Topic 1
[Book Ch. 3 and 5 by Pratkanis]
How to deal with reactance:
o Minimize the request: ‘Even a penny will help’ technique
o Depersonalize the request: ‘It’s the policy’ or ‘This is the same deal we give
everybody’. Forming a parable or a story can also depersonalize the request.
o Redefine the relationship: The seller becomes a consultant with a common goal
and a ‘long-term relationship’ so that future interactions allow repair and
reciprocity.
o The power of ‘yes’: ‘Yes, and…’ instead of ‘No, instead…’ or ‘Yes, but….’. Thus,
don’t tell people what they cannot do, instead, tell them what they can do.
o Acknowledge resistance
o Jujitsu resistance: Also known as reverse psychology. However, this often does
not work.
o Providing choices: Restores the choosers decisional freedom.
o Resistance if futile: Accept resistance but frame it as powerless.
How to deal with scepticism:
o Counterargue: Strong arguments may work but they need to be communicated
gently. Two-sides messages (including negative features) may confer an
advantage.
o Distract resistance: Moderate distraction can interfere with a person’s
elaboration of the message. Weak messages get more persuasive, strong
messages less persuasive. Only a short-term solution.
o Consume resistance: Self-regulation is a limited resource, thus depleting this
source can decrease resistance. Only a short-term solution.
o Guarantees: Identify the source of resistance and provide a guarantee that this
will not be a problem. This improves the cost-benefit ratio.
o Looking ahead: (Planning fallacy as described above).
o Change the comparison: Door-in-the-face technique
How to deal with inertia:
o Disrupt inertia: Inertia may be disrupted when something unusual or confusing
is in the message (disrupt than reframe).
o Increase self-efficacy: Self-esteem boosts may make people feel more immune
to threats.
Topic 2
[Maertens et al., 2021]
Exposing people to small pieces of misinformation and letting them imagine how to refute
misinformation techniques (DEPICT; see Maertens et al., 2021) by stimulating analytical
thinking.
- This creates associations that help resist persuasion and improve misinformation
detection.
, - The effect decays over the course of 2 months
- ‘Real news’ is still rated as highly reliable
[Prestwich et al., 2015]
The discrepancy between intention and behaviour can be explained by three underlying
processes:
1. Intention viability: It is impossible for intention to find expression in the absence of
abilities, resources, or opportunities
2. Intention activation: The extent to which contextual demands alter the salience or
intensity of a focal intention relative to other intentions. Diminution of the activation
results in:
a. Prospective memory failure: Forgetting to perform the behaviour
b. Goal reprioritization: Intention is postponed or abandoned
3. Intention elaboration: People may fail to analyse contextual opportunities that
would permit their intention.
Implementation intentions are if-then plans that connect good opportunities to act with
cognitive or behavioural responses.
- It consists of when, where, and how of what one will do.
- This decreases the effort one needs to put into recognizing the opportunity in the
moment (automatic activation).
Evidence suggest that they substantially increase the likelihood that goal intentions are
translated into action.
Topic 3
[Chapter Cohen and Sherman]
The self has a powerful need to see itself as having integrity, but it must do so within the
constraints of reality.
- A healthy narrative gives people enough optimism to deal with daily challenges and
threats.
Self-Affirmation Theory
This theory states that there are tree motives for keeping an image of oneself as able to
control important adaptive and moral outcomes in one’s life.
1. Maintaining a global narrative of oneself as moral and adaptive (I am a good person)
2. It is important that one is ‘good enough’ not that one is superior
3. Self-integrity is not about praising oneself but to act in ways worthy of praise
Small inputs into the self-system can have large effects. The timing of self-affirmation
interventions can be very important. During stressful transitions and choice points, these can
help people navigate through difficulties and give them confidence to overcome them.
A key aspect of affirmation interventions is that the content is self-generated and tailored to
tap into each person’s particular valued identity.
, Self-Affirmation Theory: The Psychology
- It reminds people of psychosocial resources beyond a particular threat, thus
broadening their perspective
- A threat is seen in the context of an expansive view of the self
- It fosters an approach orientation to the threat instead of avoidance. This lets people
deal with the threat in a constructive way.
Thus, they A) form a buffer against the threat and B) lessen the psychological defensiveness
to the threat
Reinforcing interactions between the self-system and the social system creates positive
feedback loops that result in adaptive outcomes over time. This is because:
1. The output of self-affirmation can cycle back as input, perpetuating itself
2. The output can interact with other processes in the environment
3. The intervention can trigger an enduring shift in perception.
Topic 4
[Ch.3 book Gass & Seiter]
‘An attitude is a psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a particular entity
with some degree of favor or disfavor.’
Explicit Measures of Attitude
Self-Report Scales
- Likert scales
- Semantic differential scales: opposite adjectives that are placed as a scale
Visually Oriented Scales
- Visual analog scale (VAS): drawings of facial expressions on a continuum
Pitfalls in explicit measurements
- Social desirability bias
- Non-attitudes: instead of stating ‘I don’t know’, people create attitudes on the spot
- Mindfulness: one must be aware of their own attitude. This is often not the case.
Implicit Measures of Attitude
- Implicit Association Test (IAT)
- Other measures: affect misattribution procedure, evaluative priming
Both explicit as well as implicit measures provide information on attitudes. Implicit tends to
be more reliable for judgements that are made reflexively or impulsively, while for
judgements that are made thoughtfully, explicit measures yield better results.
Other ways of measuring
- Appearances: ‘Judging a book by its cover’
- Associations: People enter particular groups with like-minded people (e.g., careers)
[Book Ch. 3 and 5 by Pratkanis]
How to deal with reactance:
o Minimize the request: ‘Even a penny will help’ technique
o Depersonalize the request: ‘It’s the policy’ or ‘This is the same deal we give
everybody’. Forming a parable or a story can also depersonalize the request.
o Redefine the relationship: The seller becomes a consultant with a common goal
and a ‘long-term relationship’ so that future interactions allow repair and
reciprocity.
o The power of ‘yes’: ‘Yes, and…’ instead of ‘No, instead…’ or ‘Yes, but….’. Thus,
don’t tell people what they cannot do, instead, tell them what they can do.
o Acknowledge resistance
o Jujitsu resistance: Also known as reverse psychology. However, this often does
not work.
o Providing choices: Restores the choosers decisional freedom.
o Resistance if futile: Accept resistance but frame it as powerless.
How to deal with scepticism:
o Counterargue: Strong arguments may work but they need to be communicated
gently. Two-sides messages (including negative features) may confer an
advantage.
o Distract resistance: Moderate distraction can interfere with a person’s
elaboration of the message. Weak messages get more persuasive, strong
messages less persuasive. Only a short-term solution.
o Consume resistance: Self-regulation is a limited resource, thus depleting this
source can decrease resistance. Only a short-term solution.
o Guarantees: Identify the source of resistance and provide a guarantee that this
will not be a problem. This improves the cost-benefit ratio.
o Looking ahead: (Planning fallacy as described above).
o Change the comparison: Door-in-the-face technique
How to deal with inertia:
o Disrupt inertia: Inertia may be disrupted when something unusual or confusing
is in the message (disrupt than reframe).
o Increase self-efficacy: Self-esteem boosts may make people feel more immune
to threats.
Topic 2
[Maertens et al., 2021]
Exposing people to small pieces of misinformation and letting them imagine how to refute
misinformation techniques (DEPICT; see Maertens et al., 2021) by stimulating analytical
thinking.
- This creates associations that help resist persuasion and improve misinformation
detection.
, - The effect decays over the course of 2 months
- ‘Real news’ is still rated as highly reliable
[Prestwich et al., 2015]
The discrepancy between intention and behaviour can be explained by three underlying
processes:
1. Intention viability: It is impossible for intention to find expression in the absence of
abilities, resources, or opportunities
2. Intention activation: The extent to which contextual demands alter the salience or
intensity of a focal intention relative to other intentions. Diminution of the activation
results in:
a. Prospective memory failure: Forgetting to perform the behaviour
b. Goal reprioritization: Intention is postponed or abandoned
3. Intention elaboration: People may fail to analyse contextual opportunities that
would permit their intention.
Implementation intentions are if-then plans that connect good opportunities to act with
cognitive or behavioural responses.
- It consists of when, where, and how of what one will do.
- This decreases the effort one needs to put into recognizing the opportunity in the
moment (automatic activation).
Evidence suggest that they substantially increase the likelihood that goal intentions are
translated into action.
Topic 3
[Chapter Cohen and Sherman]
The self has a powerful need to see itself as having integrity, but it must do so within the
constraints of reality.
- A healthy narrative gives people enough optimism to deal with daily challenges and
threats.
Self-Affirmation Theory
This theory states that there are tree motives for keeping an image of oneself as able to
control important adaptive and moral outcomes in one’s life.
1. Maintaining a global narrative of oneself as moral and adaptive (I am a good person)
2. It is important that one is ‘good enough’ not that one is superior
3. Self-integrity is not about praising oneself but to act in ways worthy of praise
Small inputs into the self-system can have large effects. The timing of self-affirmation
interventions can be very important. During stressful transitions and choice points, these can
help people navigate through difficulties and give them confidence to overcome them.
A key aspect of affirmation interventions is that the content is self-generated and tailored to
tap into each person’s particular valued identity.
, Self-Affirmation Theory: The Psychology
- It reminds people of psychosocial resources beyond a particular threat, thus
broadening their perspective
- A threat is seen in the context of an expansive view of the self
- It fosters an approach orientation to the threat instead of avoidance. This lets people
deal with the threat in a constructive way.
Thus, they A) form a buffer against the threat and B) lessen the psychological defensiveness
to the threat
Reinforcing interactions between the self-system and the social system creates positive
feedback loops that result in adaptive outcomes over time. This is because:
1. The output of self-affirmation can cycle back as input, perpetuating itself
2. The output can interact with other processes in the environment
3. The intervention can trigger an enduring shift in perception.
Topic 4
[Ch.3 book Gass & Seiter]
‘An attitude is a psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a particular entity
with some degree of favor or disfavor.’
Explicit Measures of Attitude
Self-Report Scales
- Likert scales
- Semantic differential scales: opposite adjectives that are placed as a scale
Visually Oriented Scales
- Visual analog scale (VAS): drawings of facial expressions on a continuum
Pitfalls in explicit measurements
- Social desirability bias
- Non-attitudes: instead of stating ‘I don’t know’, people create attitudes on the spot
- Mindfulness: one must be aware of their own attitude. This is often not the case.
Implicit Measures of Attitude
- Implicit Association Test (IAT)
- Other measures: affect misattribution procedure, evaluative priming
Both explicit as well as implicit measures provide information on attitudes. Implicit tends to
be more reliable for judgements that are made reflexively or impulsively, while for
judgements that are made thoughtfully, explicit measures yield better results.
Other ways of measuring
- Appearances: ‘Judging a book by its cover’
- Associations: People enter particular groups with like-minded people (e.g., careers)
