Who are you really? Episode #1: Attitudes
How can we explain our attitude towards an object?
It all starts with the story of a basketball player. After a match in France in Paris, this sportsman went to celebrate the victory of his club with his team in a bar. Everything was going well, until the moment when this player received a beautiful punch from behind. At that very moment, we could hear the words: "Fucking Americans, go home!"...
What is it that can make a person adopt such a negative attitude towards a community? More generally, what defines our attitudes? Where do they come from?
We will look at what an attitude is, and then we will identify their origins.
What is an attitude?
Since the 1920s, attitudes have been one of the main subjects studied in social psychology. Many psychologists such as Gordon Allport have mentioned in their work that attitudes are one of the fundamental concepts of contemporary psychology. Almost 100 years later, this assumption is still valid. In 2004, for example, more than 6,000 articles on the subject were published. One can well imagine the number of such works since 1920...
Psychologists agree on this definition of attitude:
Thus, an attitude is characterized by:
A direction : It has a positive or negative direction towards an object.
For example, if a person likes beer, he or she has a positive attitude towards it.Intensity: This is the degree of attitude, expressed on a two-pole scale (Favorable/Disfavourable).
A centrality: This characteristic will depend on our personal commitment to an object. For example, a person who has a positive attitude towards chocolate will tend to have a positive attitude toward a chocolate cake. Similarly, a person who has a positive attitude towards ecology will tend to have a positive attitude towards a scientist who speaks on this subject.
Ambivalence: It is possible to have both a positive and negative attitude towards an object. We can have a positive attitude towards the intoxication of alcohol, and a negative attitude towards its destructive effects.
Implicit/explicit: There are two types of attitudes. When the person is aware of it, it is said to be explicit. Conversely, when the person is not aware of an attitude, it can be said to be implicit.
Accessibility: This is the ease with which an attitude will express itself towards an object. This characteristic is gradual, ranging from "non-response" to an automatic response to an attitudinal object.
It is known that a given person with a given attitude will be more or less predictable in the face of an attitudinal object.
Thus, we can know by observing the behaviour of this person that he or she has such and such an attitude towards an attitudinal object.
On the other hand, it is impossible to put oneself in the head of a person, and therefore, impossible to deduce an attitude without observing the behaviour of that person.
It should also be noted that an attitude is not immutable over time.
How is an attitude towards an object created?
There are a multitude of sources from which our attitudes come.
Emotional/Affective Origin
One of the first is the emotional source. Robert B. Zajonc explains that emotions influence our thinking and reasoning. There are several ways for these emotions to develop an attitude:
Classical conditioning (Pavlov): This is the basis of conditioning. A stimulus (unconditioned stimulus) is presented that is supposed to generate a positive emotion in a person, and is associated with a second stimulus (conditioned stimulus). The subject of this small test will tend to associate the emotion of the first stimulus with the second stimulus, thus creating a positive attitude towards the second stimulus.
For example, in an advertisement for a sports deodorant, an advertiser will associate a well-known sportsman (unconditioned stimulus) with his product (conditioned stimulus), in order to create a positive attitude towards his new deodorant.
The mere-exposure effect: According to several studies in psychology since the second half of the 20th century, it has been observed that repeated exposure to a stimulus can reinforce our attraction for it. Bornstein explains after an analysis of more than 200 studies that a single-second exposure repeated between 1 and 9 times is sufficient to observe this effect. Moreover, it is not necessary that these stimuli are conscious, a subliminal image can be quite sufficient to activate this effect.
To give an example, during a presidential election, the number of times a candidate appears and his passage time are two data that can predict the outcome of the election!Affect infusion model: Our emotions of the moment can mislead us and influence our attitude. For example, by asking a person,"How have you been doing lately?" When we leave an amusement park, we'll get some pretty positive answers. The emotions experienced in this park will influence people's attitudes towards their lives.
Behavioural origin
It is possible to reinforce an attitude by rewarding an individual's behaviour.
Operant or skinnerian conditioning: Many studies show that by rewarding behaviour, it is possible to create or reinforce a positive/negative attitude towards an attitudinal object. Punishing behaviour can also reinforce a positive/negative attitude. For example, if you eat a seafood dish and get sick as a result of that meal, it is very likely that you will develop a negative attitude towards seafood. Similarly, if you are rewarded for a quality article (#steemit), you will have a positive attitude towards this platform.
Self-evaluation: By remembering past behaviours, an individual will tend to act in a way that reinforces his or her attitudes. Albarracin and Wyer went even further and showed that the subject simply had to "believe" that he or she had this or that behaviour to create this reinforcing phenomenon, even if it was not true.
Cognitive origin
Our observations and interpretations can also determine our attitudes.
- Social Learning: Professor Albert Bandura explains that we adopt attitudes by watching someone do something. For example, a father who is a regular angler may develop a positive attitude towards this hobby among his children.
It should also be noted that the media such as television and cinema can also be a source of learning by imitating the behaviours that can be observed there. Weimann and Brosius in 1989, for example, tell us that there is a proportional relationship between terrorist behaviour and the number of programmes on terrorism.
Cultural origin
Our cultural community is also a great source of influence! There are two ways in which this can change our attitudes.
The first is that in a given cultural context, there may be conditions that make individuals more or less attracted to an object. For example, in France (and in most cold to temperate climates), skiing is a very popular leisure sport with an entire year-long season dedicated to skiing (which will not be the case in a country where snow falls once a century!).
The second is the importance that individuals attach to an object in their culture. For example, a Brazilian will tend to be much more attached to football than a Japanese, even if both of them play football as often a week and for the same number of hours.
Genetic origin
Because even if it seems counter-intuitive, some of our behaviours are directly derived from our genetics. We inherit physiological traits that will shape our attitudes. For example, someone who is tall will have a more favourable attitude to basketball than someone who is small.
Studies on the role of heredity in creating attitudes go further. Richard D. Arvey in 1989 observed that 30% of job satisfaction was due to heredity. Psychologists such as John R. Alford, Carolyn L. Funk and John R. Hibbing have carried out work on a sample of nearly 8,000 twins, and conclude that attitudes on subjects such as abortion, censorship, homosexuality, etc. can be explained in part by hereditary factors (between 25 and 40% genetic contribution).
It should be noted that work in this area is still very limited, and few studies have been carried out to date.
Nevertheless, psychologists and researchers seem to agree that there are genetic variables that cause some of our attitudes (e. g. athletic talent, intelligence, and sociability).
David R. Olson reminds us that although there are a little more than 30% of genetic factors involved in the development of our attitudes, more than 60% are due to our environment.
Conclusion
Through all of these experiences, observations, and knowledge, we are able to interpret a person's behaviour. But we are above all able to interpret our own by avoiding certain cognitive biases. For exemple, mere-exposure effect by its implicit nature is not something we can protect ourselves against at all times. However, knowing these facts allows us to better realize how our brain works, and therefore to know ourselves better!
To go further :
Attitudes and Behavior, McLeod, S. A. (2014)
Attitudes as actions: social identity theory and consumer research, Barry R. Schlenker, Advances in Consumer Research Volume 5, 1978
Principles of Social Psychology-1st International Edition, Dr. Charles Stangor
Are Political Orientations Genetically Transmitted?, Alford, Funk & Hibbing, 2005
Other articles you might be interested in (Click on the images to open!)
Great article. Very informative! Thanks for sharing your knowledge with steemit!
Thank you @huitemae ! It's always a pleasure to share knowledge with people !
Hope to see you soon on my blog !
Partition is bad. But whatever is past is past. We have only to look to the future.
- Mahatma Gandhi
@originalworks
The @OriginalWorks bot has determined this post by @kingswisdom to be original material and upvoted it!
To call @OriginalWorks, simply reply to any post with @originalworks or !originalworks in your message!
To enter this post into the daily RESTEEM contest, upvote this comment! The user with the most upvotes on their @OriginalWorks comment will win!
For more information, Click Here!
Special thanks to @reggaemuffin for being a supporter! Vote him as a witness to help make Steemit a better place!
As I see from your this teaching post, we have a lot of factors that forming our attitude. Social and culturel factors, genetic origin etc. But I think we are the one who is forming our attitude despite these factors. We can decide what is right what is wrong.