Ch04 Myers3Ce
myers52027_ch04_4P.qxd
2/27/06
3:52 PM
Page 109
CHAPTER 4
Behaviour and Attitudes
Do attitudes determine behaviour? Are we all hypocrites?
When do attitudes predict behaviour?
Does behaviour determine attitudes? Role playing
Saying becomes believing
The foot-in-the-door phenomenon
Evil acts and attitudes
Good acts and attitudes
Social movements
Why do actions affect attitudes? Self-presentation: Impression management Self-justification: Cognitive dissonance
Self-perception
Comparing the theories
E
ach year throughout the industrialized world, the tobacco industry kills some 2 million of its best customers (Peto et al.,
1992). Given present trends, estimates a 1994 World Health Organization report, half a billion people alive today will be killed by tobacco. Although quick assisted suicide may be illegal, slowmotion suicide assisted by the tobacco industry is not.
People wonder: With the tobacco industry responsible for fatalities equal to 14 loaded and crashed jumbo jets a day (not including those in the expanding but hard to count developing world market), how do tobacco company executives live with themselves? At one of the world’s two largest tobacco advertisers, upper-level executives—mostly intelligent, family-oriented, communityminded people—resent being called “mass murderers.” They were less than pleased when one government official (Koop, 1997) called them “a sleazy bunch of people who misled us, deceived us and lied to us for three decades.” Moreover, they defend smokers’ right to choose. “Is it an addiction issue?” asks one vice-president.
“I don’t believe it. People do all sorts of things to express their individuality and to protest against society. And smoking is one of them, and not the worst” (Rosenblatt, 1994).
Social psychologists wonder: Do such statements reflect privately held attitudes? If this executive really thinks smoking is a comparatively healthy expression of individuality, how are such attitudes internalized? Or do his
2/27/06
3:52 PM
Page 109
CHAPTER 4
Behaviour and Attitudes
Do attitudes determine behaviour? Are we all hypocrites?
When do attitudes predict behaviour?
Does behaviour determine attitudes? Role playing
Saying becomes believing
The foot-in-the-door phenomenon
Evil acts and attitudes
Good acts and attitudes
Social movements
Why do actions affect attitudes? Self-presentation: Impression management Self-justification: Cognitive dissonance
Self-perception
Comparing the theories
E
ach year throughout the industrialized world, the tobacco industry kills some 2 million of its best customers (Peto et al.,
1992). Given present trends, estimates a 1994 World Health Organization report, half a billion people alive today will be killed by tobacco. Although quick assisted suicide may be illegal, slowmotion suicide assisted by the tobacco industry is not.
People wonder: With the tobacco industry responsible for fatalities equal to 14 loaded and crashed jumbo jets a day (not including those in the expanding but hard to count developing world market), how do tobacco company executives live with themselves? At one of the world’s two largest tobacco advertisers, upper-level executives—mostly intelligent, family-oriented, communityminded people—resent being called “mass murderers.” They were less than pleased when one government official (Koop, 1997) called them “a sleazy bunch of people who misled us, deceived us and lied to us for three decades.” Moreover, they defend smokers’ right to choose. “Is it an addiction issue?” asks one vice-president.
“I don’t believe it. People do all sorts of things to express their individuality and to protest against society. And smoking is one of them, and not the worst” (Rosenblatt, 1994).
Social psychologists wonder: Do such statements reflect privately held attitudes? If this executive really thinks smoking is a comparatively healthy expression of individuality, how are such attitudes internalized? Or do his