Effects of social persuasion on attitudes

The period came along with the rain, so feeling less irritable and cranky. No longer feel as if a monster is inside me clawing at my insides trying to get out. I envy people who aren't sensitive to the weather. I, unfortunately am, hence the reason I do not live in areas of the country where it rains about 70% of the time.

Social Psychology continues to fascinate. Been reading The Social Animal by Elliot Aronson, Ninth Edition for class. Clarified a few things.

One there is a difference between having an opinion and an attitude about something. Opinions can be easily changed, attitudes however are incredibly difficult to change. An opinion is what a person believes to be factually true - ie. New York is hot in the summer and there are approximately 12 million people lieving in NYC.
Opinions are primarily cognitive - they take place in our heads rather than our hearts. They can also be changed by good clear evidence to the contrary.

An attitude on the other hand is an opinion that contains an evaluative and emotional component. These aren't necessarly logical and can be influenced by numerous variables. ie. Our opinions about the characters and relationships on the TV show Buffy The Vampire Slayer or in regards to Spike and Angel are "attitudes" not opinions.

( reflections on how and if we can persuade others to share our point of view, what works what doesn't. Using BTVS as an example. )

ETA 2022: I just re-read the comments to this - and they are insane. We did take ourselves a touch too seriously back then, didn't we?

TV is evil..

Some interesting television statistic from a study conducted by George Gerbner, bolstered by samplings of viewers from all age groups, incoms, education etc. (Aronson, E, "The social animal." Ninth edition.)

Did you know "the average American (the study was of Americans) watches 30 hours of television a week - that's a little over 1500 hours a year. 37,800 commercials or more than a 100 a day. Average high school grad spends more time today in front of a tv set than in a classroom.

Also television tells you lies. Males outnumber females on tv 3 to 1 (interesting since population wise it's actually the opposite.) Women are depicted as younger and less experienced than the men they encounter on television. Nonwhites (especially Latinos and Asian Americans) and the elderly are underrepresented, and members of minority groups are disproportionately cast in minor roles. Moreover, most prime-time characters are portrayed as professional and mangerial workers: Although 67 percent of the workforce in the US is employed in a blue-collar or service job, only 25 percent of the television characters hold such jobs. (One of the reasons I like Dead Like Me, more non-professional jobs). Crime on TV is at least 10 times as prevalent as in real life. Over half of tv's characters are involved in a violent confrontation each week; in reality, less than 1 percent of Americans are victims of criminal violence in any given year, according to FBI statistics."

As David Rintels, a television writer and former president of Writer's Guild of America summed up "From 8 to 11'o clock each night, television is one long lie."

In Gerbner's study - he found that "TV watching heavily influenced the attitudes of viewers sampled. (Doesn't have to convince, I've seen similar results in posts online.). Heavy viewers express more racially prejudiced attitudes, overestimate the number of people employed as physicians, lawyers, and atheletes, 3, percieve women as having more limited abilities and interests than men, 4, hold exaggerated views about the prevalence of violence in society, and believe old people are fewer in number and less healthy today than they were 20 years ago. When the opposite is true.

Heavy viewers see the world as a more sinsister place than light viewers; they are likely to agree that most people are just looking out for themselves and would take advantage of you if they had the chance."

Other interesting stats: the average 15 year old has seen over 13,000 television killings. For most of us tv is virtually our only vivid source of info about crime. Ask yourself which statement is true:

1. Police officers are effective, solve most crimes, and are infalliable. The wrong person never ends up in jail.
2. Police officers have difficult jobs, aren't always effective, solve 30% of crimes, and innocent people occassionally are in jail.

1. Criminals turn to crime because of psychopathology or insatiable and (unnecessary) greed.
2. Criminals turn to crime due to societal-economic issues such as unemployment, depression, poverty, etc.

Oh and..."the incidence of larceny (theft) increases when tv is introduced into an area.. The most reasonable explanation is that television promotes the consumption of good through advertisements; it also depicts upper- and middle-class lifestyles as the norm. The illusion of widespread wealth and consumption may frustrate and anger deprived viewers who compare their lifestyles with those portrayred on tv, thereby motivating them to "share in the American dream" any way they can.

While I don't necessarily agree with everything stated above. The bit about crime for instance, I think tv actually does show us that police officers aren't always effective and the wrong person ends up in the slammer, certainly has on the shows I've seen. But I do agree with the last statement and the one about violence.
Too much of it. Have made a pact with myself - I am not watching any tv show whose main focus is solving the crimes of or tracking serial killers, I'm sick of the genre. Tired of seeing gruesome kidnappings and crimes and deaths each week. So this more or less cancels out the following shows: MEdium, Bones, CSI, Law & Order's, Killer Intent, Criminal Minds, Supernatural.) I'm making an exception for Nip/Tuck - because it's not really about that and just using a metaphor. Same with shows who may occassionally do it, but clearly not a focal point.

Shows I plan to check out:

Threshold
Invasion
Veronica Mars
Lost (difficult to do both, but may try)
House
Gilmore Girls
My name is Earl
Kitchen Confidential
Arrested Development
Desperate Housewives
West Wing
Grey's Anatomy
Nip/Tuck
Reunion (didn't like that much, but may give it another chance)
Alias (not crazy about it, but may give another chance)
Smallville (not thrilled, but curious about JM appearance)

That's it.