ATTITUDES: EVALUATING THE SOCIAL WORLD

• Social psychologists use the term attitude to refer to people’s evaluation of almost any aspect of the world. People can
have favorable or unfavorable reactions to issues, ideas, objects, and actions. For e.g., I like white water rafting or a
specific person such as Barack Obama.
• Some attitudes are stable and resistant to change, whereas others may be unstable and show considerable variability
depending on the situation.
• Attitude is a favorable or unfavorable evaluative reaction toward something or someone exhibited in one’s beliefs,
feelings, or intended behavior.
• It is a social orientation underlying inclination to respond to something either favorably or unfavorably.
• In addition, attitudes can influence our thoughts, even if they are not always reflected in our overt behavior. That is,
attitudes are explicit in nature-consciously accessible attitudes that are controllable and easy to report. And other
attitudes may be implicit in nature-unconscious associations between objects and evaluative responses.
 COMPONENTS OF ATTITUDE.....THE ABC OF AN
INDIVIDUAL’S ATTITUDE
• 1. Affective Component: This refers to feelings or emotions that are evoked by a particular person, item, or
event. For e.g., fear, sympathy, hate, like, and pleasure. An individual may feel positive or negative about his
/her boss, the painting in your office lobby, or the fact that your company just bagged a big contract (it may
mean a bigger bonus, and it may also mean strict deadlines and hard work!).
• 2. Behavioral Component: It is the tendency to behave towards an object, person, or event. That is, how an
individual acts toward the object depending upon cognitive (facts about the object) and affective (emotions
towards the object) components.
• 3. Cognitive component: It is the set of information, ideas, facts, and knowledge about an object. It involves a
person’s belief or knowledge about an attitude object.
• Example 1.
• I like oranges. (Affective Component)
• I eat an orange daily. (Behavioral Component)
• Orange is rich in vitamins. It is good for the skin. It tastes good. (Cognitive Component)

• Example 2.
• I like LED bulbs. (Affective Component)
• I buy and use LED bulbs in my home. (Behavioral Component)
• LED bulbs consume less electricity than ordinary bulbs. It has brighter light. It is more durable. (Cognitive Component)
 ATTITUDE AMBIVALENCE

• People can also be conflicted or ambivalent toward an object or a person, meaning that they simultaneously possess both
positive and negative attitudes toward the object in question.
• Attitude ambivalence refers to the fact that our evaluations of objects, issues, events, or people are not always uniformly
positive or negative; our evaluations are often mixed, consisting of both positive and negative reactions.
• Attitude ambivalence may also be the result of conflicting values.
• For e.g., you may have an ambivalent attitude towards arranged marriages because, on the one hand, you value obedience and
adherence to parents; on the other, you may value freedom and personal choice.
• A very common object of ambivalence is food. Chronic dieters experience a conflict between two incompatible goals: on the
one hand, they enjoy food and love to eat; on the other hand, in line with societal demands on slimness, they want to lose
weight (weight loss or control goal).
• As a result, they experience difficulty reducing their calorie intake because eating enjoyment, as an affective reaction, is usually
the reaction to food stimuli. So, don’t you go glassy-eyed and look longingly at chocolate cakes?
 CHARACTERISTICS OF ATTITUDE

• 1. Attitude has an object: An attitude has an object which is liked or disliked, favored or unfavored, or evaluated as negative or positive. The
object can be a thing, an idea, a person, or a situation.
• 2. Attitudes are learned: Attitude is not an inborn phenomenon. Attitudes are learned through social interactions and experiences. We
interact with others, experience many things and acquire information about things, which leads to the formation of negative or positive
attitudes towards different things.
• 3. Attitudes are predispositions: An attitude is a predisposition – a prior determined or learned view of a person or an object.
• 4.Attitudes are relatively stable phenomena: An attitude is not a momentary feeling but a long-held view of something. Though attitudes can
be changed from time to time but it is a relatively stable phenomenon that persists for a period of time.
• 5.Attitude has an emotional component: It has emotional aspect of liking or disliking in relation to an object, person, or an event.
• 6.Attitudes influence human behavior: A positive attitude towards an object will influence human behavior favorably. Similarly, a negative
attitude influences human behavior unfavorably. For instance, a vegetarian person would avoid eating non-vegetarian food due to his
negative attitude towards its consumption.
 ATTITUDE FORMATION: HOW ATTITUDES
DEVELOP
• How do you feel about each of the following:

• ✓ people who cover their bodies in tattoos, or people who talk on their cell phones while driving?

• Most people have attitudes about these issues and objects. But where, precisely, did these views come from?

• Did you acquire them as a result of your own experiences, from other people with whom you have had personal contact, or through exposure via the
media?

• Are your attitudes toward these objects constant across time, or are they flexible and likely to change as conditions do?

• One important means by which our attitudes develop is through the process of social learning. In other words, many of our views are acquired in
situations where we interact with others, or simply observe their behavior.

• Thus, social learning is the process through which we acquire new information, forms of behavior, or attitudes from other people.
SOCIAL COMPARISON

• Why do people often adopt the attitudes that they hear others express or acquire the behaviors they
observe in others?
• The answer is that we involve in the mechanism of social comparison.
• It is the process through which we compare ourselves to others to determine whether our view of
social reality is correct or not. (Festinger, 1954).
• Similarly, people often adjust their attitudes so as to hold views closer to those of others whom they
value and identify with—their reference groups.
• Reference groups are a group of people with whom we identify and whose opinions we value. Thus, by
observing the attitudes held by others whom we identify with, new attitudes can be formed.
OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING

• Observational learning is a basic form of learning in which individuals acquire new forms of
behavior as a result of observing others(Bandura, 1971). For example people acquire attitudes
toward many topics and objects by exposure to advertising—where we see “people like us” or
“people like we want to become,” thus acting positively or negatively toward different kinds of
objects or issues.

• Bandura stressed the importance of observational learning because it helps people, especially
children, acquire new responses by observing others' behavior. This form of learning does not
need reinforcement to occur but instead requires a model. Children watch the behavior of
people around them and imitate what they see.
• Bandura's social cognitive learning theory states that there are four stages involved in observational learning:
• i)Attention: Observers cannot learn unless they pay attention to what's happening around them. This process is influenced by
characteristics of the model, such as how much one likes or identifies with the model, and by characteristics of the observer,
such as the observer's expectations or level of emotional arousal.
• ii) Retention or Memory: Observers must not only recognize the observed behavior but must also remember it at some later
time. This process depends on the observer's ability to code or structure the information in an easily remembered form or to
mentally or physically rehearse the model's actions.
• iii) Initiation: Observers must be physically and intellectually capable of producing the act. In many cases, the observer possesses
the necessary responses. But sometimes, reproducing the model's actions may involve skills the observer has not yet acquired.
It is one thing to watch a circus juggler carefully, but it is another game to go home and repeat those acts.
• iv)Motivation: Coaches also give pep talks, recognizing the importance of motivational processes to learning.
COGNITIVE DISSONANCE THEORY (FESTINGER,
1957)

• Cognitive dissonance theory postulates that we are motivated to maintain consistency

among our cognitive elements.
• Cognition refers to an individual's perception of one’s own attitudes, beliefs, and
behaviors.
• Cognitive elements are simply beliefs or bits of knowledge. Example: It is raining today, I
like chocolate, or New York is an exciting place!
• Cognitive dissonance is the discomfort a person feels when their behavior does not align
with their attitude or beliefs. It can also occur when a person holds two contradictory
beliefs at the same time.
• This produces a feeling of discomfort, leading to an alteration in one of the attitudes,
beliefs or behaviors to reduce the discomfort and restore balance. For example, when
people smoke (behavior) and they know that smoking causes cancer (cognition).
• Festinger's (1957) cognitive dissonance theory suggests that we have an inner drive to
hold all our attitudes and beliefs in harmony and avoid disharmony (or dissonance).
• Further, Festinger hypothesized that cognitive elements are either consonant, irrelevant, or dissonant with one another.
• i)Consonant relationship: Two cognitions or actions are consistent with one another. For e.g., not wanting to get
intoxicated while out, then ordering water instead of alcohol. Or, I exercise regularly, and exercise is good for my health.
• ii)Irrelevant relationship: Two cognitions or actions that are unrelated to one another For, e.g., not wanting to get
intoxicated while out and then tying your shoes.
• iii) Dissonant relationship: Two cognitions or actions that are inconsistent with one another. For e.g., not wanting to get
intoxicated while out, then consuming six tequila shots.
• Festinger also postulated that because of the motivating effects of dissonance, people actively engage in selective exposure
and seek information, that is consonant with their beliefs, attitudes, and past behaviors, whereas they will actively avoid
information that is dissonant or inconsistent with their beliefs, attitudes, and past behaviors.
SOURCES OF DISSONANCE

• i) Informational Inconsistency: An individual receives information that contradicts what we

already know or believe. For e.g., suppose you believe Tom did not know about the crime, but
Smith testified that he was the mastermind behind it.
• ii)Disconfirmed Expectations: People prepare themselves for an event that never occurred, but
an event opposite to it occurs. For e.g., You expect to do well on an exam, and you don't.
• iii)Postdecision Dissonance: After every decision, you feel dissonance because you have rejected
some good things and accepted some bad.
• We tend to become more certain of decisions afterwards. Such as making a large purchase.
People often rate the item they chose as more desirable, and the item they didn’t choose as less
desirable.
• Cognitive dissonance can be reduced or eliminated by :

• a) adding new cognitions: That is, justify behavior or cognition by adding new cognitions (Ex: "I'll spend
30 extra minutes at the gym to work it off").

• b) changing existing ones: That is, an individual can change his or her mind and decide that she was
wrong. Or, we may seek new information that can restore consonance or else try to discredit the
source of dissonance in some way - either by making up info or seeking counter-evidence.

• Thus, individuals can adjust their attitudes or actions in various ways.

 CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

• For instance, my clock radio emits a loud “ click” just before the alarm comes on. At first, I showed little or no
reaction to the click. But now, because it has been paired many times with loud music, I usually wake up when
I hear the click, even before the music starts.
• The above example is a basic form of learning in which one stimulus, initially neutral, acquires the capacity to
evoke reactions through repeated pairing with another stimulus. In a sense, one stimulus becomes a signal for
the presentation or occurrence of the other.
• Classical conditioning is a basic principle of psychology that when a stimulus that is capable of evoking a
response—the unconditioned stimulus—regularly precedes another neutral stimulus, the one that occurs first,
can become a signal for the second—the conditioned stimulus.
• In other words, when the first stimulus occurs, individuals expect the second will soon follow. As a result, they gradually acquire the same kind of reactions
to the first stimulus as they show to the second stimulus, especially if the second is one that induces fairly strong and automatic reactions.

• Basic terminology:

• ✓ Classical Conditioning: A basic form of learning in which one stimulus, initially neutral, acquires the capacity to evoke reactions through repeated pairing
with another stimulus. In a sense, one stimulus becomes a signal for the presentation or occurrence of the other.

• ✓ Unconditioned stimulus: A stimulus that evokes a positive or negative response without substantial learning.

• ✓ Conditioned stimulus: The stimulus that comes to stand for or signal a prior unconditioned stimulus.

• Example 1: A father angrily denounces the latest increase in income taxes. A mother happily announces the election of a candidate she worked for. These
parents are expressing opinions, but they are also displaying nonverbal behavior that expresses their emotions.

• For a child watching the parents, the association between the topic and the nonverbal behavior will become obvious if repeated often enough. And the
nonverbal behavior will trigger emotional responses in the child: the child feels upset and disturbed when listening to the father and happy when listening to
the mother.
• When two stimuli are repeatedly associated, the child learns to respond to them with a
similar emotional reaction. In this case, the stimuli are the attitude topic and the parental
emotion. Through repeated association, a formerly neutral stimulus (the attitude topic
-taxes or politicians) begins to elicit an emotional reaction (the response) that was
previously solicited only by another stimulus (the parental emotion).

• Whenever tax increases are mentioned, the child feels an unpleasant emotion; when the
elected official is mentioned, the child feels a pleasant emotion.
• ※Findings also suggested that attitudes can also be influenced by subliminal conditioning —that occurs in the absence of conscious awareness of the
stimuli involved.
• For instance, in one experiment (Krosnick, Betz, Jussim, & Lynn, 1992), students saw photos of a stranger engaged in routine daily activities such as
shopping in a grocery store or walking into her apartment. While these photos were shown, other photos known to induce either positive or negative
feelings were exposed for very brief periods of time—so brief that participants were not aware of their presence.
• Participants who were non-consciously exposed to photos that induced positive feelings (e.g., a newlywed couple, people playing cards and laughing)
liked the stranger better than participants who had been exposed to photos that non-consciously induce negative feelings (e.g., open-heart surgery, a
werewolf).
• Even though participants were not aware that they had been exposed to the second group of photos because they were presented very briefly, the
photos did significantly influence the attitudes that were formed toward the stranger. Those exposed to the positive photos reported more favorable
attitudes toward this person than those exposed to the negative photos.
• Basic terminology
• Subliminal conditioning: Classical conditioning of attitudes by exposure to stimuli that are below individuals’ threshold of conscious awareness.
INSTRUMENTAL CONDITIONING

• Attitudes that are followed by positive outcomes tend to be strengthened and are likely to be repeated, whereas attitudes that
are followed by negative outcomes are weakened so their likelihood of being expressed again is reduced.
• Thus, another way in which attitudes are acquired is through the process of instrumental conditioning.
• Instrumental conditioning is a type of learning in which an individual's behavior is modified by its antecedents and
consequences. Behaviors or attitudes that are followed by positive consequences are reinforced and are more likely to be
repeated than are behaviors and attitudes that are followed by negative consequences.

• The mechanisms of instrumental conditioning suggest that the behavior may change in form, (frequency, or strength).

• The expressions "operant behavior" an`d "respondent behavior" were popularized by B. F. Skinner, 1938.
• Sometimes the conditioning process is rather subtle, with the reward being psychological
acceptance—by rewarding children with smiles, approval, or hugs for stating the “right”
views.
• Because of this form of conditioning, when peer influences become especially
strong—most children express political, religious, and social views that are highly similar
to those of their parents and other family members (Oskamp & Schultz, 2005).
PERSUASION

• Persuasion is an umbrella term for influence.

• Persuasion can be defined as efforts to change others’ attitudes through the use of
various kinds of messages.
• Persuasion can attempt to influence a person's beliefs, attitudes, intentions, motivations,
or behaviors. And is also an often used tool in the pursuit of personal gain, such as
election campaigning.
• Persuasion can also be interpreted as using one's personal or positional resources to
change people's behaviors or attitudes.
KEY ELEMENTS OF PERSUASION

• “ Who says what to whom with what effect?”

• This approach yielded a number of important elements of persuasion, with the following being
the most consistently obtained:
• i) Communicators who are credible—People who seem to know what they are talking about or
who are expert with respect to the topics or issues they are presenting—are more persuasive
than those who are seen as lacking expertise. One means by which credibility can be
undermined is if you learn that a communicator has a personal stake (financial or otherwise) in
persuading you to adopt a particular position. Consequently, communicators are seen as most
credible and therefore persuasive when they are perceived as arguing against their self-interests.
• ii) Communicators who are physically attractive are more persuasive than communicators who are not
attractive (Hovland & Weiss, 1951). Frequently, as shown in the next figure , advertisers who use
attractive models are attempting to suggest to us that if we buy their product, we too will be perceived
as attractive.

• Another way that communicators can be seen as attractive is via their perceived likeability (Eagly &
Chaiken, 1993). We are more likely to be persuaded by a communicator we like than one we dislike.
This is one reason why famous sports figures such as Kobe Bryant, musicians such as Beyoncé Knowles,
and actresses such as Catherine Zeta-Jones are selected as spokespeople for various products—we
already like them so are more readily persuaded by them.
• iii) Messages that do not appear to be designed to change our attitudes are often more successful than those that
seem to be designed to achieve this goal (Walster & Festinger, 1962). Indeed, a meta-analysis of the existing
research on this issue indicates that forewarning does typically lessen the extent to which attitude change occurs
(Benoit, 1998). So, simply knowing that a sales pitch is coming your way undermines its persuasiveness.

• iv)People are sometimes more susceptible to persuasion when they are distracted by some extraneous event than
when they are paying full attention to what is being said. This is the one reason why political; candidates often
arrange for spontaneous demonstrations during their Speeches. This distraction generated among audience
members may enhance their acceptance of the speaker’s Points.
• v) Persuasion can be enhanced by messages that arouse strong emotions(especially fear) in the audience.
Particularly when the communication provides specific recommendations about how to prevent or avoid the fear-
producing events.
• Research findings (Broemer,2004) suggest that health messages of various sorts can be more effective if
they are framed in a positive manner (e.g., how to attain good health) rather than in a negative manner
(e.g., risks and the undesirable consequences that can follow from a particular behavior). For example,
any health message can be framed positively as “Do this and you will feel better.”

• Negative framing of the same message might be “If you don’t do this, you will shorten your life.” The
point is that the same health information can be framed in terms of potential benefits of taking a
particular action or in terms of the negative consequences that will ensue if you don’t take that action.

• Thus, positively framed messages are often more effective persuasion devices than fear appeals.
THE COGNITIVE APPROACH TO PERSUASION

• What happens when you are exposed to a persuasive message—for instance, when you watch a television
commercial or see ads pop up on your screen as you surf the internet?

• Your first answer might be something like, “I think about what’s being said,” and in a sense, that’s correct. But
people often do the least amount of cognitive work that they can in a given situation.

• But when you are subjected to a message, the central issue is to provide the key to understanding the entire
process of persuasion, that is , “How do we process (absorb, interpret, evaluate) the information contained in such
messages?”
• The answer that has emerged from hundreds of separate studies is that basically, we can process persuasive
messages in two distinct ways:
SYSTEMATIC VERSUS HEURISTIC PROCESSING

• 1)Systematic Processing or the central route to persuasion: This involves careful consideration of
message content and the ideas it contains. Such processing requires effort, and it absorbs much of our
information-processing capacity.
• 2) Heuristic processing or the peripheral route to persuasion: This involves the use of mental shortcuts
such as the belief that “experts’ statements can be trusted,” or the idea that “if it makes me feel good,
I’m in favor of it.” This kind of processing requires less effort and allows us to react to persuasive
messages in an automatic manner.

• It occurs in response to cues in the message or situation that evoke various mental shortcuts(e.g.,
beautiful models evoke the response, “What’s beautiful is good and worth listening to”
 WHEN DO WE ENGAGE IN EACH OF THESE TWO
DISTINCT MODES OF THOUGHT?
• Modern theories of persuasion such as the elaboration-likelihood model (ELM; e.g., Petty & Cacioppo, 1986; Petty et al., 2005) and the
heuristic-systematic model (e.g., Chaiken, Liberman, & Eagly, 1989; Eagly & Chaiken, 1998) provide the following answer.
• We engage in the most effortful and systematic processing when our motivation and capacity to process information relating to the
persuasive message is high. This type of processing occurs if we have a lot of knowledge about the topic, we have a lot of time to engage
in careful thought, or the issue is sufficiently important to us and we believe it is essential to form an accurate view.
• In contrast, we engage in heuristic processing that requires less effort when we lack the ability or capacity to process more carefully (we
must make up our minds very quickly or we have little knowledge about the issue) or when our motivation to perform such cognitive
work is low (the issue is unimportant to us or has little potential effect on us).
• Advertisers, politicians, salespeople, and others wishing to change our attitudes prefer to push us into the heuristic mode of processing
because, for reasons we describe later, it is often easier to change our attitudes when we think in this mode than when we engage in
more careful and systematic processing. Strong arguments in favor of the position being advocated aren’t needed when people do not
process those arguments very carefully.
• The discovery of these two contrasting modes of processing— systematic versus heuristic—has
provided an important key to understanding when and how persuasion occurs.
• When persuasive messages are not interesting or relevant to individuals, the degree of persuasion they
produce is not strongly influenced by the strength of the arguments these messages contain. When such
messages are highly relevant to individuals, however, they are much more successful in inducing
persuasion when the arguments they contain are strong and convincing.
• According to modern theories such as the ELM that consider these dual pathways, when relevance is
low, individuals tend to process messages through the heuristic mode, using various mental shortcuts.
• Thus, argument strength has little impact. In contrast, when relevance is high, they process persuasive
messages more systematically and in this mode, argument strength is important.
Similarly, the systematic versus heuristic distinction helps explain why people can be more easily
persuaded when they are distracted than when they are not. Under these conditions, the capacity to
process the information in a persuasive messag is limited, so people adopt the heuristic mode of thought.
If the message contain the “right” cues that will induce heuristic processing (e.g., communicators who are
attractive or seemingly expert), persuasion may occur because people respond to these cues and not to
the arguments being presented.

In sum, the modern cognitive approach really does seem to provide the crucial key to understanding
many aspects of persuasion.
RESISTANCE TO PERSUASION

• There are several factors that together enhance an individual's ability to resist even highly skilled efforts at persuasion.
• 1.Reactance: Protecting one’s own personal freedom- It is a negative reaction to threats to one’s personal freedom. Reactance
often increases resistance to persuasion and can even produce negative attitude change or opposite to what was intended.
• When individuals perceive such appeals as direct threats to their personal freedom (or their image of being an independent
person), they are strongly motivated to resist persuasion.
• Research indicates that in such situations, we do often change our attitudes and behavior in the opposite direction from what
we are being urged to believe or to do. Indeed, when we are feeling reactance, strong arguments in favor of attitude change
can increase opposition compared to moderate or weak arguments .
• 2. Forewarning: It refers to the advance knowledge that one is about to become the target of an attempt at persuasion.
Forewarning often increases resistance to the persuasion that follows.
• When we watch television, we fully expect there to be commercials, and we know well that these messages are designed to persuade us
to purchase various products.
• Similarly, we know that when we listen to a political speech that the person delivering, it is attempting to persuade us to vote for him or
her. Thus, the fact that we know in advance about the persuasive intent behind such messages help us to resist them.
• ✓Forewarning provides us with more opportunity to formulate counterarguments —those that refute the message—and that can lessen
the message’s impact.
• ✓ In addition, forewarning provides us with more time to recall relevant information that may prove useful in refuting the persuasive
message.
• ✓Forewarning is generally effective at increasing resistance, simply expecting to receive a persuasive message (without actually even
receiving it) can influence attitudes in a resistant direction.
• ✓Research has revealed that forewarning does not prevent persuasion when people are distracted; in this case, people are no more likely
to resist the message than those not forewarned of the upcoming persuasive appeal.
• 3. Selective Avoidance: A tendency to direct attention away from information that challenges existing attitudes. Such
avoidance increases resistance to persuasion.
• Television viewing provides a clear illustration of the effects of selective avoidance. People do not simply sit in front of the
television passively absorbing whatever the media decides to dish out. Instead, they channel-surf, mute the commercials,
tape their favorite programs, or simply cognitively “tune out” when confronted with information contrary to their views.
• The opposite effect occurs as well.
• When we encounter information that supports our views, we tend to give it our full attention. Such tendencies to ignore
information that contradicts our attitudes, while actively attending to information consistent with them, constitute two
sides of what social psychologists term selective exposure.
• Such selectivity in what we make the focus of our attention helps ensure that many of our attitudes remain largely intact
for long periods of time.
• 4. Active defense: Ignoring or screening out information incongruent with our current views is certainly one way of
resisting persuasion. But growing evidence suggests that in addition to this kind of passive defense of our attitudes,
we also use a more active strategy as well: We actively oppose, counter, and resist persuasive attempts by adopting
strategies such as counter arguing or avoidance. By doing so, it reduces their impact on our attitudes.

• Therefore, one reason we are so good at resisting persuasion is that we not only ignore information that is
inconsistent with our current views, but we also carefully process counter-attitudinal input and argue actively against
it. In this way, exposure to arguments opposed to our attitudes can serve to strengthen the views we already hold,
making us more resistant to subsequent efforts to change them.
• 5.Inoculation: This concept was developed by social psychologist William J. McGuire in 1961 to explain more about how attitudes and beliefs change,
and more importantly, how to keep original attitudes and beliefs consistent in the face of persuasion attempts.
• Inoculation works because it exposes people to arguments, making them think about and rehearse opposing arguments. When they hear the
arguments again, even stronger versions, they pay less attention to them, especially if they believe their opposing argument is stronger. Inoculation has
two sets of arguments:
• (1) the supportive defense condition (arguments supporting the belief or opinion), and
• (2) the refutational defense condition (arguments against the belief or opinion).
• 6.Biased Assimilation: The tendency to evaluate information that disconfirms our existing views as less convincing or reliable that information that
confirms these views.
• 7. Attitude polarization: The tendency to evaluate mixed evidence or information in such a way that it strengthens our initial views and makes them
more extreme.
• As a result of these two processes, our attitudes really do seem to be beyond the reach of many efforts to change them, and they tend to persist even
when we are confronted with new information that strongly challenges them.
• 8. Cognitive Dissonance: An unpleasant internal state that results when individuals notice
inconsistency between two or more of their attitudes or between their attitudes and
their behavior.
• Cognitive dissonance can be reduced through:
• i) Trivialization: A technique for reducing dissonance in which the importance of
attitudes and behaviors that are inconsistent with each are cognitively reduced. This can
be achieved by acquiring new information that supports our attitudes or behaviors and
second, by changing our attitude or behavior that are consistent with each other.
• ii) Induced or Forced Compliance: This refers to situations in which individuals are somehow induced to say or do
things inconsistent with their true attitudes.
• Dissonance will be aroused but when an individual feels pressure to change his/her attitude, we are more likely to
change our attitudes as other techniques for reducing dissonance are not available or requires greater effort.

• iii) Hypocrisy: Publicly advocating some attitudes or behaviour but then acting in a way that is inconsistent with
these attitudes or behavior. Under such situation, individual experiences intense dissonance and would adopt
indirect modes of dissonance reduction such as: distracting oneself, bolstering one's ego by thinking about or
engaging in other positively evaluated behaviors. This would remove the discrepancy between one's words and
deeds and reduce dissonance as an individual is in action to advocate specific behaviors or attitudes.