Lecture 4: Affective Influences on Attitudes Flashcards Preview

🚫 PSY320H1F: Social Psychology of Attitudes with C. Midgley > Lecture 4: Affective Influences on Attitudes > Flashcards

Flashcards in Lecture 4: Affective Influences on Attitudes Deck (21)
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1
Q

mere exposure effect (2)

A
  • When people develop a favourable attitude towards an object just by becoming familiar with it.
  • Has been demonstrated for many different attitude objects in many populations.
2
Q

Zajonc (1968) (4)

A
  • Demonstrated the mere exposure effect.
  • Participants shown unfamiliar stimuli 0, 1, 2, 5, 10, or 25 times, then rated each on a good-bad scale.
  • Participants rated stimuli they had seen more times more favourably.
  • Effect diminished somewhat with increasing exposure levels.
3
Q

Moreland & Beach (1968) (5)

A
  • Demonstrated the mere exposure effect in non-lab settings.
  • Four female confederates attended a university class either 0, 5, 10, or 15 times.
  • None interacted with any students.
  • At the end of the semester, the students rated each confederate on attractiveness, how much they’d like to work with her and be friends with her, etc.
  • Found that people favoured the confederate who appeared more often in class, even though there was no interaction.
4
Q

Brickman et al. (1972) (5)

A
  • Found that mere exposure may not be effective in changing a negative attitude.
  • Participants gave their attitudes towards 20 abstract paintings.
  • Then viewed 4 paintings they liked, 4 disliked, and 4 neutral.
  • Rated attitudes again, and found that mere exposure increased liking for neutral and liked paintings.
  • But found lower subsequent attitudes for disliked paintings.
5
Q

mere exposure effect is strongest when: (4)

A
  • Stimuli are complex;
  • Stimuli are presented a limited number of times, for short durations;
  • Presentation and evaluation of stimuli are completed in the same context;
  • Stimulus presentation includes both repeated and unrepeated stimuli.
6
Q

Berlyne (1970) or two-factor model (3)

A
  • Support for this model:
    • People who are more prone to boredom are less likely to experience the mere exposure effect.
    • No effect for people high in tolerance for ambiguity, i.e. those who find novel situations less threatening.
  • But this model doesn’t explain subliminal mere exposure.
7
Q

modified two-factor model (4)

A
  • Accounts for habituation via both conscious and nonconscious processing.
    • Conscious level: recognition → reduces uncertainty → positive affect.
    • Nonconscious level: find it easier to process familiar object (“perceptual fluency”) → feelings of certainty & familiarity → positive affect.
  • Support for this model: liking for similar stimuli, even if we aren’t consciously aware of the familiarity.
8
Q

emotion leaning (3)

A
  • Works by pairing a novel attitude object with something positive.
  • One step further than mere exposure.
  • Evaluative conditioning, behaviour conditioning, observational (vicarious) conditioning.
9
Q

evaluative conditioning (6)

A
  • Repeated presentation of an attitude object paired with a stimulus that produces an affective sensation.
  • Resembles classical conditioning; except the US evokes an emotional (vs. behavioural) response.
  • More dependent on absolute number of CS-US pairings than the proportion between them; i.e. just has to happen enough times, even if it’s a small number.
  • Don’t have to be consciously aware of the pairing.
  • Attitudes formed this way are resistant to change from extinction procedures.
  • Generalizable.
10
Q

Krosnick et al. (1992) (4)

A
  • Demonstrated the effect of emotion learning on attitudes about strangers.
  • Participants shown a series of pictures of an unfamiliar person, preceded by a subliminally affect-inducing image (positive or negative).
  • Rated the unfamiliar person on overall attitude, various personality traits, and attractiveness.
  • Those primed with positive images rated the unfamiliar face more positively than those primed with negative images.
11
Q

behaviour conditioning (1)

A
  • A type of emotion leaning; when emotional reinforcement is provided for a specific behaviour.
12
Q

Insko & Cialdini (1969) (6)

A
  • Demonstrated behaviour learning with phone interviews about pay TV.
  • Participants got the response “good” either after pro- or anti-pay TV responses.
  • Looked at the extent they agreed/disagreed with statements about pay TV.
  • Participants indicated more positive/negative attitudes depending on which statements researchers said “good” after.
  • Weren’t aware of what the researchers were doing.
  • Difference in attitudes still apparent 1 week later.
13
Q

boundary conditions of behaviour conditioning (2)

A
  • overjustification effect: Offering blatant, strong rewards after good performance is effective in producing continued/better performance, but only when rewards continue to be in place; when rewards are removed, performance worsens.
  • Large, obvious rewards can also produce an ambivalent attitude towards the behaviour because it seems like it’s something unpleasant in order to justify the reward.
14
Q

observational (vicarious) conditioning (1)

A
  • A type of emotion learning, when someone sees and experiences or empathizes with the emotional response that happens to another person who has performed a particular behaviour.
15
Q

Gerull & Rapee (2002) (6)

A
  • Demonstrated observational conditioning with toddlers and their parents.
  • Toddlers shown 2 toys, paired with positive vs. negative reaction from the mother.
  • Sessions videotaped and then rated toddlers on approach/avoidance behaviour and fear/positive affect.
  • Mother’s affective response influenced the toddlers’ subsequent behaviours and emotions.
    • Expressions of fear/disgust resulted in strong avoidance and expressions of fear in the child, persisting for 10 minutes.
  • Gender difference in negative reaction trials only, suggesting females may model more avoidance & fear after mothers.
16
Q

mood-congruence effect (1)

A
  • The tendency for people to express attitudes that match their current mood.
17
Q

Isen et al. (1978) (4)

A
  • Found that being in a good mood makes people have a more positive outlook in general.
  • People walking alone in a shopping mall were given a free gift (shown to boost mood).
  • 50m further, they were asked to fill out a survey about the performance and reliability of their cars and TVs.
  • Vehicles and TVs were rated more positively by people who had received a free gift.
18
Q

boundaries to the mood-congruence effect (3)

A
  • Drawing attention to the cause of one’s mood.
  • Recalling a well-rehearsed attitude from memory.
  • Judgments about atypical objects/people.
19
Q

Schwarz & Clore (1983) (3)

A
  • Subjects were asked to recall either positive or negative events in a sound proof room, which they were told would make them feel good or bad, or didn’t have this mentioned.
  • Subjects describing happy events reported being more happy and satisfied with their lives regardless of room expectations.
  • Subjects describing sad events reported less happiness and satisfaction when they had no expectations about the room, and more happiness and satisfaction when it was supposed to make them sad.
20
Q

Lerner, Small, & Lowenstein (2004) (5)

A
  • Does experiencing disgust vs. sadness have an opposite effect on how much people are willing to forgo for a commodity?
  • Two manipulations: neutral, disgust, or sadess; and sell vs. choice (between the object or a cash amount).
  • Disgusted participants wanted less money to forgo to the highlighers compared to sad participants.
    • Sad participants set higher choice prices, but similar selling prices, which were low for both groups.
  • Shows how emotions of similar valence can have opposite effects, and that emotions influence perceptions of monetary value.
21
Q

fear appeals (5)

A
  • Messages that make people afraid of some consequence if they don’t change their views/actions.
  • Often intentionally induced to try and get people to stop doing dangerous behaviours.
  • Biggest problem is when they emphasize the severity of the negative consequence so much that people deny their vulnerability in order to avoid feeling so threatened.
    • Fear appeals only work (i.e. result in favourable cognitive responses & attitude change) if people feel vulnerable.
    • People need to be told what specific behaviours they can do to lower their vulnerability.