Theories of persuasion and attitude change

Lecture 8

Attitude behavior

• Theories of persuasion (Yale school)• Theory of reasoned action (M. Fishbein & I.

Ajzen • Theory of planned behavior (I. Ajzen)• Elaboration likelihood model (R. Petty & J.

Caccioppo)• Assimilation-contrast theory (M. Sherif)

Elaboration likelihood model by R. Petty and J.

Caccioppo

John Caccioppo

Richard Petty

Elaboration likelihood model

• Two routes of persuasion:– Central – through quality of arguments

– Peripheral – through peripheral cues• Length of the message

• Source credibility

• Source attractiveness

Determinants of central vs. peripheral route

• Central route– The issue is important

– Recipient is focused on the message

– Message is easy to process

– Recipient is in a sad mood

• Peripheral route– The issue is of no

importance

– Distractors are present (e.g., noise)

– The message is difficult to process

– Recipient is in a good mood

Theory of reasoned action

M. Fishbein & I. Ajzen

Martin Fishbein

Icek Ajzen

Attitude = result of rational decision

• Rational decision – choice of the best alternative– Expected value of the chosen alternative

– Probabilities x utilities of decision consequences

– Choose this alternative which has the highest sum of products

Theory of reasoned action

Attitude

Social norms

Behavioralintention

Behavior

Attitude= result of rational choice

Attitude

Utility of A x

Probability of A

Utility of DX

Probability of D

Utility of BX

Probability of B

Utility of CX

Probability of C

Social norms

Norm

Expectation XX

Motivation X

Expectation UX

Motivation U

Expectation YX

Motivation Y

Expectation ZX

Motivation Z

Examples

• Attitudes towards EU– Consequences of entering EU vs. not entering EU

• Evaluation (utilities)• Probability

– Social norms• What others expect of me• Do I want to yield to the expectation

• Attitudes towards removing own dogs’ shit from pavements– Consequences– Social norms

Theory of planned behavior

Attitude

Social norms

Behavioralintention

Behavior

Control

Assimilation-contrast theory by M. Sherif

Judgments (descriptive, evaluative)

• Absolute vs. comparative judgments• Harry Helson: Absolute judgments are never

absolute– Evaluations are made with respect to some reference

points

– Reference points: • Adaptation level (point of „psychological neutrality”)

• Anchoring points

Anchoring effects

• Anchors – points of reference • Contrast effects

– Comparison with an anchor – accentuates the difference

• Assimilation effects– Comparison with an anchor attenuates the difference

Contrast effects in perception of physical stimuli

50oC 30oC 10oC

Attitude scales and assimilation-contrast effects

• Types of scales– Likert scale – the majority of known

questionnaires and attitude scales– Thurstone scale– Guttman scale (e.g. social distance scale)

Attitudes

• Toward European Union• Abortion• Church• Paid education• Immigrants• Homosexuals

Thurstone Scale

• Interval scale (items differ by equal intervals)

• Each item described with two parameters;– Scale value (position on the

domension of positivity-negativity towards the attitude object)

– Variance (amount of agreement on how positive is the statement)

Louis Thurstone (1887-1955)

Constructing the Thurstone scale

• Collecting attitudinal statements (about 300)• Eliminate

– Factual statements– Statements difficult to understand– Double negations etc..

• Competent judges (minimum 50)• 11 categories

– „1” – statement expresses an exteremely positive attitude (e.g. „Without membership in EU Poland will never be a truly democratic country”

– „11” – statement expresses an extremely negative attitude (e.g.”Our membership in EU will deprive us of our Polish culture and identity”)

– „6” – neither positive nor negative („EU money helps build highways in Poland”).

Computing scale values of attitudinal statements

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Statement 24Statement 13

Statement 215

Me=2,6

Me=6.2

Me=9.8

N judges

Computing scale values and measures of variance

• Scale value = median (or mean)• Variance = quartile deviation (or standard

deviation)

Selecting statements to the final version of the scale

• Statements with scale values covering the whole scale in equal intervals (1,2,3,4...11 lub 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5.......10.5, 11.0 itp.)

• Choice of statements with lowest variation

Administering the scale and computing the final score

• Participant marks only these statements that he/she agrees with

• Final score (attitude) = means of scale values of marked items

Thurstone vs Sherif

• Criticisms of assumptions underlying the Thurstone scale– Competent judges are not competent – Competent judges have own attitudes– Attitudes act as anchors

• Contrast effects

• Assimilation effects

Assimilation-contrast theory (ego involvement) by Muzafer Sherif

• Own attitude acts as an anchor• Beliefs that are close to own attitude

assimilation effects• Beliefs distant from own attitude contrast

effects• Categorization of beliefs

– Latitude of acceptance („yes” – I agree with it)– Latitude of rejectance („no” – I don’t agree with it)– Latitude of noncommitment („I don’t know” or „both

agree and disagree”)

Three latitudes

Latitude of acceptance

Latitude ofnoncommitment

Latitude ofrejectance

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High ego-involvement

Low ego-involvement

Ego-involvement effects

• The higher ego-involvement, the larger latitude of rejection, the smaller – latitude of noncommitment

• The higher ego-involvement, the higher probability that the persuasive message will be categorized as „not acceptable” boomerang effects in persuasion

Persuasion as communication

• Yale school: Carl I. Hovland, Muzafer Sherif, Irving Janis

• Processes of attitude change = processes of communication

• Persuasion techniques = techniques of efficient communication

Carl I. Hovland

Irving Janis

Muzafer Sherif

William McGuire

Yale School

Persuasion as communication

source message audience

Persuasion as an effect of:

• Characteristics of the source of the message

• Characteristics of the message

• Characteristics of the channel

• Characteristics of the audience

Persuasive source: role of credibility

• Trustworthy – speaking fast (Miller et al.. 1976: fast speakers judged

as more intelligent, objective and knowledgeable)

– No perceived intention to persuade the audience

– Arguing for a position against own

• Competent– Confident tone

• Effects of source credibility fade with time– Remembered message , not source sleeper effect

Sleeper effect

• A delayed impact of a message, occurs when we remember the message but forget a reason for discounting it.

• Incredible source more effective after a longer lapse of time

Persuasive source: role of attractiveness

• Physical attractiveness

• Similarity vs. dissimilarity of a source– Message concerns subjective issues (tastes,

preferences) similar source more persuasive– Message concerns objective issues (facts)

dissimilar source more persuasive

Persuasive message: Role of emotions

• Appeal to reason vs. emotions– Central vs. peripheral route– Type of audience (educated or not)

• Influence of positive affect– Positive emotions more persuasion

• Role of fear– Fear or fear + behavioral instruction?– Curvilinear relationship?

Positive affect caused by eating facilitated persuasion

Persuasive message: construction of a message

• One-sided vs. two-sided– Role of education– Previous or future exposure to

counterarguments

• Distance from attitude of the audience– Boomerang effects

• With or without a clear conclusion• Effects of order: primacy vs. recency

One sided message is more persuasive if the audience initially agreed, to-sided – when disagreed

Persuasive message: primacy vs. recency

Persuasive message: role of the channel

• Personal contact more influence than media• Concrete example more influence then dry

statistical data• Written vs. video-taped

– Difficult to understand messages more persuasive when written

– Easy to understand messages more persuasive when video-taped

• Power-Point presentations?

Susceptible audience

• Self-esteem• Education• Gender• Age and generation• Involvement in an issue

Inocculation theory by McGuire

• How to create resistance to persuasive meassages?

• Vaccination: contact with a small dose of a virus stimulation of antibodies

• A small dose of arguments against own attitude generation of counterarguments bolstering the attitude

Attitudes as constructions

Attitudes: retrieved from memory or constructed on the spot?

• Are attitudes really stable dispositions?

• Effects of– Context of other questions– Induced affect (F. Strack)– Affect as information (N. Schwartz & Clore)– Availability heuristic– Thinking about reasons of attitudes (T. Wilson)

Affect as information hypothesis

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1

2

3

4

5

6

7

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no yes

attention turned to weather

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After: Schwartz & Clore, 1983)

Measurement of attitudes

Measurement of attitudes

• Likert’s scale• Thurstone’s scale• Guttman’s scale

Likert Scale

• Ordinal scales• Several to several tens items• Validity of items• Several categories’ scale (from „I fully disagree”

to „ I fully agree” • Psychometric properties (reliability of the scale,

discriminatory power of items, factorial structure of the inventory, external validity etc.)

Guttman’s scale (scalogram)

• Cumulativeness of the scale– Unidimensionality

• Height, scientific degrees

• Bogardus social distance scale as an example of Guttman scale

150 cm 180 cm100 cm

magister doctor doctor hab. professor

Social distance scale

• I consent to an Arab marrying my daughter• I consent to an Arab being my boss• I would shake hands with an Arab• I consent to an Arab being my neighbor • I consent to an Arab being my co-worker in

an office• I consent to an Arab being a resident of my

city.

Construction of Guttman scale

• Choice of an attitude (preferably: unidimensional)

• Selection of items (covering one dimension)

• How cumulative is the scale?

Constructing the scale

• Participants answer „yes” or „no” to each statement

• Ordering the statements according to the number of „yes” answers, beginning from the smallest to the biggest

• For each statement calculated is the sum of answers in the so called „null field”

Null field

1

2YES NO

YES

NONull field

I will consent to the marriage

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Coefficient of reproducibility

• Measure of the extent to which one can „reproduce” answers to „lower” questions from answers to „higher order” questions.

• Sum of answers in „null fields”

Attitude-behavior consistency

Attitude-behavior consistenty

• One of the first experiments in social psychology – R. LaPierre (1934)– Would you accept a Chinese as a hotel guest?

– Did you actually accept a Chinese as hotel guest?

– Reasons for the discrepancy

Reasons for the attitude-behavior discrepancy

– Methodological• Way of measuring attitudes• What is measured• How many indices• Global vs. concrete

– Theoretical• Predictors of behaviors different than predictors of attitudes• When do attitudes influence behaviors?• Role of objective self-awareness (Robert Wicklund)

– Individual differences• Self-monitoring (Mark Snyder)