The Science of Attitudes (500 Tips) by Joel Cooper & Shane Blackman & Kyle Keller

Author:Joel Cooper & Shane Blackman & Kyle Keller
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9781138820784
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2015-09-15T14:00:00+00:00

Attitudes Follow Behavioral Choices

We are confronted with making decisions in our lives every day. We choose between breakfast cereals, lunch locations and dessert choices. We choose which college to attend and from which graduate school we will try to earn a Ph.D. We choose between Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals, to lead our nations into the future. One of the ubiquitous features of almost any choice is that we have to relinquish something in order to gain our selected alternative.

Consider the following fanciful dilemma about the Camry and Jaguar: Your own car has come to the end of its useful days and you need to purchase a new one. You enter the decision phase of your search for a new car with very positive attitudes about two of them: The Jaguar and the Camry. You love the Jaguar, except you know it is expensive and has a terrible record for reliability. On the other hand, it’s gorgeous. You also love the Camry. Its reliability record is superb; its price is good. You just do not feel it is as sexy as the Jaguar. For different reasons, your attitudes about both automobiles are strong and salient. Nonetheless, you can buy one, not two. You would choose one car for its looks or the other for its reliability. The choice is a close one, but you have to make it. You act; you behave; you put down the money for the Jaguar. Research has shown that your action will set off a process that will result in a change in your attitudes to bring them in line with your behavior. Your attitude toward that car you chose will become more positive. You will extol its good features and minimize the bad ones. As a mirror image, your attitudes toward the rejected car will become more negative following your decision.

The choice to buy a Jaguar came at a cost, not only for the amount of money you spent but also because of all of the excellent features of the Camry that you have relinquished. The reliability and the modest fuel cost of the Camry are no longer possible once the Jaguar is selected. These desirable features of the Camry are inconsistent with a decision to purchase the Jaguar. And there is more. Selecting the Jaguar brought with it all of the unwanted features of that alternative. You made your choice and drove your Jaguar out of the showroom with the knowledge that you had wiped out your bank account and were facing the likelihood of months of loaner cars and repairs. These cognitions are also inconsistent with your choice.

Driven by the unpleasant state of cognitive dissonance, the inconsistency must be reduced. People can be quite creative about diverse ways to accomplish this goal, but they will reduce their dissonance by coming to like the Jaguar much more than they did prior to their choice and liking the Camry a lot less.

Consider the number of ways we can go about reducing the overall inconsistency between the negative features of the Jaguar and the fact that we just purchased one.

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