Attitudes and Attributions Notes PDF

Attitudes and Attributions Reducing Prejudice & Discrimination Cooperation instead of competition Superordinate goals Increase contact Pay attention to similarities Robber’s Cave Study Testing “realistic group conflict theory” → intergroup hostility occurs because groups...

Attitudes and Attributions Reducing Prejudice & Discrimination Cooperation instead of competition Superordinate goals Increase contact Pay attention to similarities Robber’s Cave Study Testing “realistic group conflict theory” → intergroup hostility occurs because groups compete over scarce resources Initial bonding → zero-sum competition → development of ingroup biases ○ Ingroup: brave, tough, friendly ○ Outgroup: “sneaky stinkers”! How to reduce the negative stereotypes, prejudice, and conflict? ○ Brought boys back together to fix a well. ○ → Importance of group cooperation, superordinate goals (working together towards common goal) Attitudes Attitude = evaluative belief ○ Stereotypes = beliefs about a group ○ Self-esteem = beliefs about yourself ○ Preferences = Evaluations of one thing over another ○ Person perception/impression formation = attitudes about other people Impression Formation We tend to infer personality traits very quickly ○ Thin slices of behavior → judgments made after seeing someone for 30 seconds positively correlate with judgments made after a full semester ○ Trait judgments can be made within milliseconds! Impression Formation Impression Formation Universal dimensions of person perception ○ Warmth → are you friend or foe? ○ Competence → will you be able to help/harm me? Do Attitudes Predict Behavior? Cognitive Consistency Cognitive consistency theories  ○ Attitudes may change in order to be more consistent with behavior ○ People use adjusted attitudes to rationalize their behavior Festinger, 1957: The theory that inconsistent cognitions arouses psychological tension that people become motivated to reduce Dissonance is unpleasant ○ Three possible solutions Change relevant behavior Change relevant thoughts/feelings Add new consonant thoughts/feelings Attitude 1: I want to be in this group. Attitude 2: This group is making me do awful things that I don’t like. Solution A: change your behavior Solution B: change your attitude Solution C: add consonant attitudes Cognitive Dissonance Dissonance reduction We avoid information that conflicts with our preexisting attitudes (confirmation bias!) We become more confident in our choices once we’ve made them Cognitive Dissonance Insufficient justification effect ○ When the external justification for a behavior isn’t enough to match what we’ve done ○ Low incentive (so we can’t attribute our behavior to the incentive) ○ Free choice (so we can’t attribute our behavior to someone making us do it) ○ → Consequence: change our attitudes about the behavior Attributions How do we explain events? ○ Causal attribution: explanation of the cause of a behavior, either your own or someone else’s Why does it matter? The type of attribution impacts how you respond to the situation ○ E.g., You get turned down for a date but are given a plausible excuse. Do you ask the person out again later, or assume they don’t actually want to go out with you? Fundamental Attribution Error When judging others’ behavior, we: ○ Overestimate internal, personal factors ○ Underestimate external, situational factors We don’t make the same error in judgment for our own behavior