PSY 105 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Cognitive Dissonance, Toothpaste, Murder Of Kitty Genovese
Document Summary
How people think about the social world: judgment about a stimulus. Changing attitudes: having a person behaving in a way that is inconsistent to their norm; emotional discomfort (cognitive dissonance) We like to think out attitudes dictate how we behave, sometimes people will have a contradiction than their attitudes and act in a way that contradicts their normal attitude. People try and find a justification for why they behave differently. Lying when your friend gets a bad haircut but you think you"re an honest person; justification: trying to protect someone"s feelings. When you can find a discrepancy there is no emotional distress. One way to change a persons attitude is to have them engage in a different attitude where they can not explain the change. Central: persuade by focusing on facts and data. Tends to be most affective when a purchase or decision has high stakes. Focuses on superficial information to change attitudes.