Processes by Which Behavior Influences Attitudes

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The actions that we carry out can directly change the attitudes and beliefs we hold. This is very well illustrated by two types of behaviors: the foot in the door technique and role-playing. First, the foot in the door technique is when a persuader attempts to get an individual to agree to a large request by first having them agree to a small request. For instance, consider a teacher who wants to help motivate a student to study for an exam. Beginning to study for the exam might seem daunting to the student. Therefore, the teacher might ask the student to first create an outline of all the topics that are covered on the exam. After completing this small task, the student might feel like the bigger task is more reasonable and decide to carry it out.

Next, role-playing is when an individual pretends to take on a role that they do not normally have. There are many roles in society, and every role has a unique set of associated behaviors, beliefs, and attitudes. By playing a role, we can sometimes absorb the characteristics and attitudes associated with that role. One of the most famous examples demonstrating this is the Stanford prison experiment. In this study, students were asked to participate in a prison simulation and were randomly assigned to be either prisoners or prison guards. The prison guards very quickly began to use authoritarian measures and subjected the prisoners to psychological torture. On the other end, many prisoners began to passively accept the torture, and some prisoners even harassed other prisoners who tried to put a stop to the torture. By accepting a role to play, many of these students took on attitudes and carried out behaviors of their own volition that they would not normally have taken on.

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