Module 5.
1: Social Influence I
I. DEFINING SOCIAL STEREOTYPES
➢ Beliefs that various traits or acts are characteristic of particular social groups.
➢ The stereotypic beliefs represent subjective estimates of the frequencies of
attributes within social groups, and so should be expected to “behave like” base-
rate information within the context of judgments of individuals: specifically,
individuating target case information should induce subjects to disregard their
own stereotypic beliefs.
➢ By stereotyping, we infer that a person has a whole range of characteristics and
abilities that we assume all members of that group have. (McLeod, 2017).
A. STEREOTYPE CONTENT MODEL (Fiske, 2018)
➢ Specifies that when someone encounters a new group, they will stereotype them
based on two metrics:
o WARMTH (trustworthiness, sociability) is the perceived intent, and how likely
they are to provide help or inflict harm.
o COMPETENT (capable, agentic) refers to how people can enact that intent.
➢ Depending on the WARMTH-COMPETENCE CATEGORIZATION, a person will feel a
distinct way about a group, which influences their behavior toward those
individuals.
LOW COMPETENCE HIGH COMPETENCE
(Capability, Assertiveness) (Capability, Assertiveness)
HIGH WARMTH Common: Elderly, Disabled, Children Common: Citizens, Middle
(Friendliness, Ethnicity: Italians, Irish Class
Trustworthiness) Emotions Evoked: Pity, Sympathy Ethnicity: Americans,
Canadians, Christians
Emotions Evoked: Pride,
Admiration
LOW WARMTH Common: Poor, Homeless, Immigrants Common: Rich,
(Friendliness, Ethnicity: Latinos, Africans, Muslims Professionals, Technical
Trustworthiness) Emotions Evoked: Disgust, Contempt Experts
Ethnicity: Asians, Jews,
British, Germans
Emotions Evoked: Envy,
Jealousy
➢ Groups seen as warm but incompetent, including older people and people with
disabilities, as well as young children. People report pity or sympathy, itself an
ambivalent emotion (feeling sorry for someone holds only as long as their status
remains lower).
➢ Group stereotypes as cold but competent, which is the opposite kind of
ambivalence, including rich people, businesspeople, and technical experts.
People reported that they elicit envy, also an ambivalent emotion; they admire
such people but also resent them.
➢ The SCM dimensions derive from the idea that social cognition focuses on the
target’s apparent intent, which determines social interaction. Other people’s
predispositions matter to us when we need them, that is, when we as individuals
or as a group are interdependent with them.
➢ Specific stereotype content in turn predicts specific emotional prejudices based
on social comparison and attributions for outcomes (Fiske et al., 2002). A
cooperative in-group’s or ally’s positive outcome evokes pride, while a
competitive out-group’s positive outcome provokes envy. An ally’s negative
outcome evokes pity, whereas a competitor’s negative outcome provokes
contempt.
B. PREJUDICE VS. STEREOTYPE (Bernardo, 2021)
➢ Attitudes toward an individual or group based on membership.
➢ AFFECTIVE RESPONSE: Negative (Contempt/ Envy)/ Positive (Sympathy/
Admiration)
➢ COGNITIVE RESPONSE: Biases, dehumanization, and infrahumanization.
➢ BEHAVIORAL RESPONSE: Highlighting stereotypes in talks, jokes; presumptuousness
in speech; avoidance.
C. DISCRIMINATION VS. STEREOTYPE (Bernardo, 2021)
➢ Behavioral: Exclusionary and harmful actions towards others.
➢ Include verbal denigration or insults; microaggressions; biased social rewards and
punishments; and violence and extermination.
II. ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIOR
A. DEFINING ATTITUDES
➢ Refers to a set of emotions, beliefs, and behaviors toward a particular object,
person, thing, or event.
➢ Often the result of experience or upbringing, and they can have a powerful
influence over behavior. While attitudes are enduring, they can also change.
➢ A learned tendency to evaluate things in a certain way; this can include
evaluations of people, issues, objects, or events.
➢ Beliefs and feelings related to a person or an event (often rooted in one’s beliefs
and exhibited in one’s feelings and intended behavior).
B. COMPONENTS OF ATTITUDE
a. AFFECTIVE COMPONENT: How the object, person, issue, or event makes you feel.
b. BEHAVIORAL COMPONENT: How attitude influences your behavior.
c. COGNITIVE COMPONENT: Your thoughts and beliefs about the subject.
C. TYPES OF ATTITUDES
a. EXPLICIT ATTITUDES: Those we are consciously aware of and that clearly influence
our behaviors and beliefs.
b. IMPLICIT ATTITUDES: Unconscious but still influence our beliefs and behaviors.
D. ATTITUDE FORMATION
➢ Factors that can influence how and why attitudes form:
a. EXPERIENCE: Direct personal experience or result of our observations.
b. SOCIAL FACTORS: Impact of social roles (How people are expected to behave
in a particular role or context) and social norms (society’s rules for what
behaviors are considered appropriate).
c. LEARNING: Classical Conditioning
d. CONDITIONING: Operant Conditioning
e. OBSERVATION
E. ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIOR
➢ THE PRINCIPLE OF ATTITUDE CONSISTENCY
o For any given attitude object, the ABCs of affect, behavior, and cognition are
normally inline with each other.
➢ THEORY OF PLANNED BEHAVIOR (Azjen, 1991; Fishbein & Azjen, 1975)
o Intended to explain all behaviors over which people can exert self-control.
o Key Component: BEHAVIORAL INTENT
▪ Influenced by the attitude about the likelihood that the behavior will have
the expected outcome and the subjective evaluation of the risks and
benefits of that outcome.
CONSTRUCTS:
1. ATTITUDES: Degree to which a person has a favorable or unfavorable
evaluation of the behavior of interest; entails a consideration of the outcomes
of performing the behavior.
2. BEHAVIORAL INTENTION: Motivational factors that influence a given behavior
where the stronger the intention to perform the behavior, the more likely the
behavior will be performed.
3. SUBJECTIVE NORMS: The belief about whether most people or approve or
disapprove of the behavior; related to a person’s beliefs about whether peers
and people of importance to the person think s/he should engage in the
behavior.
4. SOCIAL NORMS refers to the customary codes of behavior in a group or people
or larger cultural context.
5. PERCEIVED POWER: The perceived presence of factors that may facilitate or
impede performance of a behavior; contributes to a person’s perceived
behavioral control over each of those factors.
6. PERCEIVE BEHAVIORAL CONTROL: A person’s perception of the ease or
difficulty of performing the behavior of interest; varies across situations and
actions, which results in a person having varying perceptions of behavioral
control depending on the situation.
➢ CHANGING ATTITUDES TO MATCH BEHAVIOR
o Reduce tension caused by COGNITIVE DISSONANCE by changing their
attitudes to reflect their other beliefs or actual behaviors.
F. WHY ATTITUDES CHANGE
1. LEARNING THEORY
➢ CLASSICAL CONDITIONING: Used to create positive emotional reactions to
an object, person, or event by associating positive feelings with the target
object.
➢ OPERANT CONDITIONING: Used to strengthen desirable attitudes and
weaken undesirable ones.
➢ People can change their attitudes after observing the behavior of others.
2. ELABORATION LIKELIHOOD THEORY
➢ People can alter their attitudes by:
o Being motivated to listen and think about the message, thus leading to
an attitude shift.
o Being influenced by the characteristics of the speaker, leading to a
temporary or surface shift in attitude. Messages that are thought-
provoking and that appeal to logic are more likely to lead to permanent
changes in attitudes.
3. DISSONANCE THEORY
➢ People can change their attitudes when they have conflicting beliefs about
a topic. In order to reduce the tension created by these incompatible beliefs,
people often shift their attitudes.
III. PERSUASION
A. DEFINING PERSUASION
➢ Persuasion serves an important function in a social society.
➢ Persuasion is a symbolic process in which communicators try to convince other
people to change their attitudes or behaviors regarding an issue through the
transmission of a message in an atmosphere of free choice.
B. 12 GOALS FOR PERSUASION
a. Obtaining Information
b. Obtaining some Object
c. Obtaining Permission
d. Getting someone to do a Favor
e. Changing someone’s opinion
f. Getting someone to engage in some activity
g. Buying or selling something
h. Changing an existing relationship
i. Changing someone’s personal habit
j. Helping the persuader
k. Helping a third party
l. Getting someone to do something against self-interest
C. 15 APPROACHES TO REACH PERSUASION GOALS
1. ASKING
➢ No reason for the request is given.
2. INVOKING PERSONAL EXPERTISE
➢ Because the persuader is an expert, you should adopt their attitude.
3. INVOKING PERSONAL NEED
➢ That is, the persuader’s need.
4. BUTTERING UP
➢ The persuader makes the person feel wonderful for important.
5. INVOKING ROLE RELATIONSHIPS
➢ “You’re not a true friend unless you do this for me.”
6. BARGAINING FOR THE FAVOR
7. INVOKING A NORM
➢ “Everybody’s doing it.”
8. INVOKING MORAL PRINCIPLE
➢ “It’s the right thing to do.”
9. INVOKING ALTRUISM
➢ “I’m not asking for myself, it’s for the people I will be able to help if you grant
the request.”
10. OFFERING A BRIBE
➢ A rebate for the purchase.
11. EMOTIONAL APPEALS
➢ The persuader sulks hoping the target will feel guilty.
12. PERSONAL CRITICISM
➢ “You’re lazy, you never want to do anything.”
13. DECEPTION
➢ Tricking the person into granting the request.
14. THREAT
15. PHYSICAL FORCE
D. DUAL-PROCESSING MODELS AND HOW WE PROCESS PERSUASION
➢ “WHAT IS BEAUTIFUL-IS GOOD” HEURISTIC
o This mental shortcut results in us automatically connecting the source’s
attractiveness with the qualities of being good, kind, smart, etc.
o EXAMPLE: THE CASE OF TED BUNDY
▪ Ted Bundy was a serial killer considered attractive and would lure women
to their deaths by asking for help.
▪ The women he asked were happy to help; they automatically responded
to the “what is beautiful-is-good” heuristic, assuming he was kind and
trustworthy and they went to help someone who would end up killing them.
➢ DUAL-PROCESSING MODEL: ELABORATION LIKELIHOOD MODEL
o CENTRAL ROUTE (SYSTEMATIC PROCESSING)
▪ Occur when we carefully consider the message content.
▪ Motivated by PERSONAL RELEVANCE.
▪ Motivated by the NEED FOR COGNITION.
• Enjoyment from engaging in effortful cognitive activity.
• Individuals who score high on the need for cognition measure spend
more time carefully processing the messages, following the central
route to persuasion. (Cacioppo & Petty, 1982)
o PERIPHERAL ROUTE (HEURISTIC PROCESSING)
▪ Consider the context or situation that the message is delivered in is more
important than the actual message.
▪ These context or situational cues trigger automatic responses and we
quickly move forward in our lives. (Cialdini, 2008)
▪ We need to examine the persuasion situation more closely to understand
exactly when our persuasive attempts will be most successful.
o Our motivations in persuasion will determine which path we want out audience
to follow. If we want a more permanent attitude change, we will want the
person or group we are attempting to persuade to follow the central route. If
we need them to go along right now or buy something once, then the
peripheral route is a good choice.
E. FACTORS THAT LEAD TO SUCCESSFUL PERSUASION
1. PERSUASIVE COMMUNICATORS
o COMMUNICATOR/ SOURCE CREDIBILITY
▪ PERCEIVED EXPERTISE
• Defined as someone perceived to be both knowledgeable on a topic
and can share accurate information with us (Petty & Wegener, 1998).
• In situations where we have low personal relevance or ability to process
the message, it serves as a peripheral cue.
• Expertise will trigger us to automatically go along with the persuasive
attempt because we believe that this person knows what they are
talking about.
▪ PERCEIVED TRUSTWORTHINESS
• Research has found that when we do not feel like the person has
anything to gain and that they are sincere, this is a strong indication of
persuasion.
• If people view someone as trustworthy, they will automatically be
persuaded by the attempt. However, if the source is viewed as
untrustworthy, even people who have a low need for cognition will
engage in a similar amount of message analysis as individuals who are
high in need for cognition (Cacioppo & Petty, 1982).
o COMMUNICATOR/ SOURCE ATTRACTIVENESS
▪ PHYSICAL ATTRACTIVENESS
• Research has found that people associate talent, kindness, honesty,
and intelligence with beauty (Eagly et al, 1991). These same studies
have been done in a variety of contexts and individuals who are highly
attractive are more likely to be voted for, hired for a job, and granted
leniency in the judicial system.
• When we are not motivated and able to think deeply, we follow the
peripheral route, and this is when peripheral cues like appearance can
have the greatest impact on persuasion.
▪ LIKEABILITY
• One of the things that can increase likeability is SIMILARITY, we like
people who are like us (Byrne, 1971).
• This includes sharing opinions, personality traits, background, lifestyle,
and even when people mirror our behavior, posture, and facial
expressions (Cialdini, 2008).
2. PERSUASIVE MESSAGES: TYPES OF MESSAGE CONTENT
o SOLID ARGUMENTS VS. EMOTION-BASED APPEALS
▪ SOLID ARGUMENTS
• Audiences who are motivated and able follow the central route of
persuasion they are motivated to pay attention to the message when it
is personally relevant to us.
• They may need the time to think about what is being said and may
therefore be persuaded by solid arguments.
▪ EMOTION-BASED APPEALS
• Individuals following the peripheral route.
o TYPE OF EMOTIONAL APPEALS
▪ EVOKING GOOD FEELINGS IN OUR AUDIENCE
• When we make our audience feel good, we increase their positive
thoughts and through association, we make a connection for them of
good feelings and the message.
• When we are in a good mood, we are more likely to rely on the
peripheral route, we do not spend much time thinking about the
message.
• When people are unhappy, they spend more time ruminating or going
over and over things, they are not persuaded by weak arguments (Petty
et al., 1993).
▪ ELICITING FEAR
• Fear can be very effective most of the time.
• Fear, however, does not work when you are trying to convince people
to do something that makes them feel good nor does it work when you
use too much of it and do not give the audience a solution to avoid
fear and it would make it easier for the audience to deny and continue
the behavior.
• Fear and humor combined have also been found to be more
persuasive (Mukherjee & Dube, 2012).
o THE WAY THE MESSAGE IS PRESENTED
▪ FOOT-IN-THE-DOOR PHENOMENON
• The communicator will first make a small request and once you agree
to the small request, the communicator will ask for something larger.
• The person’s goal is the larger request, but in order for you to agree to
it, they are using a strategy that plays on our need to be consistent.
• Once we have made a commitment, we will feel pressure to remain
consistent and avoid and the unpleasant feeling of hypocrisy.
▪ LOWBALLING
• The communicator will put forward an attractive offer, one that is hard
to say no to, once the offer is agreed to, you will come up with new
reasons for why you are glad you made the commitment to this offer.
• The original offer is removed and the whole reason you went along with
it was because of that desirable offer and now it is gone.
• Instead of getting upset or changing your mind, you go along with it
and are happy about it.
▪ DOOR-IN-THE-FACE
• Something large is presented and the metaphorical door is slammed in
your face because the request is too big; then you knock and offer a
smaller request, which is usually accepted. The smaller request is what
you really are trying to get.
• RECIPROCITY is a peripheral cue; when someone does something for us,
we feel indebted to them and want to immediately return to equity in
our relationship.
• PERCEPTUAL CONTRAST deals with the change in perception related to
how things are presented. The second presentation of the smaller item
after the large item changes our perception and we now see it as
smaller than if we had just been presented with the small item alone.
o ONE-SIDED vs. TWO-SIDED APPEALS
▪ ONE-SIDED APPEAL
• Work best when the audience agrees with you but it can be the wrong
choice if the audience processes through the central route. It will
motivate them to seek out the other side and could result in trust issues.
▪ TWO-SIDED APPEAL
• Most effective and enduring when the audience disagrees with you, it
can be useful right from the start to address the opposing side and then
present your argument.
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