Persuasion and Influence: attitude change and behavior change

International audience The study of the socio-psychological processes involved in persuasion is onethe pivotal topics in social psychology. Eight decades ago, researchers from Yaleuniversity were the first in studying the mechanism of persuasion in the specificcontext of World War ll. Persuasion is obtained when the receptor of communicationmakes a change in his mind that is when a change in attitude occurs. Logically, such achange in attitude should imply a change in behavior. The research on behavioralchange show that it is not systematically the case. Thus changing what people think isnot changing what people do (or what people will do). This shortcut could biased theconclusions of researches, in the large domain of persuasion as well as in the morerestricted domain of the persuasive technologies. In conclusion, we would like topromote a theoretical, methodological articulation between HMI and social psychology. La compréhension des déterminants et des processus socio-cognitifsimpliqués dans les phénomènes de persuasion s'inscrit dans une tradition derecherche remontant aux années 1940, connu sous le nom d'École de Yale. Lestentatives de persuasion aboutissent, lorsque le récepteur du message persuasifmodifie son attitude dans le sens défendu dans le message. En toute rationalité, onpourrait attendre que la modification d'une attitude entraîne une modification ducomportement. Ce raccourci, souvent pris notamment par les tenants de la persuasiontechnologique, s'accompagne aussi de la polysémie des termes attitude etcomportements. Après un rappel de définition conceptuelle du point de vue de lapsychologie sociale, nous présenterons un rappel bref -et par conséquent partial etincomplet- des théories et modèles majeurs auxquels ont recours les chercheurstravaillant dans le domaine de la persuasion (i.e. changement d'attitude) et del'influence sociale (changement de comportement). Nous défendons l'idée que dans ledomaine d'étude de la persuasion technologique, le rapprochement théorique etméthodologique de l'ergonomie cognitive, des IHM et de la psychologie socialeconstitue un tiercé gagnant.

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Persuasive Technologies and Behavior Modification Through Technology: Design of a Mobile Application for Behavior Change

Theories to Inform Superior Health Informatics Research and Practice - Healthcare Delivery in the Information Age ◽

10.1007/978-3-319-72287-0_11 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 163-184

Author(s):

Andreas Hamper ◽

Isabella Eigner ◽

Alexander Popp

Keyword(s):

Behavior Change ◽

Behavior Modification ◽

Mobile Application ◽

Technology Design ◽

Persuasive Technologies ◽

And Behavior

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Dissonance and Attitude Change

10.1093/acrefore/9780190236557.013.296 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Jeff Stone ◽

John J. Taylor

Keyword(s):

Social Psychology ◽

Cognitive Dissonance ◽

21St Century ◽

Attitude Change ◽

The Self ◽

Cognitive Mechanisms ◽

Cognitive Dissonance Theory ◽

Early 21St Century ◽

Dissonance Theory ◽

And Behavior

Cognitive dissonance theory (CDT) was first introduced by Leon Festinger. Cognitive dissonance is the process by which people detect an inconsistency between cognitions, such as attitudes, beliefs, and behavior. When individuals become aware of an inconsistency between cognitions, they experience a state of psychological discomfort that motivates them to restore consistency. Factors such as the importance of the cognitions and the magnitude of the discomfort play a role in determining how people restore consistency. Festinger described three primary ways people can reduce dissonance: change a cognition; add new cognitions; or change the importance of the inconsistent cognitions. Many early studies showed that when people are unable to change their behavior, they will change their attitudes to be more in line with the inconsistent behavior. Over the years, CDT has undergone many challenges and revisions. Some revisions focus on the importance of cognitions about the self in the processes by which dissonance motivates attitude change. Others focused on the consequences of the behavior and various cognitive mechanisms that underlie the experience of dissonance. In the early 21st century, research has examined the underlying motivation for dissonance-induced attitude and behavior change, and how people prefer to reduce dissonance once it is present. And, as with the entire field of social psychology, dissonance researchers are also raising concerns about the replicability of classic dissonance effects and focusing their attention on the need to improve the methods the field uses to test predictions going forward.

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The mixed effects of online diversity training

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ◽

10.1073/pnas.1816076116 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 116 (16) ◽

pp. 7778-7783 ◽

Cited By ~ 20

Author(s):

Edward H. Chang ◽

Katherine L. Milkman ◽

Dena M. Gromet ◽

Robert W. Rebele ◽

Cade Massey ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Behavior Change ◽

Field Experiment ◽

Attitude Change ◽

Diversity Training ◽

Bias Reduction ◽

Placebo Control ◽

Women In The Workplace ◽

Global Organization ◽

The One ◽

And Behavior

We present results from a large (n = 3,016) field experiment at a global organization testing whether a brief science-based online diversity training can change attitudes and behaviors toward women in the workplace. Our preregistered field experiment included an active placebo control and measured participants’ attitudes and real workplace decisions up to 20 weeks postintervention. Among groups whose average untreated attitudes—whereas still supportive of women—were relatively less supportive of women than other groups, our diversity training successfully produced attitude change but not behavior change. On the other hand, our diversity training successfully generated some behavior change among groups whose average untreated attitudes were already strongly supportive of women before training. This paper extends our knowledge about the pathways to attitude and behavior change in the context of bias reduction. However, the results suggest that the one-off diversity trainings that are commonplace in organizations are unlikely to be stand-alone solutions for promoting equality in the workplace, particularly given their limited efficacy among those groups whose behaviors policymakers are most eager to influence.

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Attitudes, Habits, and Behavior Change

Annual Review of Psychology ◽

10.1146/annurev-psych-020821-011744 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 73 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Bas Verplanken ◽

Sheina Orbell

Keyword(s):

Behavior Change ◽

Attitude Change ◽

Environmental Sustainability ◽

Good Health ◽

Annual Review ◽

Publication Date ◽

Change Strategies ◽

The Individual ◽

Changing Attitudes ◽

And Behavior

Efforts to guide peoples’ behavior toward environmental sustainability, good health, or new products have emphasized informational and attitude change strategies. There is evidence that changing attitudes leads to changes in behavior, yet this approach takes insufficient account of the nature and operation of habits, which form boundary conditions for attitude-directed interventions. Integration of research on attitudes and habits might enable investigators to identify when and how behavior change strategies will be most effective. How might attitudinally driven behavior change be consolidated into lasting habits? How do habits protect the individual against the vicissitudes of attitudes and temptations and promote goal achievement? How might attitudinal approaches aiming to change habits be improved by capitalizing on habit discontinuities and strategic planning? When and how might changing or creating habit architecture shape habits directly? A systematic approach to these questions might help move behavior change efforts from attitude change strategies to habit change strategies. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Psychology, Volume 73 is January 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

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