Attitudes are the evaluations and associated beliefs and behaviors towards some object. They are not stable, and because of the communication and behavior of other people, are subject to change by social influences, as well as an individual’s motivation to maintain cognitive consistency when cognitive dissonance occurs–when two attitudes or when attitude and behavior conflict.
The Ben Franklin effect is a psychological finding: A person who has done someone a favor is more likely to do that person another favor than they would be if they had received a favor from that person. Similarly, one who harms another is more willing to harm them again than the victim is to
Antiprocess is the preemptive recognition and marginalization of undesired information by the interplay of mental defense mechanisms: the subconscious compromises information that would cause cognitive dissonance. It is often used to describe a difficulty encountered when people with sharply contrasting viewpoints are attempting (and failing) to discuss a topic. In other words, when one is
Buyer’s remorse is the sense of regret after having made a purchase. It is frequently associated with the purchase of big-ticket items such as a car or house. It may stem from fear of making the wrong choice, of guilt over extravagance, or of suspecting having been “snowed” by a sales associate. Causes The
In cognitive science, choice-supportive bias is the tendency to retroactively ascribe positive attributes to an option one has selected. It is a cognitive bias. What is remembered about a decision can be as important as the decision itself, especially in determining how much regret or satisfaction one experiences. Research indicates that the process of making
Cultural dissonance (education, sociology, anthropology and cultural studies) is an uncomfortable sense of discord, disharmony, confusion, or conflict experienced by people in the midst of change in their cultural environment. The changes are often unexpected, unexplained or not understandable due to various types of cultural dynamics. Studies into cultural dissonance take on a wide socio-cultural
Doublethink, a word coined by George Orwell in the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, describes the act of simultaneously accepting two mutually contradictory beliefs as correct, often in distinct social contexts. It is related to, but distinct from, hypocrisy and neutrality. Its opposite is cognitive dissonance, where the two beliefs cause conflict in one’s mind. Doublethink is
Effort Justification is an idea and paradigm in social psychology stemming from Festinger’s theory of Cognitive Dissonance. Effort justification is people’s tendency to attribute a greater value (greater than the objective value) to an outcome they had to put effort into acquiring or achieving. Theory and Research Cognitive Dissonance theory explains changes in people’s
“Emotional conflicts and the intervention of the unconscious are the classical features of…medical psychology” for C. G. Jung. Equally, ‘Freud’s concept of emotional conflict as amplified by Anna Freud…Erikson and others is central in contemporary theories of mental disorder in children, particularly with respect to the development of psychoneurosis’. Such conflicts in adult life may
Self-evaluation maintenance theory refers to discrepancies between two people in a relationship. Two people in a relationship each aim to keep themselves feeling good psychologically throughout a comparison process to the other person. Self-evaluation is defined as the way a person views him/herself. It is the continuous process of determining personal growth and progress, which
Self-handicapping is the process by which people avoid effort in the hopes of keeping potential failure from hurting self-esteem. It was first theorized by Edward E. Jones and Steven Berglas, according to whom self-handicaps are obstacles created, or claimed, by the individual in anticipation of failing performance. Self-handicapping can be seen as a method of
Balance Theory is a motivational theory of attitude change proposed by Fritz Heider, which conceptualizes the consistency motive as a drive toward psychological balance. Heider proposed that “sentiment” or liking relationships are balanced if the affect valence in a system multiplies out to a positive result. For example: a Person (P) who likes an Other
Fear appeals have been predominantly studied in the context of education, marketing, and health awareness campaigns, with the intent to alter intentions and motivate individuals to act on a message. Much of the research has been directed at establishing the relevant variables in both the target of the message, as well as the message itself.
This Is Your Brain on Drugs was a large-scale US anti-narcotics campaign by Partnership for a Drug-Free America (PDFA) launched in 1987, that used two televised public service announcements (PSAs) and a related poster campaign. 1987 version The first PSA, from 1987, showed a man who held up an egg and said, “This is
The Asch conformity experiments were a series of studies published in the 1950s that demonstrated the power of conformity in groups. These are also known as the Asch Paradigm. Introduction One of the pairs of cards used in the experiment. The card on the left has the reference line and the one on
Heuristic-Systematic Model of Information Processing, or HSM, is a widely recognized communication model that attempts to explain how people receive and process persuasive messages. The model states that individuals can process messages in one of two ways. The first being heuristically and the second being systematically. The guiding belief with this model is that individuals
The elaboration likelihood model (ELM) of persuasion is a model of how attitudes are formed and changed that was developed by R. E. Petty and J. T. Cacioppo in the early 1980s (see also attitude change). Central to this model is the “elaboration continuum”, which ranges from low elaboration (low thought) to high elaboration (high
Countersignalling is the behaviour where agents with the highest level of a given property invest less into proving it than individuals with a medium level of the same property. This concept is primarily useful for analysing human behaviour and thus relevant to economics, sociology and psychology; there is no known animal behaviour which conforms to
The Extended Parallel Process Model is model of how attitudes are formed and changed when fear is used as a factor of persuasion. The model states that fear appeals are most effective when an individual cares about the issue or situation, and that individual possesses and perceives that they possess the agency to deal with
The experimenter (E) orders the teacher (T), the subject of the experiment, to give what the latter believes are painful electric shocks to a learner (L), who is actually an actor and confederate. The subject believes that for each wrong answer, the learner was receiving actual electric shocks, though in reality there were no such
The theory of self-affirmation is a psychological theory that was first proposed by Claude Steele (1988) with the premise that people are motivated to maintain the integrity of the self. The ultimate goal of the self is to protect an image of its self-integrity, morality and adequacy. On the whole, integrity is defined as the
Reactance is an emotional reaction in direct contradiction to rules or regulations that threaten or eliminate specific behavioral freedoms. Reactance can occur when someone is heavily pressured to accept a certain view or attitude. Reactance can cause the person to adopt or strengthen a view or attitude that is contrary to what was intended, and
The sleeper effect is a psychological phenomenon whereby a highly persuasive message, paired with a discounting cue, causes an individual to be more persuaded by the message (rather than less persuaded) over time. Figure A: Normal DecayFigure B: Sleeper Effect When people are normally exposed to a highly persuasive message (such as an
Persuasion is a form of social influence. It is the process of guiding oneself or another toward the adoption of an idea, attitude, or action by rational and symbolic (though not always logical) means. Methods Persuasion methods are also sometimes referred to as persuasion tactics or persuasion strategies. Weapons of influence Robert Cialdini