Attitude change

Based on the social psychology lecture by Professor Marci Lobel, Attitude refers to the reaction towards something. The reaction may be in terms of behavior or beliefs, emotions or when one is in a certain situation .Attitudes are made up of four theories: learning of the message, transfer of the affect, desire for consistency and counter arguing. Learning of the message assists one to learn and understanding the intended meaning of the message which in turn helps in initiating attitude change. Attitude change can occur when the intellectual (cognitive) part and the emotional (affective) part link. Most people’s behaviors do not march other people expectations, feelings and faiths.  This is known as desire for consistency. The theory explains reasons why people prefer others’ beliefs and actions to march their own. When there is an inconsistency in behavior, ideology and beliefs, an individual often become uneasy. For example if an individual drinks alcohol, the other individual will advise him or her to stop. This will cause a change in behavior. Attitudes are formed in various ways. Most young children imitate their parents or guardians’ attitudes through learning of their messages. Transfer affect is one of the main way through which attitudes are formed by associating an object with something that may influence the overall appearance of the object. Advertisers often use beautiful models and good music to advertise their products. Counter arguing is a common way of forming attitudes and is normally used by lecturers and parents. Attitudes are created through candid experience and learning of various facts. When one comes into contact with a certain object be it a leader, songs or clothing, their attitude is likely to be influenced and changed by the object. There are four elements of attitude change process: the communicator, the communication, the target and the situation. A communicator is a person who conveys the message with the intention of gaining other people’s attention. A good communicator must be credible with his information in order to be deemed as trust worthy. After picking an efficient communicator, one must pick the type of information he or she wants delivered to an audience. The message should be understandable. It also should be free from any discrepancy and fear arousal. A firm information should contain evidence that can help in persuading people to change their attitude. The third factor to consider after choosing the message is the target audience. The communicator must ensure that the audience he has chosen are receptive to the message and show commitment. The audience must also be thoughtful and process the information presented to them by blocking any distractions. An audience will also help in predicting the route information will take. A message can take a thoughtful route or an unplanned route. Any route is acceptable because either can be successful in delivery of the message. Some situations may contain audience with strong self-esteems that may resist persuasion. One way of growing attitudes is through forewarning which involves giving people a prior caution that someone may come bearing a persuasive message in the future. This puts them in a forewarning position to refuse persuasion. Inoculation is another way that might help an audience prevent persuasion. This approach is done by developing the cognitive part of an attitude through presenting a shaky argument on the current attitude with the aim of assisting the individual make counter arguments attacks on any persuasion that may be presented in the near future.

Hidden Figures is a movie that has many instances of attitude change. The movie is a true story based on a book by Margot Lee Shetterly. The movie narrates the true story of three black American women: Kathrine G Johnson, Mary Jackson and Dorothy Vaughan who worked at NASA’s research institute in Hampton. The ladies played a key role in one of the most important times of history: catapulting the late John Glenn into earth’s orbit. Attitude change is seen through racism and segregation and even class.

In the movie Hidden Figures, attitude change is seen when Mary has to battle it out in court in order to be admitted in the University Of Virginia. She needed the engineering courses so as to qualify to attend the training program in NASA. Sadly for her she is black and this puts her in a forewarning position that leads to fear arousal. The campus does not admit black students in spite of a directive from the government and Supreme Court. The judge maintains his stand that Virginia is a segregated state. Mary listens to the judge keenly without any distraction and evaluates the message of the judge, she then argues out her case on the matter based on logic rather than discrepancy. Mary pleads with the judge to allow her into the institution. She goes further to explain that she will be the first woman to attend the university just as the judge was the first man in his family to be educated. The judge allows her to attend evening classes only. The judge changes his attitude towards Mary by trying to fit in with her predicaments and feelings. On the other hand, Mary counter argues the statement of the judge by trying to alter his beliefs and feelings. Mary’s husband is against her decision to go to court as he believes that freedom is not given but   fought for. He later changes his attitude when Mary persuades him so as to achieve desire   for consistency.

According to the movie, there is a scene where the trio’s car breaks down while they were going to work. Mary fears that they might lose their jobs due to their lateness. Kathrine acknowledges Mary’s worries and suggests that she should probably walk the remaining distance or sit in a segregated bus which reserves back sits for blacks. Two questions arise that reveal attitude change. Why live very far from their work place? And why don’t they have a better car? Before answering the questions, a white police officer arrives to confirm what was going on. Before he could listen in, Mary retorts, “no crime in being a negro” Kathrine replies back to Mary, “nobody wants to go to jail because of your mouth either” the minute Mary tries to defend herself, the officer conclude that she is ill-mannered .The officer seems to be inoculated to conclude that Mary is rude and he could not be persuaded by her. When the officer finds out they work for NASA and they are assisting in putting a man on the moon before the Russians, he offers to escort them. In the conversation between the officer and the three women, attitude change process is initiated when the officer finds credibility in their occupations and this shifts his behavioral change towards them as he escorts them to work. The officer took a liking to them which built his trustworthiness toward the ladies.

Based on the film, Hidden Figures, when Mr. Harris realizes discrimination and racism hinders Kathrine from performing her tasks, he goes to the west wing to pull down the sign ‘colored bathrooms’ from one of the bathrooms and allows everyone to go to any bathroom near their respective workspace. Harris shows his commitment to change his attitude toward black people who worked at NASA. He then takes a forewarning position and lets other whites know that there is nothing special about bathrooms and black people and white people pee the same color.