- Define and explain Persuasion and Attitudes in your own words
- Use key terms such as attitude accurately
- Apply what you have learned to new examples and questions
- Avoid the common mistakes learners make with this topic
This lesson focuses on Persuasion and Attitudes: learn how attitudes form and change, from the elaboration likelihood model to the discomfort of cognitive dissonance.
Learn how attitudes form and change, from the elaboration likelihood model to the discomfort of cognitive dissonance.
Key ideas
Persuasion takes two routes
Petty and Cacioppo's elaboration likelihood model says persuasion works through a central route — careful thought about strong arguments — or a peripheral route — mental shortcuts like a celebrity's smile or a catchy slogan. The central route creates attitudes that last longer and resist change. Attitudes can also shift through cognitive dissonance: Festinger showed that when our actions clash with our beliefs, the resulting discomfort pushes us to change the belief to match the behaviour.
Crowds can freeze helping
Darley and Latané were struck by the 1964 murder of Kitty Genovese in New York, after newspaper reports claimed witnesses failed to intervene. Their experiments revealed the bystander effect: the more people present, the less likely any one person is to help, largely because of diffusion of responsibility — everyone assumes someone else will act. Later reporting showed the original newspaper account exaggerated some details, but the laboratory effect itself has been replicated many times and remains a cornerstone of social psychology.
Key term — attitude: A learned evaluation of something — liking, disliking or feeling neutral about a person, idea or object.
A charity advert uses a famous footballer rather than statistics. Which route of the elaboration likelihood model is this, and why?
The peripheral route: persuasion via a shortcut cue (a likeable celebrity) rather than careful evaluation of arguments.
Answer: The peripheral route: persuasion via a shortcut cue (a likeable celebrity) rather than careful evaluation of arguments.
- Strong arguments always persuade The elaboration likelihood model shows arguments only work through the central route when people are motivated and able to think carefully. Otherwise peripheral cues — who says it, how it looks — do the persuading.
- Prejudice is just about disliking people Psychologists separate three parts: stereotypes (beliefs), prejudice (feelings and attitudes) and discrimination (actions). You can hold a stereotype without acting on it, which is why each part needs tackling differently.
Practice
A stereotype is an oversimplified belief about a group; prejudice is a negative attitude or feeling towards the group; discrimination is acting on it — treating group members unfairly.
The finding that individuals are less likely to help in an emergency when more bystanders are present, largely due to diffusion of responsibility.
In a group, each person feels less personal responsibility because they assume someone else will act.
Competition for prizes created hostility and stereotyping, supporting realistic conflict theory; superordinate goals requiring cooperation, like fixing the camp's water supply, reduced it.
Quick check
Which of these best defines "attitude"?
Apply your knowledge: you see someone collapse in a crowded station. What should you do to maximise the chance of getting help?
- Persuasion and Attitudes: learn how attitudes form and change, from the elaboration likelihood model to the discomfort of cognitive dissonance.
- Persuasion takes two routes: Petty and Cacioppo's elaboration likelihood model says persuasion works through a central route — careful thought about strong arguments — or a peripheral route — mental shortcuts like a celebrity's smile or a catchy slogan.
- prosocial behaviour: Actions intended to help others, such as comforting someone who is upset or intervening in an emergency.
- Watch out for: strong arguments always persuade