Attitude Formation & Change (College Board AP® Psychology): Study Guide
Identities & groups
Societies, organizations, and groups each have a shared culture
This can be defined as a common set of beliefs, behaviors, values, and material symbols
As individuals interact within these groups, they develop both personal and social identities:
Personal identities refer to traits that describe an individual's personality
E.g. kind, generous, thoughtful
Social identities refers to how individuals are defined in relation to others within society
E.g. in relation to religion, work, gender, race, sexual orientation, disability, and immigration status
Social identities are shaped both by how individuals see themselves and how they are categorized by others.
Intersectionality refers to the recognition that individuals hold multiple social identities at the same time
These identities interact and overlap, shaping experiences in ways that cannot be understood by examining each identity in isolation
E.g. a person who identifies as female, Black, and bisexual experiences the combined effects of these identities, rather than each one separately
In-groups, out-groups, and reference groups
An in-group is any group a person identifies with
E.g. your school, your sports team, your cultural community
An out-group is a group a person does not identify with and sees as different
E.g. a rival school, a different cultural community
A reference group is a group used as a standard for social comparison when evaluating one’s attitudes, behavior, or success
Reference groups can be either in-groups or out-groups
In-group bias is the tendency to favor members of one’s own group over others
E.g. rating people from your own nationality as more trustworthy
This is closely related to ethnocentrism, the tendency to view one’s own culture as the norm and judge others against it
Stereotypes, prejudice & discrimination
Stereotypes
A stereotype is a generalized belief about a group that is applied to all members, regardless of individual differences
Stereotypes may be positive or negative, and may be applied to any group
e.g. racial, ethnic, gender, age, occupational
Stereotypes function as cognitive shortcuts (heuristics):
they reduce effort and speed up judgment without the need to process detailed individual information
this can be adaptive in low-stakes situations but increase the risk of error when applied to people
Stereotypes are maintained through confirmation bias:
once a stereotype is formed, people notice and remember information that supports the stereotype and ignore contradictory evidence
this self-reinforcing cycle makes stereotypes resistant to change
Stereotypes form the cognitive basis of prejudice and discrimination
Prejudice & discrimination
Prejudice is an attitude (often negative) toward a group based on group membership
It involves cognitive, affective (emotional), and behavioral components
E.g. believing that members of a particular group are less capable, without any evidence
Discrimination is behavior that results from prejudicial beliefs
E.g. refusing to hire someone because of their background
The relationship between prejudice and discrimination is not always direct:
a person can hold prejudiced attitudes without discriminating
e.g., due to social norms or legal constraints
a person can discriminate without consciously holding prejudiced attitudes
e.g., through implicit bias
Implicit attitudes
Implicit attitudes are unconscious attitudes that influence behavior without awareness
Implicit attitudes can be measured using tools such as the Implicit Associations Test (IAT)
Common forms of implicit attitudes include:
Phenomenon | Definition | Example |
|---|---|---|
Just-world phenomenon | The belief that the world is fair and that people get what they deserve, leading to blaming victims for their misfortune | Believing that a person who was robbed must have been careless or must have done something to deserve it |
Out-group homogeneity bias | The tendency to perceive members of out-groups as more similar to each other than members of one's own in-group | "They all look/think/act the same" |
In-group bias | The tendency to favor members of one's own group over out-group members in evaluations and resource allocation | Rating in-group members as more competent, trustworthy, or deserving |
Ethnocentrism | The belief that one's own cultural group is superior to others, and using one's own culture as the standard for judging other cultures | Viewing practices from another culture as strange or inferior because they differ from one's own |
Origin of stereotypes & prejudice
Two key processes explain how stereotypes and prejudice develop:
Social learning theory suggests that stereotypes and prejudice are learned through observation and reinforcement:
Children raised in environments where prejudice is modeled may be more likely to adopt those attitudes
Categorization is a cognitive process where humans naturally categorize people into groups to manage information
In-group bias emerges partly from this categorization process
Combating prejudice
Contact theory proposes that prejudice can be reduced through interaction between groups, but only under specific conditions:
the groups must have equal status in the contact situation
the contact must involve cooperation toward shared goals
the contact must be supported by authority (e.g., school, law, employer)
Sherif's Robbers Cave study (1966) illustrated how easily intergroup conflict develops and how it can be reduced:
Boys at a summer camp were divided into two groups that quickly developed strong in-group loyalty and out-group hostility
introducing shared goals (superordinate goals) that required cooperation from both groups was effective in reducing hostility and improving intergroup relations
Belief perseverance & cognitive dissonance
Belief perseverance is the tendency to maintain beliefs even when evidence contradicts them
E.g. someone who believes a particular diet is effective continues to hold this belief even after seeing scientific evidence that it is no more effective than a control diet
Belief perseverance is driven by confirmation bias:
Confirmation bias is the tendency to seek out, interpret, and remember information in a way that confirms existing beliefs
E.g. a person who believes a particular political party is corrupt tends to notice and remember stories that confirm this view, while dismissing contradictory evidence
Confirmation bias makes belief perseverance self-reinforcing
The more a person seeks confirming evidence, the stronger the belief becomes
Belief perseverance has significant real-world consequences:
It contributes to the persistence of stereotypes and prejudice
Contradictory evidence is reinterpreted rather than integrated
It makes changing public attitudes through factual correction alone very difficult
It can be particularly dangerous in medical, legal, and political contexts
Cognitive dissonance
Cognitive dissonance is the discomfort caused by holding conflicting beliefs or behaving inconsistently with one’s attitudes
The discomfort motivates the person to reduce dissonance by:
changing behavior
changing attitudes
adding new justifications
E.g. a person who believes smoking is harmful but continues to smoke experiences cognitive dissonance. They may reduce it by telling themselves they will quit soon
Festinger & Carlsmith's (1959) classic study demonstrated cognitive dissonance:
Participants performed a boring, repetitive task and were then paid either $1 or $20 to tell the next participant the task was interesting
Participants paid only $1 changed their attitudes by later reporting that they found the task more enjoyable than those paid $20
Cognitive dissonance theory has important implications for attitude change:
Attitudes do not simply drive behavior; behavior can drive attitude change
When people are encouraged to behave in ways that conflict with their attitudes, they are motivated to bring their attitudes in line with their behavior
This has applications in health behavior change, persuasion, and conflict resolution
Examiner Tips and Tricks
For Skill 4.B, belief perseverance should be explained using confirmation bias as the underlying mechanism
Show how people selectively attend to information that supports their beliefs, and use this to argue why simply presenting factual evidence is often insufficient to change strong attitudes (e.g. stereotypes or conspiracy beliefs)
For Skill 4.B, cognitive dissonance questions a defensible claim is that behavior can lead to attitude change
Use the Festinger & Carlsmith study to challenging the common-sense assumption that we act in accordance with our pre-existing attitudes
For Skill 3.B, you may be asked to interpret data on attitude change across groups
Apply statistical skills (e.g. identifying mean, median, range, or variation) and link your interpretation directly to what the data shows about changes in prejudice or attitudes
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