Is a Rose Always a Rose?

The Role of Social Category Exemplar Change in Attitude Stability and Attitude–Behavior Consistency – Sia, Lord, Blessum, Ratcliff and Lepper

by Moritz Maximilian Desinger, Karolin Salmen & Susanne Meinert

16.11.2011

Seminar: Attitudes and Social Judgement

– Prof. Dr. G. Echterhoff – WiSe 11/12

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Table of Contents

• Intro

• A Brief Look into History

• Experiment I

• Experiment II

• Experiment III

• Implication

• List of references

2 Social Psychology – „Is A Rose Always A Rose?“, Sia et. al (1997)

Do you have faith in politicians?

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Konrad Adenauer (http://cdn1.beeffco.com/files/poll-images/normal/konrad-adenauer_2708.jpg)

Do you have faith in politicians?

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Guido Westerwelle (http://www.spiegel.de/images/image-173421-videopanocontentainer-abcd.jpg)

Introduction and Vocabulary

1.) What is a social category exemplar?

2.) What is attitude stability?

3.) What is attitude-behavior consistency?

…and lastly how do they interact?

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What you should learn:

The importance of social category exemplar change, and the role social category exemplars play in: – attitude stability

– attitude behavior consistency

– attitude formation

Question: What can we do with this knowledge?

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A Brief Look into History

• 1934, LaPiere: attitude behavior consistency

representation of a social category.

• 1940, Solomon Asch: change in the object of judgment

change the judgment of the object.

• 1980s, Lord, Lepper and Mackie: attitudes towards social categories exemplars, that come to mind

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Experiment I: Social Category Exemplars and

Attitude Stability

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Hypothesis

Stability of social category exemplars

correlation

Stability of attitudes

Basis for further experiments (e.g. does exemplar instability reduce attitude-behavior consistency)

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Method

• Participants: – 183 undergraduates (82♂, 101♀)

– 17 students = control condition

– 148 students = experimental condition

– 18 students were excluded

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Procedure

Control condition 1. Questionnaire:

attitude

2. Questionnaire (1 month): attitude

Experimental con. 1. Initial

questionnaire: attitude + exemplar

2. Liking ratings (2 weeks): attitude

3. Questionnaire (1 month): attitude + exemplar

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Results and Discussion

• Preliminary Analyses: a. Order did not matter b. No artificial decision process (forced

exemplars) c. Attitude stability (attitude-attitude

correlations)

Control con.: .68 Experimental con.: .65

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Attitude Stability

• Hypothesis:

exemplar stability attitude stability

A.) Students who name the same exemplar would have a greater attitude stability

B.) Individual students show greater attitude stability for the categories in which they named the same exemplars

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Attitude Stability

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Experiment II: Social Category Exemplars and

Attitude-Behavior Consistency

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Hypothesis

1. Changing (or staying with) the exemplar attitude-behavior consistency.

2. “Stayers” greater attitude- behavior consistency than "changers"

3. Direction of the change in behavior direction of the exemplar change

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Method and Procedure

• Similar to Experiment I

• But:

second session: "interruption" – signing of petitions

– questionnaires discussing the willingness of the students to participate in category-related activities

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Results and Discussion

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Results and Discussion

• "stayers“: expectations intentions and behavior consistent

• "changers" expectations intentions and behavior inconsistent

Exemplar stability is related to attitude-behavior consistency.

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Direction of Behavioral Inconsistency

(1) Stayers:

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Ratings

1. Session Sarah Palin 0

2. Session Sarah Palin -3

Difference Less likable

Attitude-Behavior Consistency

Attitude - Inconsistency Behavior +

Intentions +

Direction of Behavioral Inconsistency

(2) Changers:

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Ratings

1. Session George Bush -5

2. Session Barack Obama 3

Difference More likable

Attitude-Behavior Consistency

Attitude - Inconsistency matching to the change of sympathy for the exemplar

Behavior +

Intentions +

Experiment III: Using Social

Category Exemplars to Change Attitudes

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Hypothesis and Method

• Same exemplar same attitude

• Different exemplar diff. attitude (or at least a change in attitude)

Manipulation Potential?

• 53 participants (12 ♂, 41 ♀)

Gender has no effect

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Procedure

1. Session – attitudes + exemplars for 27 social

categories (including politicians) 2. Session (2 weeks later)

– Same students: liking scales (several politicians)

3. Session (4 weeks later) – Eligible students participated in two

tasks presented as unrelated experiments. Made use of Bodenhausen et. al.’s (1995) “accessibility manipulation”

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Results and Discussion

• Using ANOVA two way action was significant: F (2,50) = 4.34, where p < .05

Attitudes did not differ in the initial questionnaire (F<1)

Attitudes differed in the questionnaire completed after the height estimation task (F1,50) = 3.53, where p < .05

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Results and Discussion

• What does that mean?

– If the students were reminded of the same social category exemplar 4 weeks later, their mean attitude remained the same.

– If the students were reminded of a politician they liked more or one the students liked less, their general attitude towards politicians in general move into the predicted direction.

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Implications

„Attitudes and other mental representations are temporary constructions that differ from one time to the next as different

subsets of exemplars become activated“ (Exemplar Perspective by Smith, 1996)

• Methods that measure spontaneously generated dimensions naming of exemplars?

• Knowledge about existence of an exemplar prediction of attitude-behavior consistency

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Summary

• Category Exemplars correlate with attitudes

• Attitude consistency subject to category exemplars

• Attitudes can be manipulated

Answer: We can use exemplars to predict behavior/attitudes and

even have the possibility to control them!

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List of references

• Asch, S. E. (1940). Studies in the principles of judgments and attitudes: II. Determination of judgments by group and by ego standards. Journal of Psychology, SPSSI Bulletin, 12, 433-465

• LaPiere, R. T. (1934). Attitudes versus Actions. Social Forces, 13, 230-237

• Lord, C. G., Lepper, M. R., & Mackie, D. (1984). Attitude prototypes as determinants of attitude-behavior consistency. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 46, 1254-1266.

• Smith, E. R. (in press). Mental representation and memory. In G. Lindzey, S. T. Fiske, & D. Gilbert (Eds.), Handbook of social psychology (4th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill

• Tiffiny L. Sia, Charles G. Lord, Kenneth A. Blessum, and Christopher D. Ratcliff (Texas Christian University) and Mark R. Lepper (Stanford University). Is a Rose Always a Rose? The Role of Social Category Exemplar Change in Attitude Stability and Attitude-Behavior Consistency. In Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (1997, Vol. 72, No. 3, 501-514). Copyright 1997 by the American Psychological Association, Inc.

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Picture References • [Untitled photograph of the cover of Catherine A. Sanderson’s (Author)

“Social Psychology” [Hardcover], from: http://i26.lulzimg.com/37ba37.jpg

• [Untitled photograph of Konrad Adenauer], from: http://cdn1.beeffco.com/files/poll-images/normal/konrad-adenauer_2708.jpg

• Chronik des Scheiterns [Photograph]. (2011) Retrieved October 30, 2011, from: http://www.spiegel.de/images/image-173421-videopanocontentainer-abcd.jpg

• Frazão, H. (Photographer). (2010). be out [Photograph], Retrieved October 30, 2011, from: http://browse.deviantart.com/photography/?q=category&order=9&offset=0#/d2js00p

• [Untitled photograph of the girl], from: http://img.ehowcdn.com/article-page-main/ehow/images/a08/8h/m3/ground-teenagers-800x800.jpg

• Barabás M. Viktória (Photographer). (2010). attitude towars the issue.. [Photograph], Retrieved October 30, 2011, from: http://browse.deviantart.com/photography/?qh=&section=&q=attitude+change#/d2r8p65

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