Anthony R. Pratkanis

Attitude Structure and Function

Why are Attitudes Important?, A.G. Greenwald Interdependence of Attitude Theory and Measurement, T.M. Ostrom The Structure of Individual Attitudes and of Attitude Systems, W.J. McGuire The Cognitive Representation of Attitudes, A.R. Pratkanis The Structural Bases of Consistency Among Political Attitudes - Effects of Political Expertise and Attitude Importance, C.M. Judd and J.A. Krosnick Structure and Function in Political Belief Systems, P.E. Tetlock On the Power and Functionality of Attitudes - the Role of Attitude Accessibility, R.H. Fazio Automatic and Controlled Processes in Prejudice - the Role of Stereotypes and Personal Beliefs, P.G. Devine Attitudes, Decisions and Habits as Determinants of Repeated Behaviour, D.L. Ronis et al Attitude Structure and Behaviour, I. Ajzen Attitude Structure and Function - From Tripartite to the Homeostasis Model of Attitude, J.T. Cacioppo et al Operationalizing Functional Theories of Attitude, S. Shavitt Understanding the Functions of Attitudes - Lessons from Personality and Social Behaviour, M. Snyder and K.G. Debono Beliefs as Possessions - a Functional Analysis, R.P. Abelson and D.A. Prentice Need for Structure in Attitude Formation and Expression, D.W. Jamieson and M.P. Zanna On Defining Attitude and Attitude Theory - Once More With Feeling, S.J. Breckler and E.C. Wiggins Why Attitudes are Important (Defining Attitude and Attitude Theory 20 Years Later), A.G. Greenwald.

In search of reliable persuasion effects: III. The sleeper effect is dead. Long live the sleeper effect.

The sleeper effect in persuasion is a delayed increase in the impact of a message that is accompanied by a discounting cue. Despite a long history, the sleeper effect has been notoriously difficult to obtain or to replicate, with the exception of a pair of studies by Gruder et al. (1978). We conducted a series of 16 computer-controlled experiments and a replication of the Gruder et al. study to demonstrate that a sleeper effect can be obtained reliably when subjects (a) note the important arguments in a message, (b) receive a discounting cue after the message, and (c) rate the trustworthiness of the message communicator immediately after receiving the discounting cue. These operations are sufficiently different from those used in earlier studies to justify a new differential decay interpretation of the sleeper effect, in place of the dissociation hypothesis favored by most previous sleeper effect researchers. According to the differential decay interpretation, a sleeper effect occurs when message and discounting cue have opposite and near-equal immediate impacts that are not well-integrated in memory. The effect occurs, then, if the impact of the discounting cue decays faster than that of the message.

A Sociocognitive Model of Attitude Structure and Function

Publisher Summary The chapter explains the way to resolve the paradox of attitude importance by reviewing research to determine whether or when the pessimism concerning the predictive power of attitudes is warranted and by using the results of this review to develop and support a sociocognitive model of attitudes. This model proposes that attitudes have a cognitive representation and that attitudes serve to relate a person to the social world—that is, serve a social function rather than a cognitive consistency function. The chapter discusses the cognitive components of the sociocognitive model and discusses its role in the prediction of attitude effects. The chapter presents the review evidence from the diverse areas of social psychology to demonstrate that attitudes frequently serve three functions: heuristic—that is, attitudes provide a simple strategy for appraising an object; schematic—that is, attitudes organize and guide complex behavior towards an object and memory for events; and self-related—that is, attitudes are used to define and maintain self-worth. These functions are used to construct a sociocognitive model of attitude. The cause for concern about the attitude concept is not warranted. Attitudes are successful predictors of a wide range of cognitive processes; they influence processing of episodic information in a predictable fashion; and they are related to important social behaviors under specifiable conditions.

The science of social influence : advances and future progress

Chapter 1. Anthony R. Pratkanis, Social Influence Research. Chapter 2. Anthony R. Pratkanis, Social Influence Analysis: An Index of Tactics. Chapter 3. Eric S. Knowles & Dan Riner, Omega Approaches to Persuasion: Overcoming Resistance. Chapter 4. Elliot Aronson, The Use of Dissonance in Self-persuasion. Chapter 5. Dariusz Dolinski, Emotional See-saw. Chapter 6. Jerry Burger, Fleeting Attraction and Compliance with Requests. Chapter 7. Noah Goldstein & Robert B. Cialdini, Using Social Norms as a Lever of Social Influence. Chapter 8. Paul Nail & Geoff MacDonald, On the Development of the Social Response Context Model. Chapter 9. Christie Struckman & Marlene E. Turner, Social Influence in Groups. Chapter 10. Carsten K. W. De Dreu, Minority Dissent, Attitude Change, and Group Performance. Chapter 11. Nicholas DiFonzo & Prashant Bordia, Toward a Dynamic Social Impact Theory of Rumors: Individual and Network Level Factors in Spread. Chapter 12. Roderick Kramer, Self-defeating Influence Behavior: A Social Cognitive Analysis of Leader Misuse of Power. Chapter 13. Brad J. Sagarin & Sarah W. Wood, Resistance to Influence

Of what value is a job attitude? A socio-cognitive analysis.

Job attitudes are often weakly predictive of job-related behaviors. A socio-cognitive model is presented to demonstrate why job attitudes are important, to identify their structural and functional properties, and to specify when they predict behavior. According to this model, attitudes are represented in memory by a cognitive structure consisting of an object label, an evaluative summary of that object, and a knowledge structure. This structure serves several functions: it allows individuals to make sense of their social world (heuristic and schematic functions of attitudes) and to maintain self-worth (self functions of attitudes). Finally, we use the socio-cognitive model to identify six propositions for increasing the attitude-behavior relationship.

Effects of Preferential and Meritorious Selection on Performance: An Examination of Intuitive and Self-Handicapping Perspectives

Research has documented pervasive adverse consequences of preferential selection for womens self-evaluations of ability and performance. However, virtually no research has examined the effects of selection processes on actual performance. It was theorized that the effects of preferential and meritorious selection on performance are moderated by task conceptualization. Females were told that they were assigned to a position because of either merit (they purportedly passed a qualifying test) or preference (they were female) and that task performance required either effort or inherent capability. Preferentially selected women performed better when they believed the task required capability rather than effort; meritoriously selected individuals displayed the opposite pattern. In addition, preferentially selected subjects evaluated specific components of their performance effectiveness more poorly than meritoriously selected subjects. Self-evaluations of overall performance were unaffected by the manipulations. Results are interpreted using research on self-handicapping and recipient reactions to aid.

On the use of "theory" and the usefulness of theory.

Deux des auteurs concernes repondent aux critiques de trois articles (1988) remettant en question les methodes proposees par Greenwald et al. (1966) pour reduire le biais de confirmation faisant obstacle au progres de la recherche

The Significance of Affirmative Action for theSouls of White Folk: Further Implications of a Helping Model

We develop further our model of affirmative action as help (Pratkanis & Turner, 1996b; Turner & Pratkanis, 1994) by looking at the impact of aid on the donor. White Americans often take one of three approaches toaffirmative action. First, they can reject affirmative action because of their own personal frustrations. Second, they can engage in selective aid that maintains the basic patterns of social dominance. Both of these approaches can damage the psychological functioning of Whites. Third, White Americans can proactively seek to remove discriminatory barriers in a process we call democratic altruism, thereby opening the possibility of learning from diverse others and growth as a person. We conclude by discussing tactics for promoting democratic altruism.

Consumer-Product and Sociopolitical Messages for Use in Studies of Persuasion

The purpose of this report is to make available two sets of persuasive messages one for fictitious brands of 12 types of consumer products and the other for 20 sociopolitical issues. These communications were developed as part of a research program directed at obtaining reliable persuasion effects.

Teaching social influence: Demonstrations and exercises from the discipline of social psychology

Education is enhanced when students are able to be active, rather than passive, learners (McKeachie, 2002). Fortunately, social psychologists have a rich history of creating and publishing classroom demonstrations that allow for such active learning. Unfortunately, these demonstrations have been published in diverse journals, teaching manuals, and edited volumes that are not always readily available. The purpose of this article is to review demonstrations and exercises that have been developed for teaching students about social influence. Using an annotated bibliography format, we review more than five dozen techniques that assist instructors in demonstrating such social influence principles as cognitive dissonance, conformity, obedience, deindividuation, propaganda, framing, persuasion, advertising, social norms, and the self‐fulfilling prophecy.