Comments on: Our Secret Attitude Changes

By: Kat

Kat — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 15:40:35 +0000

The question - it seems to me that the high school students were using deductive reasoning with information that had been gathered inductively.

3= 1 + 1+ x vs 1 + 1 + x =

Are students being taught that science is truth and therefore applying deductive reasoning? Is this a problem?

By: Szwagier

Szwagier — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 10:08:00 +0000

Living abroad and watching British attitudes towards Muslims hardening almost to the point of no return, while nothing of the kind has happened where I live - Poland, one of the most conservatively Christian countries on the planet and therefore, you might think, almost 'of necessity' anti-Muslim - it's hard if not impossible no to conclude that similar mechanisms are at work in supposedly mature minds. My thoughts on it here.

By: La

La — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 23:45:00 +0000

The brains of high school kids are not yet completely mature, so just because high schoolers don't remember when or why they changed their minds does not mean that people who are older than 25 will not remember. Fascinating study, but not universally applicable.

By: Jeremy (PsyBlog author)

Jeremy (PsyBlog author) — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 18:50:00 +0000

Anon, you can spell it either way.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 17:20:00 +0000

bussed = kissed
It should be bused

By: Don Berg

Don Berg — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 04:40:00 +0000

I recently ran into another summary of this experiment and found it very interesting, but I have one question. Did the change in "attitude" last for very long?

If the attitude was measured within a short time after the conversations then the results may be explained as another example of social conformity. The subjects might revert back to their original opinions over time and/or as soon as they return to their normal everyday social environment (with an equal lack of awareness of the change.)

On the other hand if the changes in attitude were persistent then it would be interesting to find out what effect that change in attitude would have when they return to their normal social environment.

It now occurs to me that it would also be important to find out if the subjects personal attachment or level of interest might be an important factor. It may be that the students really don't care about the issue so one attitude or the other is not going to make much difference in how they fit into their social situation or identify as part of their primary social groups.

If they do care a great deal about the issue and/or use their position on that issue as a key determinant of their social identity then the findings are truly remarkable.

I would expect that most people are going to be very flexible about most issues in order to get along socially but that there may be a select few issues that are crucial to personal and social identity. Therefore those few issues would not be susceptible to the effects of the situation that occurred in the experiment.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 21:35:00 +0000

Very interesting