognition, change behavior, add a cognition, trivialize the conflict. Change cognition: eating meat is not so cruel. Add a cognition: most people eat meat too so it must be okay. Trivialize the conflict: me stopping eating meat won"t help animals. For dissonance to occur, people have to perceive that:
