Attitudes, Prejudice and Helping

When behaviour changes the attitude

Cognitive dissonance (Festinger): holding two inconsistent thoughts is uncomfortable, and the cheapest repair is usually to change the attitude to match what you already did. In the classic study, participants paid one dollar to tell someone a dull task was fun later rated the task as genuinely more enjoyable than those paid twenty dollars — the well-paid group had an external excuse, the poorly paid group had none.

• Foot-in-the-door — a small request first makes a large one likelier.
• Door-in-the-face — an unreasonable request first makes the real one look modest.
• Central route persuasion works through evidence for a motivated audience; the peripheral route works through cues such as attractiveness or repetition.
• Mere exposure effect — repeated contact alone increases liking.

Prejudice: three separate things

Stereotype is a belief, prejudice is a feeling, discrimination is a behaviour. They often travel together but can be separated, which is exactly what exam items test. Sources include in-group bias, out-group homogeneity ("they are all alike"), ethnocentrism, scapegoat theory (frustration redirected onto a weaker group) and the just-world hypothesis (people get what they deserve, so victims must have earned it). A self-fulfilling prophecy makes the expectation come true through changed behaviour. Contact reduces prejudice best when groups have equal status and a superordinate goal — Sherif's Robbers Cave camp united two hostile groups only when a shared problem forced cooperation.

Why people do or do not help

Helping requires three steps to succeed in order: notice the event, interpret it as an emergency, and assume responsibility. Pluralistic ignorance derails step two — everyone stays calm because everyone else looks calm — and diffusion of responsibility derails step three. Social exchange theory treats helping as a cost-benefit calculation, while the reciprocity and social responsibility norms treat it as an obligation. Attraction runs on proximity, physical attractiveness and similarity.