Attitudes and Persuasion
Lecture 1: A Psychological Approach to Persuasion
Replication crisis and some foundations of psychology
Replication crisis = an ongoing methodological crisis in which the results of many scientific
studies are difficult or impossible to reproduce → hundreds of experiments might be unreliable
• Poor research methods and statistics
• Low bar for good explanations
o Flexible theories
o Explanation just redescribes phenomenon
o Explanation with ‘general’ principle that only applies to specific case
o One-word explanations
• Insufficient critical mindset
Foundations of psychology
!Be critical when these aren’t assumed!;
Bounded rationality
(Herbert Simon, 1990) Humans are not fully rational decision makers due to cognitive limitations
and structure of the environment. People use heuristics to make decisions that are good
enough.
Scissors metaphor (Herbert Simon, 1990): Human rational behavior is like a scissors with one
blade with these cognitive limitations and the other blade with the structure of the environment.
We compensate for our cognitive limitations by searching for structures of our environment (e.g.
searching for a restaurant, you can’t evaluate every single restaurant option (cognitive
limitations), but there are things, like Google Reviews or recommendations (structure
environment) that can help make a choice).
The Physical Symbol System Hypothesis = a system will be capable of intelligent behavior if
and only if it is a physical symbol system (e.g. computers)
Humans have goals
Our choices and behaviors are goal-directed, but influenced by different factors depending on
life circumstances → (Kenrick) Multiple goals at once and not in a fixed order
(Kenrick et al., 2010)
,Evolution by natural selection
o Natural selection does NOT explain everything
o Psychology must be consistent with natural selection
o Consider if theory/explanation is consistent with natural selection
Humans have goals and bounded rationality shaped by natural selection.
Psychological approach to persuasion
Advertising = any paid communication by identified sponsor aimed to inform/persuade target
audience about organization, product, service, or idea.
o Ancient
o Goals change over product life cycle
o Other forms of marketing and promotion are used (e.g. sponsorship, direct marketing)
o Persuasion can be useful
Functions of advertising
o Facilitating competition
o Communicating with consumers
o Informing and persuading consumers
o Funding public mass media (NOS, BBC, ARD)
o Creating jobs (opportunity costs?)
Psychological approach (identifying individual level):
Causal mechanism of stimulus → response, deeper explanation for the psychological
processes that are responsible for the relationship
Including attention, memory, emotions, attitudes, intentions and actual buying behavior
Models of advertising
1) Sales-response models
2) Hierarchy-of-effects models
• Evaluation plays key role in each model
• Consumer behavior too complex for single model
• Assume sequence, consumer processes info passive, underlying processes
(cognitive → affective → behavior / think → feel → do)
+ Adds steps between message and response
- Assume one order and high consumer involvement
o AIDA:
, o DAGMAR:
o Foot, Cone and Belding Grid
3) Cognitive response approach
• Consumer processes info active
, ABC model of attitudes
Attitude as
• Predisposition – stable; traits → behavior
• Evaluative response – change quickly and can’t be overt; input → mechanism → output
→ behavior
How do people form attitudes?
File-drawer model
▪ Attitude is a (learnt) structure in long-term memory that is activated when perceiving
attitude object
▪ Attitudes are files with evaluative information in mental database
▪ Implies stability
Attitudes-as-constructions model
▪ Attitudes depend on what people think about at a given moment
▪ Evaluation is made online, based on salient or accessible information
ABC
Cognitive information (beliefs)
▪ Direct experience vs. transmitted information
▪ Heuristics (if-then shortcut)
▪ If (brand image, country of origin, price, etc.), then X.
Affective information (feelings)
• Mere exposure (hedonic fluency)
• Evaluative conditioning (learning associations)
• Affect as information
o “How do I feel about it” heuristic – For example milk in the fridge: expired, do you
want to eat it? – not optimal
Behavioral information
• Self-perception theory: derive attitudes from own behavior
Attitude strength
The degree to which an attitude is resistant to change and influences cognition and behavior
Stronger attitudes:
• More stable over time
• Greater impact on behavior
Lecture 1: A Psychological Approach to Persuasion
Replication crisis and some foundations of psychology
Replication crisis = an ongoing methodological crisis in which the results of many scientific
studies are difficult or impossible to reproduce → hundreds of experiments might be unreliable
• Poor research methods and statistics
• Low bar for good explanations
o Flexible theories
o Explanation just redescribes phenomenon
o Explanation with ‘general’ principle that only applies to specific case
o One-word explanations
• Insufficient critical mindset
Foundations of psychology
!Be critical when these aren’t assumed!;
Bounded rationality
(Herbert Simon, 1990) Humans are not fully rational decision makers due to cognitive limitations
and structure of the environment. People use heuristics to make decisions that are good
enough.
Scissors metaphor (Herbert Simon, 1990): Human rational behavior is like a scissors with one
blade with these cognitive limitations and the other blade with the structure of the environment.
We compensate for our cognitive limitations by searching for structures of our environment (e.g.
searching for a restaurant, you can’t evaluate every single restaurant option (cognitive
limitations), but there are things, like Google Reviews or recommendations (structure
environment) that can help make a choice).
The Physical Symbol System Hypothesis = a system will be capable of intelligent behavior if
and only if it is a physical symbol system (e.g. computers)
Humans have goals
Our choices and behaviors are goal-directed, but influenced by different factors depending on
life circumstances → (Kenrick) Multiple goals at once and not in a fixed order
(Kenrick et al., 2010)
,Evolution by natural selection
o Natural selection does NOT explain everything
o Psychology must be consistent with natural selection
o Consider if theory/explanation is consistent with natural selection
Humans have goals and bounded rationality shaped by natural selection.
Psychological approach to persuasion
Advertising = any paid communication by identified sponsor aimed to inform/persuade target
audience about organization, product, service, or idea.
o Ancient
o Goals change over product life cycle
o Other forms of marketing and promotion are used (e.g. sponsorship, direct marketing)
o Persuasion can be useful
Functions of advertising
o Facilitating competition
o Communicating with consumers
o Informing and persuading consumers
o Funding public mass media (NOS, BBC, ARD)
o Creating jobs (opportunity costs?)
Psychological approach (identifying individual level):
Causal mechanism of stimulus → response, deeper explanation for the psychological
processes that are responsible for the relationship
Including attention, memory, emotions, attitudes, intentions and actual buying behavior
Models of advertising
1) Sales-response models
2) Hierarchy-of-effects models
• Evaluation plays key role in each model
• Consumer behavior too complex for single model
• Assume sequence, consumer processes info passive, underlying processes
(cognitive → affective → behavior / think → feel → do)
+ Adds steps between message and response
- Assume one order and high consumer involvement
o AIDA:
, o DAGMAR:
o Foot, Cone and Belding Grid
3) Cognitive response approach
• Consumer processes info active
, ABC model of attitudes
Attitude as
• Predisposition – stable; traits → behavior
• Evaluative response – change quickly and can’t be overt; input → mechanism → output
→ behavior
How do people form attitudes?
File-drawer model
▪ Attitude is a (learnt) structure in long-term memory that is activated when perceiving
attitude object
▪ Attitudes are files with evaluative information in mental database
▪ Implies stability
Attitudes-as-constructions model
▪ Attitudes depend on what people think about at a given moment
▪ Evaluation is made online, based on salient or accessible information
ABC
Cognitive information (beliefs)
▪ Direct experience vs. transmitted information
▪ Heuristics (if-then shortcut)
▪ If (brand image, country of origin, price, etc.), then X.
Affective information (feelings)
• Mere exposure (hedonic fluency)
• Evaluative conditioning (learning associations)
• Affect as information
o “How do I feel about it” heuristic – For example milk in the fridge: expired, do you
want to eat it? – not optimal
Behavioral information
• Self-perception theory: derive attitudes from own behavior
Attitude strength
The degree to which an attitude is resistant to change and influences cognition and behavior
Stronger attitudes:
• More stable over time
• Greater impact on behavior
