Social Psychology by R. Smith, M. Mackie, and M. Claypool (fourth edition) – Summary chapter 8

Attitudes change depending on the role a person has. Behaviour also affects attitudes and behaviour depends on attitudes. The shown behaviour can be very subtle (e.g: eyebrow movements) or very clear. Actions only guide attitudes if the actions are voluntary. People often make inferences from their actions to attitudes, because actions and attitudes are associated. The theory of self-perception states that people infer attitudes from their own behaviour and the situations in which those actions occur.

The foot-in-the-door technique refers to first asking people to go along with a smaller request and if they comply, they will be more likely to go along with a bigger request later. The performance of the smaller request triggers self-perception processes and people want to be consistent with their attitudes and since their attitude is based on the first small request, they are more likely to go along with the big request. The first small request has to be voluntary and distinctly enough to infer attitudes from it. Foot-in-the-door effects are strongest when people’s cognitive resources have been exhausted. Action-to-attitudes inferences are most likely when attitudes are unformed or unimportant.

Cognitive dissonance is an unpleasant state caused by people’s awareness of inconsistency among important beliefs, attitudes or actions. People’s motivation to reduce cognitive dissonance often induces a change in attitudes, beliefs or behaviour. There are four steps necessary for actions to produce cognitive dissonance and attitude change.

People realize their action is inconsistent with their attitude (1) and that their action is freely chosen (2). This leads to uncomfortable physiological arousal (3) and people then attribute this uncomfortable arousal to the inconsistency in action and attitude (4). Cognitive dissonance is eliminated if the inconsistency is resolved.

There are different justification processes that produce attitude change:

1. Insufficient justification effect
   Attitude change occurs to reduce dissonance caused by attitude-discrepant behaviour that cannot be attributed to external reward or punishment. People did not have an external factor to attribute their behaviour to, so they changed their attitude.
2. Effort justification effect
   Attitude change occurs to reduce dissonance caused by freely choosing to exert considerable effort or suffering to achieve a goal. People suffered and worked hard for it, so they must like it.
3. Post-decisional regret effect
   Attitude change occurs to reduce dissonance caused by freely making a choice or decision. People don’t want to regret their decision, so they are more positive about their decision after choosing than before choosing.

Attitude change brought about by dissonance reduction can be long-lasting. Alternatives to cognitive dissonance are reducing the dissonance at any of the four steps by attributing the behaviour to different causes. Alcohol and drug use may be ways in which some people avoid or reduce the tension cognitive dissonance creates. People can also reduce dissonance by reaffirming their positive sense of self-worth and integrity. Changing behaviour is also a good way to reduce dissonance. The hypocrisy effect refers to the change in behaviour that occurs to reduce cognitive dissonance after realizing that you advocate behaviour but do not perform it yourself.

People tend to use the first reduction opportunity for cognitive dissonance that presents itself. Trivialization of the behaviour is an often-used strategy for dissonance reduction. Self-affirmation is mostly used by people that have a lot of affirmational resources (e.g: a lot of positive self-concepts). Motivational factors can also influence how dissonance is resolved.

Attitudes can guide behaviour without much thought. The better established the attitude, the better guide to behaviour. Attitudes can bias perception. It biases perception in ways that make attitude-consistent behaviour more likely. Attitudes also focus attention on some characteristics of the stimulus and away from others.

An intention is a commitment to reach the desired outcome or desired behaviour. The theory of reasoned action states that attitudes and social norms combine to produce behavioural intentions, which in turn influence behaviour. Forming specific intentions better achieves the behavioural goal. Implementation intentions refer to a plan to carry out specific goal-directed behaviour in a specific situation. People mentally monitor behaviour and intentions.

There are two conditions that increase the extent to which attitudes guide behaviour:

1. Attitude accessibility
   People are more likely to act according to their attitude if their attitude is highly accessible. There is a decreased consistency between attitude and behaviour when factors other than people’s attitudes are made salient before a choice. Attitudes that are personally important, came to mind as a result of systematic processing and attitudes that are activated a lot are more easily accessible than attitudes that don’t have these characteristics.
2. Attitude correspondence
   The more an attitude that comes to mind corresponds with the specific situation, the more the attitude will guide behaviour.

Implicit attitudes predict uncontrollable behaviour better and explicit attitudes predict controllable behaviour. When implicit and explicit attitudes differ, either one might be a more influential guide for action, depending on what the action is.

People do not act on attitudes if they cannot perform the required behaviour. The theory of planned behaviour states that attitudes, social norms and perceived control combine to influence intentions and thus behaviour. Although attitudes are personal, they often require interpersonal cooperation to carry through on them. A habit is a repeated behaviour automatically triggered in a particular situation.