Attitude Change: Multiple Roles for Persuasion Variables

Reaction Paper
Article 1.
The publications are the works of Richard Petty and Duane Wagner. On it the two professors argue that the surrounding circumstances around an individual highly affect the manner in which they process information around them. This persuasion can be in the form of forceful bombardment by information from external sources such as peers or friends
or it can be subtle hints and nuances from benign sources such as newspaper articles and television reporting.
The authors argue that in the domain of social psychology, attitude construct is heavily influenced by information received from latent sources whose verifiability is in doubt. This belief goes hand in hand with the normative belief that information can be true if it is repeated on a larger scale. The infamous case of O.J Simpson forms a crucial example of the verifiability of this premise. The O.J Simpson case provided a rich petri dish in which psychologists could independently research the influence of latent suggestion on the individuals core belief system. The jurors in the case became the unwilling and unwitting guinea pigs in this grand experiment. They were also expected to exercise objectivity in a case where the suspect, a celebrated, African American football player, is on trial for a double homicide where the victims were his wife and her lover. Given the racially divisive nature of the case, it had to be a major dilemma to exercise an independent thought. The question, therefore, became whether the jurors were influenced by the opinions they saw on TV prior to their sequestration or whether the suggestions they got from these latent sources merely strengthened their resolve to exercise independent thought.
Article 2. The Role of Metacognition in Social Judgement
The human thought process is widely perceived as the sole distinguishing aspect of mankind that separates humans from other animals. Though humans can mimic behaviour from other animals and vice versa, it is mankinds awareness that completely separates him from the hordes of high intelligence animal species. This knowledge is identified by mankinds ability to form cognitive conclusions from everyday occurrences and objects. In a publication by Richard Petty, Pablo Brinol, Zakary Tormala and Duane Wegner titled The Role of Metacognition in social judgement, the nature of thought is critically investigated.
Metacognition is the thinking that arises based on a primary view. For example, sensory perceptions can identify a locus around which can form an idea, after which a follow-up thought is established to furnish or critic the initial view. The role of metacognition in social judgement investigates the way in which secondary thought affects we perceive our surroundings and other issues facing the society. In this publication, the authors critically examine the thought creation process through establishing the various levels and forms of metacognition. The fluency of the human thought process is reviewed and the question whether we understand situations better when we place ourselves in them is critically discussed.
The publication further examines the notion of mere exposure. It refers to how the brain creates shortcuts for the ease of retrieval of cognition due to repeated exposure to the same phenomenon and how this affects the way we view and interpret things. In summary, the publication examines the core structures of the human thought process and the foundation of beliefs, attitudes, and personalities. The article shows how these aspects are affected by metacognition how they influence the way on which we form opinions and judgement of issues affecting us.
Article 3. The Flexibility Correlation Model: The Role of Naïve Theories of Bias in Bias Correction.
In a multifaceted society with multivariate personalities and nationalities, bias becomes the surest means in which an individual can easily and quickly draw conclusions that might have otherwise taken a lot of to do, to know a person. The brain automatically fits people into certain present groups set by either society or human experience and these groups are deemed to be the real indicator to judge an individuals personality and behaviour. Therefore, so long as a person falls within this group, then he or she is expected to behave and act in a manner that would be typical of people in that group. This form of stereotyping is usually regarded as a social evolutionary trait that enables people to focus their mental faculties on other more pressing alters than trying to learn an individual through observations and interrogations. This and other notions of bias control are discussed in a publication by Duane Wegner and Richard Petty titled the flexible correlation model: The role of naïve theories of bias in bias correction.
In a complex society, bias seems to be the only means through which individuals can quickly learn the mannerisms of others without having to expend valuable time to acquaint themselves independently with their subjects. With societal maladies such as racism, classes, religious bigotry amongst other forms of negative aspects of stereotyping, bias has taken a whole new negative connotation than before. This has necessitated individuals to seek to correct their bias and this is referred to as bias correction. Bias correction, argues the Richard and Duane, is a critical aspect of society that allows individuals to invest their time into independently appreciating the uniqueness in individualism through learning the subject matter independently.
In a court system where the jurors have to adjudge the culpability of a suspect, and where the jurors themselves are not well versed in the law, then their penchant to draw conclusions is partially influenced by their thoughts and biases prior to becoming appointed jurors. Their capacity to sidestep their bias is at the core of their ability to render justice to the accused. This capability is highly influenced by several factors that highly sway their opinions and these form the external sources of bias that have to be dealt with but cannot be avoided. Bias comes from a variety of sources and these have been proven to affect the thought mechanisms of jurors highly. In essence, this publication seeks to highlight the sources of bias and their independent capabilities of distracting the subject from forming independent thought. The capacity of an individual to cancel or even correct bias is influenced by the source of the bias and their ability to resettle after being settled by the initial bias.
Reaction to Publications
The exact extent of the influence that primary thought has on the way we view our immediate environment has always been a subject of considerable debate. It is almost as timeless as the question of free will and automotive thought. The question has always been whether human actions influenced by an external stimulus can still be seen as a consequence of free will. Our perceptions of our environment as interlinked with the trove of experience and memories and the derivative lessons learnt from them and this process is cyclic and automatic that it happens on a subliminal level. The fact that it is a subliminal process can make it seem as if our actions are as a result of primary thought yet they are the result of years of conditioning both from an external source as well as internal interpretations of our environment.
Psychologists have always argued that an individual has the power to interpret stimuli. However a lot of research has been carried out on how much the environment determines human behaviour. Cultures and social perceptions change the thought process of people. Never the less, other scholars have suggested that it is indeed individuals and a community as a whole that controls the environment. Thus, the relationship between perception of phenomena and behaviour of organisms is a complex equation.
The three publications reviewed indicate that there is a direct link between bias and our perception of primary cognition. The fact is that we are slowly persuaded by external factors and when this level of persuasion is stretched out over an extended period, it might seem as if they are as a result of primary cognitive interpretations. Deriving a clear distinction between the two has been the subject of the three publications all of which have handled the issue from different dimensions. In essence, the role of external persuasions in the construct of independent thought matrixes will continue to form a core area of study in the wider field of social psychology.