Psychology Chapter on Attitudes and Influence

Attitudes

• A stable "evaluation" of something
• Brains response in placing some kind of value on a specific event, person, stimulus
• Affect: The brain's ability to feel good or bad in response to various things
  • Sensation: Bodily responses to stimuli
  • Emotion: Cognitive response to an event or stimulus
  • Attitude: Relatively stable goodness or badness responses which are long lasting

Wanting vs. Liking

• Wanting: The desire for something
• Liking: The pleasure or enjoyment derived from something
• Wanting and liking are separable
• Dopamine is linked to wanting: Enhanced activity increases wanting, while depleted activity reduces wanting
• Endogenous opioids (enkephalin) and endogenous cannabinoids (anandamide) are linked to liking
• Drug addicts demonstrate increased wanting, but liking may either decrease or not change over time

Conformity and Group Influence

• Conformity: Changing one's actions, beliefs, or attitudes to align with a group
• Automaticity of Social Conformity: The brain automatically detects deviation from group norms and initiates mechanisms for re-alignment
• Private Acceptance: Rapid changes in personal beliefs due to group influence
• Lusting While Loathing Study: Participants' responses to facial stimuli were influenced by their perceived conformity with group norms, illustrating the impact of social feedback on preferences.

Obedience to Authority

• Stanley Milgram’s Obedience Studies: Investigated the extent to which individuals obey authority figures, even when instructed to perform morally questionable actions.
• Key Finding: 65% of participants administered the highest level of shock to a learner, demonstrating a strong tendency to obey authority, even when it causes harm.

De-individuation

• A process where individuals lose their sense of self-awareness and self-control within a group
• Group Dynamics: The presence of a group can lead to a loss of self-control, promoting aggressive or "bad" behaviors.
• Trick-or-Treat Study: Children were more likely to steal candy and money when anonymous and in groups, showcasing the connection between de-individuation and immoral behavior.

Self-consciousness and De-individuation

• Changes in self-consciousness are directly linked to altered moral behavior
• Mirror Study: People in a room with a mirror were less likely to engage in immoral behavior due to increased self-awareness.

The Dual Nature of De-Individuation

• De-individuation is not inherently negative.
• It can produce positive consequences depending on the context of the group
• Positive effects of de-individuation may occur when a group engages in prosocial or supportive actions.

Lebon's "The Crowd"

• Suggests humans have ugly instincts that are released in group settings
• Evidence for this negative view includes people acting more aggressively in crowds.
• Self-regulation normally controls these negative impulses, but they are loosened in groups

Personality and Genes

• Personality traits are shaped by a combination of genetics and experiences.
• The "Big Five" model describes personality traits: Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism.
• Two of these traits, openness to experience and conscientiousness, are linked to political orientation:
  • Liberals tend to be higher in Openness to Experience.
  • Conservatives tend to be higher in Conscientiousness.
• These traits also predict behaviour and attitudes.
• Research suggests a strong link between genetics and a person's political orientation; about 40% of differences in political orientation can be attributed to genetic factors.
• A study from 2005 examined the attitudes of identical and non-identical twins.
  • It attempted to determine the role of genetics in specific attitudes.
  • Found a stronger correlation in attitudes between identical twins compared to non-identical twins; suggesting a link between genetics and attitudes.
• Cognitive dissonance occurs when people try to justify their beliefs and actions when they conflict with their values.

Social Influence

• Social influence refers to the impact of other people on our thoughts, feelings, and behaviours.
• This influence can be real (a person present) or imagined (a person not physically present).
• Social influence happens both in the presence and absence of people, as long as we perceive their presence.
• Three main types of social influence:
  • Conformity: When we change our thoughts, feelings, or behaviours to align with a person or group.
  • Compliance: When we respond positively to a request from another person.
  • Obedience: When we change our behaviours in response to a demand from a more powerful person or authority figure.
• The boundaries between these forms of influence can be blurry, as they are often intertwined in social interactions.

Conformity

• Conformity affects many aspects of our lives, such as fashion choices, names, and communication.
• Conformity is also observed in other species, such as fish forming bait balls to avoid predators and mate choice copying in fruit flies, rats, and humans.
• Conformist tendencies may have been essential for survival and reproduction in the past.
• Asch’s Line Judgement experiment demonstrated the power of peer pressure:
  • Participants were asked to judge line lengths in the presence of confederates who provided incorrect answers.
  • The results showed that 37% of participants conformed to the incorrect answers, even when the answer was clearly wrong.
  • This highlights the influence of normative and informational conformity.
  • Normative conformity occurs when people go along with a group to be liked, while informational conformity occurs when we believe the group is correct.
• Conformity can alter preferences rapidly.

Normative Conformity

• A group's "norms" are its rules about how members should act.
• Normative conformity occurs when we go along with a group to be liked by them.
• This need to be liked stems from the fact that people generally like those who are like themselves.
• Normative conformity can operate on an instinctive and conscious level.

Brain Activity and Conformity

• Brain research suggests that conformity can activate the cingulate cortex, which is involved in error detection.
• The cingulate cortex is more active when people are deviating from group norms, which suggests that the brain is naturally attuned to identifying and responding to non-conformity.

Conformity and Preferences

• Conformity can change our preferences quickly, even without conscious awareness.
• For example, studies have shown that the social feedback about a person’s attractiveness can influence our own perceptions of them.

Cialdini’s Tricks of the Trade

• Robert Cialdini outlined several techniques for influencing people based on social influence principles:
  • Reciprocity: We feel inclined to return favors. (Mint Experiment)
  • Consistency and Commitment: We seek to maintain consistency between our beliefs and actions. (Foot-in-the-Door Technique)

Obedience: "I Was Just Following Orders"

• Obedience refers to complying with the demands of a person in authority.
• The Nuremberg Trials highlighted the issue of obedience and its potential for widespread harmful actions.

Group Influence

• Groups have a significant impact on our thinking and behavior.
• Attributions, whether dispositional or situational, influence our views of others.
• A study explored how attributions can affect attitudes toward enemy groups like Israelis and Palestinians.
  • Participants assigned to the "situational attributions" condition had less negative views of the enemy group and were more willing to compromise for peace.

Dispositional vs. Situational Attributions

• People tend to make fundamental attribution errors, overattributing behavior to dispositional factors (character) rather than situational factors.

Changing Attitudes Towards Enemy Groups

• Attributions can play a role in changing attitudes towards enemy groups.
• By framing the behavior of the enemy group as situational rather than dispositional, it may be possible to reduce negative attitudes and promote peace.

Explore key concepts in psychology related to attitudes, wanting versus liking, and the impact of conformity and group influence. This quiz will test your understanding of emotional responses and the neurological factors that influence our desires and social behaviors.