Social Judgment Theory Overview

Social Judgment Theory

• Social judgment theory is a theory of persuasion that suggests people have a latitude of acceptance, rejection, and noncommitment regarding an idea.
• The latitude of acceptance includes ideas that a person finds reasonable or worthy of approval.
• The latitude of rejection includes ideas that a person finds unreasonable or objectionable.
• The latitude of noncommitment includes ideas that a person finds neither acceptable nor objectionable.
• Ego-involvement describes the importance or centrality of an issue to a person's life.
• High ego-involvement is usually demonstrated by membership in a group with a known stand on an issue.
• People who hold extreme opinions on an issue almost always care deeply, have high ego-involvement, and wide latitudes of rejection.
• Contrast is a perceptual error in which people judge messages that fall within their latitude of rejection as farther from their anchor than they really are.
• Assimilation is a perceptual error in which people judge messages that fall within their latitude of acceptance as less discrepant from their anchor than they really are.
• To maximize persuasion, select a message right on the edge of the audience's latitude of acceptance or noncommitment.
• Persuasion is a gradual process consisting of small, successive movements.
• The most dramatic, widespread, and enduring attitude changes involve changes in reference groups.
• Reference groups are groups that members use to define their identity.

Ethical Reflection: Kant’s Categorical Imperative

• Immanuel Kant believed that ethical behavior should be guided by the categorical imperative, which states that one should act only on a maxim that they can at the same time will to become a universal law.
• Kant believed lying was wrong – always – and so is breaking a promise.
• When applying persuasion techniques, one should ask, "What if everybody did that all the time?"
• If you don't like the answer, you have a solemn duty not to do the deed.

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

• Cognitive dissonance is a distressing mental state caused by inconsistency between a person's two beliefs or a belief and an action.
• The need to avoid dissonance is as basic as a need for safety or satisfying hunger.
• People use a variety of mental gymnastics to avoid dissonance, such as denying the link between an action and its consequences.
• Selective exposure is a tendency to avoid information that would create cognitive dissonance because it is incompatible with current beliefs.
• Postdecision dissonance is a strong doubt experienced after making an important, close-call decision that is difficult to reverse.
• Minimal justification refers to the best way to stimulate an attitude change in others by offering just enough incentive to elicit counterattitudinal behavior.
• Counterattitudinal advocacy refers to publicly urging others to believe or do something that the advocate actually opposes.
• The minimal justification hypothesis proposes that when a person is persuaded to behave inconsistently with their attitude, they are more likely to change their attitude if there is minimal justification for their behavior.

Revisions to Cognitive Dissonance Theory

• Self-consistency suggests that dissonance arises from an inconsistency between a person's cognition and self-concept.
• Personal responsibility for bad outcomes theory proposes that dissonance occurs when an individual believes their actions have unnecessarily hurt another person.
• Self-affirmation to dissipate dissonance suggests that some fortunate people can call up a host of positive thoughts about themselves that will blot out a concern for restoring consistency.

Critique: Dissonance over Dissonance

• Cognitive dissonance theory has been used by scientists to predict future events and explain data, and it has practical utility.
• It struggles when it comes to relative simplicity.
• Self-perception is a simpler explanation for attitude change than dissonance.

Explore the key concepts of Social Judgment Theory, including the latitudes of acceptance, rejection, and noncommitment. Learn about ego-involvement and its impact on persuasion, as well as how contrast affects perception of messages. This quiz will help you understand the dynamics of how opinions are formed and influenced.