Psychology 2100: Introduction to Social Psychology

Warren Thorngate, Professor
Psychology Department, Carleton University
1125 Colonel By Drive
Ottawa, Ontario K1S 5B6
Canada
e-mail = warren_thorngate@carleton.ca

copyright 1999-2005 by Warren Thorngate, all rights reserved 

Lecture 11:  Attitude change 

Learning theories and the communication approach to attitude change:
 Carl Hovland, associates and the Yale School (1950s)

Questions:

How is attitude change affected by changes in:

• Communicator (trustworthy and credible: depends on audience)
• Example:Ivory Snow
• Example:Celebrity endorsements
• Message (rational versus emotional, simple versus complex, conclusions versus none, given first versus given last, etc.: depends on audience)
• Example:Bank account rewards
• Example:Free trial offer
• Example:Knights of the Ku Klux Klan
• Medium (face-to-face, writing, internet, radio, TV, etc.)
• Example: telemarketing
• Example: rumour transmission
• Audience
• Example:Birth control lecture
• Example: failures of Chevy Nova in Latin America and and Big John beans in Quebec
• Example: marketing research to determine who wants what and how they can best be convinced

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How is attitude change related to behaviour change?

see Lecture 12 notes for:

• Resistance to attitude change
• Cognitive dissonance