CU Boulder Psych HW question: "Describe an attitude that is important to you. Discuss examples of affective, behavioral, and cognitive components of your attitude."
Answer that I actually turned in:
As a lifelong
Washington Redskins fan, one of my deepest-held attitudes is that the Dallas
Cowboys and their fans are terrible people who hate freedom. In terms of affect and emotion, I
feel a deep-seated and limbic disgust when I see someone wearing a Dallas
Cowboys jersey, especially within the boundaries of Washington, D.C. where I
live. I feel the blood rushing to my face and I get chills of rage when I see
someone wearing a Jason Witten jersey cheering for the Cowboys in a sports bar.
These reactions are almost pre-cognitive and visceral – they come before any
volitional thoughts or definitive behavior is put into action.
When
I see the aforementioned Cowboys-jersey-wearing individual in, say, a
supermarket on Connecticut Ave. near my home in Washington, D.C., especially if
they have the trappings of a frat-boy,
moved-to-D.C.-to-work-on-Capitol-Hill-for-a-Republican-congressman-type-look,
following my affective, visceral reaction, I will actively think sentences
like: “Wow, what a jerk that guy must be to like the Cowboys,” and “Yeah, he
must work for a Republican Congressman, and probably a corrupt one that thinks
atheists are going to hell.” These, interestingly enough, are evidence of
innumerable cognitive biases on my part. (However, that does not mean these
suppositions are out of the question.) Nonetheless, my own
“Cowboys-are-terrible cognition” is fraught with negative biases about the
Cowboys and their fans, and I actively seek out examples of why the Dallas
Cowboys are so terrible (e.g. signing Terrell Owens, having Tony Romo as a
quarterback, being owned by Jerry Jones) so as to “confirm” my own biases about
the team. These beliefs “persevere” every time I see a drunken redneck in a Dez
Bryant jersey jaywalking, and I conveniently choose to ignore the attractive
woman who was kind to me and “just happened” to be wearing a cute, Cowboys tank
top. She is the exception according to my cognitive biases, and the inebriated
hillbilly is the rule.
Behaviorally,
I will follow up on my emotions and cognitions with out-loud,
to-be-overheard-on-purpose statements like, “The Cowboys suck and all their
fans are terrible human beings who hate freedom.” I will also shake my head and
sigh gutturally when I see a pickup truck on the Beltway inevitably peppered
with stupid, little navy blue stars. And when I notice the Washington,
Maryland, or D.C. license plates that this Cowboy has on their truck, I will say
out loud to myself, “How could anyone be such a traitor?” I also might begin to
tailgate them, or cut them off in traffic and drive slower in front of them. And
of course, this behavior will elicit an inevitable reaction from said Cowboys
fan driver, and this negative reaction will further influence my own ingrained
attitude of hatred, intolerance, and active disdain. Though not particularly
rational or safe, these behaviors are an excellent example of how cognitive
biases can influence human beings to undertake certain chains of behavior, and
also subsequently further influence held attitudes.
