Changing attitudes by changing behavior

Thoughts and feelings predict people’s behavior and these are influenced by people’s
actions. Generally, people are interested in understanding the causes of both theirs and others’
behavior. Through better understanding the actions of people around us we will have a better
chance of getting people cooperate with us. In this sense, the concept of self-perception
presents importance because it is used as a guide for determining our own thoughts and feelings.

A common finding in social psychology is that, many times, people do not realize how
much social situation can influence their behaviors. For example, we may believe that we engage
in a certain behavior for personal reasons, but in fact there have been external factors that
influenced the outcome. This phenomenon is called insufficient justification. The opposite
phenomenon is over justification and it occurs when we consider that a specific behavior was
caused by a specific situation. Moreover, when we use rewards as incentives, it doesn’t
necessarily mean that these will increase the liking for the activity performed. For instance, when
children are given money or similar incentives to get good grades, their performance may
increase, but their liking for school may decrease. On the other hand, harsh punishments may
prevent a behavior from occurring, but not the attitude towards the situation. As a conclusion, if
we want someone to develop a strong attitude, it should be used the smallest reward or
punishment that would produce the desired behavior.

Another concept that presents importance is the one of cognitive dissonance and it
represents the discomfort someone feels when they behave in ways that they consider to be
inappropriate, like for instance failing to live up to their own expectations. Cognitive dissonance
is an important principle that explains how attitudes follow behavior in many domains of our
everyday life.

A good example here is represented by people who failed to quit smoking, who naturally
suffered from low self esteem and instead of accepting this negative feeling, they tended to
engage in behaviors that reduced dissonance (by trying to convince themselves that smoking is
not that bad).

Another situation when we might experience the negative affective state of cognitive
dissonance is after making an important and irrevocable decision. The phenomenon that appears
in this case is called the “buyer’s remorse” and it refers to the feeling of regret that occurs after
making an important decision. However, post-decisional dissonance is reduced by focusing on
the positive aspects of the choice that was made. Furthermore, research on cognitive dissonance
shows that people who are experiencing dissonance will generally try to reduce it by convincing
themselves they made the right choice. So, in order to learn from our behavior, we should
examine a situation critically and try to tolerate dissonance.