[Ethics] Lecture by Kavan Limbasiya (AIR-198/CSE’14) [Source Mrunal]

E2/P1: Video Lecture by Kavan Limbasiya (AIR-198/CSE’14)

Youtube Link: https://youtu.be/7IuEfKdc_Qs

Attitude: Meaning & types

Attitude is always about “Something”. It’s a state of mind- your positive/negative feeling towards a person, object, event, idea, environment.
It determines how people will arrive at a correct judgement.
Attitude AND Aptitude are different- Surviving terminal disease depends on your ‘attitude’ towards life rather than ‘aptitude’ in physical training. We’ll discuss more on this during next lecture (E3)

Attitudes can be positive or negative
Positive attitudes	Negative attitudes
Optimism, persistence	Pessimism
Jealous	Content (satisfied)
Tolerant	intolerant, rigid
Modest, humble	Inferiority, superiority
Cooperative	Condescending, hostile
Cheerful	Cynical

Attitude: Salient Features

Attitudes are directed towards an object, event, person or organization and give specific reaction to them.
Attitude affects group behavior e.g. Jury service, racial prejudice, work environment, voting pattern and more.
They help us understand ourselves and others.
They can be explicit – formed by recent events
They can be implicit- derived from past memories and traumatic experiences.
They protect us from acknowledging harsh realities of life and thereby help coping up with emotional conflict.
They’re situational.
Some thinkers say Attitude is permanent, forms habit and becomes predictable
Some thinkers say Attitude is tentative- a person will form attitude from his past experience but if new situation comes he’ll evaluate and change attitude. Thus, Attitudes are spontaneous reaction to environment.
Persuasion can change attitude of a person. If a trustworthy, expert, likable person says, “rich people’s love for fur-clothes has led to extinction of xyz. Species”. Then next time you see a rich lady, you’ll feel repulsed. We’ll discuss more on persuasion and attitude change in third session of this lecture (E2/P3).

Physiology determines attitude
Physiology: Age	Physiology: Disease
Pre-teen: pliant Teen: rebellious Old man: conservative	TB: Optimistic Epileptics: cynical Encephalitis: aggressive.

Some thinkers don’t agree with above, and believe that Social factors determine a person’s attitude.

CAB Model of Attitude

Attitude =combination of cognitive, affective and behavioral components
C: Cognitive	Knowledge and beliefs. When you form an opinion from the available information that’s cognitive attitude. If you’re framing an opinion about humans, then you may end up stereotyping. e.g snake is poisonous. (your belief) e.g. cricketers play for money and not for nation. e.g. death penalty should be removed because it doesn’t reduce crime rate. (your belief)
A: Affective	Feelings and emotions such as pleasure, hate, fear, anger, happiness, sorrow. What do we feel when that object is present before us? e.g. I fear snakes (your feeling) e.g. I hate cricket because all matches are fixed. (your feeling) e.g. I dislike the idea of death penalty. (your feeling)
B: Behavioral	Overt behavior. Your predisposition (Sensitivity) towards a person / object. e.g. I’ll run away if there is a snake. e.g. I will not buy xyz brand toothpaste because it is promoted by a cricketer and I know all cricketers are match fixers. (your behavior / action in shopping mall.) e.g. I’ll lead a candle march against Death penalty. (your behavior on street)

CAB has synergy- each component is independent, but they will strengthen each other.

Attitude Structure #1: Uni-Directional

Atttiude: Uni-directional structure model & limitations

Like a number-line, attitude has two ends negative (left hand) and positive (right hand).
Our attitude towards death penalty? It can be positive or negative.

Component	What do you think about snakes?	Positive/negative
Cognitive	Snake is poisonous. (your belief)	Negative
Affective	I fear snakes (your feeling)	Negative
Behavior	I’ll run away. (your behavior)	Negative
Overall		Negative attitude towards snake.

Limitation of uni-directional structure?
Difficult to distinguish between neutral and ambivalent attitude.

e.g. do you like chocolates?
1. Neutral: A poor illiterate person in remote island may say “I’ve never heard of this term so I don’t have any positive/negative feeling about it.”
2. Ambivalent: an intelligent person may say “yes I know chocolates bad for teeth (negative cognitive) but still I love them (positive affective). So +1 – 1 = 0

Attitude Structure #2: Bi-directional

If we plot negative attitude on Y-axis and positive on X-axis, we can show neutral / ambivalence as per following graph:
So, what is the implications?

Neutral attitude	Difficult to change his behavior.
Ambivalent attitude	Possible to change his behavior by providing new information. Because ambivalent situation makes person uncomfortable (Cognitive dissonance). e.g. corruption: we know it is bad (Cognitive) but still we give/take bribes (behavior) so some ambivalence = dissonance.

Potential vs felt ambivalence

Felt	e.g. chocolate example- you know there is inconsistency (it’s bad for teeth yet you like it). Such ambivalence will give you dissonance.
Potential	You yourself unaware of the inconsistency, and therefore at present no dissonance. But when you’re forced to think about the topic, potential will be converted to felt ambivalence. e.g. corruption and tax evasion are equal. Both violate law, both hurt public exchequer. However, a tax evader might not realize he is as bad as a corrupt official, until you consider him to think about it.

Sequence is potential => felt =>cognitive dissonance. Result?

either person will stop wrong-behavior OR
he’ll begin justifying his wrong behavior.

That’s how attitude changes. We’ll discuss more on this in E2/P3.

Attitude: Functions

Object appraisal	Attitudes help us approach beneficial things and avoid harmful things.
Social adjustment	Attitude helps us identify with people we like e.g. I love SRK, so I’ll buy frooty, because he is endorsing it.
Utilitarian	When you go to market, you’ll buy or not buy a product thinking “will this product help me (cognitive)”. If you’ve big property, you’ll oppose property tax hike. So, you’re supporting capitalism, not because of ‘ideology’ but because of your attitude, since It enhances our happiness/survival.
Knowledge	helps organize new information, and create generalization / stereotyping. Positive aspect: “Indian Crow is black, so all crows in the world should be black.” (yes they’re, so your time is saved in not having to go on world journey to check the facts) Negative aspect: “I believe good things happen to good people” so, if bad thing happened to him- if he must be a bad person. (Stereotyping / prejudice).
Ego-defensive	“Grapes are sour, because I can’t eat them”. It prevents us from guilt feeling, by holding attitudes that protect our self-esteem (Defend your ego). Mechanisms? Denial, Repression, Projection, Rationalization The British felt Indians incapable of ruling themselves, because they’re uncivil people. So, one way to counter it was through reviving the ancient Vedic traditions/Aryan pride.
Externalization	Similar to ego-defensive. By blaming external factors we try to defend our internal conflict e.g. “I got low marks in interview because panel was biased.”
Value expressive	To express one’s central values. Example Gandhi stopped wearing coat/pants and switched to Khadi dhoti to express his central value “self-reliance, simple living”.

An advertisement / marketing guru must be observant about above functions. Only then he can make a successful ad.

Product	Ad-concept
Detergent	Utilitarian. So ad must show that given brand is cheap and yet cleans the clothes efficiently.
Gold	Value expressive. I’ll purchase more gold to show I’m of higher status. Company will even use photos of Goddess Laxmi.
Shoes	Ego defensive mechanism must not be trigged. So, No gods/goddesses must be shown in ad.
Politics	Ego defensive mechanism to deflect personal attacks to group attack. e.g. any criticism of the then Chief minister Modi is attack against “5 crore Gujaratis”. So, they’re vote in his favor to show their support, and they’ll bash the critiques on social media.

Belief + Value = Attitude

E2/P1: Video Lecture by Kavan Limbasiya (AIR-198/CSE’14)

In the previous part (E2/P1), we understood the meaning, structure and function of attitude. Now we’ll see the moral and political attitudes, for UPSC General studies paper 4 (GS4)

Moral and Political Attitude for UPSC GS4 Ethics

Youtube Link: https://youtu.be/1oUiCAN3IT0

Moral Attitude: Meaning

Not all attitudes are concerned with Morality. E.g. My attitude towards snakes has nothing to do with morality. But my attitude towards democracy will have moral undertones.
So, Moral attitudes are based on moral convictions of what is “Right” and what is “wrong”.
Moral attitudes are stronger than moral beliefs.
Family, society, religion and education play important role in framing those moral convictions.

Moral Attitude: Implications of

Positive Implications	Negative Implications
Tied up with strong emotions. Hence prevents deviant behaviors among normal folks due to fear of social Osctricization e.g. child molestation, incest.	Person can use it to justify violence behavior and lunacy and still society will accept it because moral attitude = strong emotions. Example April 1919: A violent mob attacks an English missionary Marcella Sherwood in Punjab. General Dyer uses this to justify Jaliawalla Massacre, and he’s given hero’s welcome in England.
Motivates a person towards Altruism, volunteerism, social service.	Motivates a person towards riots, genocide and terrorism.
	Since moral attitude is tied with strong emotions, people don’t get along with those who don’t share their moral attitude. Result? Intolerance. Before buying/renting a house, people will inquire about the caste/religion of the neighbors.
	Religious attitude has trickle down effect. E.g. Hindus vs. Muslim- if there is negativity towards other person’s religious outlook, then they’ll find differences even in political and economic outlooks. Ultimately it’ll transform from religious to communal attitude.

Role of Social Media in Moral Attitude

Through facebook, whatsapp etc. youngsters are exposed to vulgar jokes, MMS, porn every day.
This Adolescent curiosity about sex/porn vs. moral lesson to respect women = cognitive dissonance.
According to studies, such boys have less empathy towards rape victims, aggressive behavioral tendencies, increased interest in coercing partners towards unwanted sex and so on.
Bad/careless parenting + indifferent attitude of teachers + Peer pressure + exposure on TV/internet = A Teenager’s moral compass doesn’t point to straight north.
Such teenagers feel attracted towards doing ‘wrong’ things through internet, because internet gives them following advantages

6 ways Internet catalyses wrong behavior
1.Anonymity	You can remain unknown / untraceable by police.
2.Action at distance	You don’t need to come near the victim.
3.Automation	Through computer scripts, you can circulate same message/photos on thousands of online groups within few keystrokes.
4.Accessibility	Dataplans getting cheap everyday
5.Perpetuity	Text-images will multiply and exist indefinitely. So, even if say an MMS is removed from one web-portal by court order, it’ll continue to circulate among others.

End result = 6 forms of Cyber-violence against Women
1.Hacking	Unauthorized access to system to acquire information
2.Impersonation	Creating fake profile of a woman on Facebook to embarrass her. Creating fake profile on dating site to entrap woman in sex-trade.
3.Surveillance	Tracking a victim through her GPS-mobile, tracking keystrokes. Planting spy-cams in ladies washrooms. Recording of MMS in hotel rooms/gardens.
4.Harassment	Through persistence calls, messages, emails
5.Recruitment	Sex-traffickers use whatsapp, chat-room, message boards to communicate with clients. Fraudsters post fake job vacancies to lure women into sex-trade.
6.Malicious distribution	Spurned lover putting Morphed photos or ex-boyfriend posting intimate photos on social media to embarrass woman.

Cyber-violence against women, is prevalent in all types of countries

First world: pornography, and sites such as Ashley Madison that help married people to cheat on their partners.
Developing countries: ~2 lakh children are kidnapped and sold every year in China through online portal (2014 UN Gender report)
Least Developed countries: Currently mobile phones are most commonly used tools for cyber violence in Nigeria, Kenya – such as Viral rape videos/MMS.

Self-Study: Government of India decides to partially lift the ban on pornographic sites.

Political Attitude and ideologies

It defines your like or dislike for a political person, party or ideology.

Ideology	Character
Liberal/Moderate	They support basic ideas of liberty, equality and democracy but want reforms in the system albeit not in extreme/violent manner but through constitutional / legal means.
Conservative	Want Status quo. They believe changes or reforms will not improve the situation.
Progressive	Progressive: slowly reform the system Radical: immediately reform the system, e.g. Marx: Confiscate all the private property immediately. Nehru was a progressive- he believed state ownership but in a gradual manner.
Reactionary	They’re one step behind Conservatives I.e. Conservatives want status quo, while reactionaries want to go back to previous system. Example Taliban/ISIS wanting to run nation with literal interpretation of Sharia/Quran. Religious organizations involved in politics= they’re usually reactionary in nature.
Extremist	Extremely unhappy with current system want complete change to a new system, and justify violence as a ‘mean/tool’ to achieve the end/goal.
Pacifist	They’re also unhappy with current system but reject violence as a tool to achieve the goal. Example: Gandhi, Dr.Martin Luther King Jr.

Factors affecting Political attitude

Religion	Religion shapes a person’s moral attitude E.g. Christianity defines Marriage as a union between man and a woman. Therefore, a devout Christian will oppose same-sex marriage. Moral attitude will predict political attitude. E.g. devout Christian more likely to vote for Republican party in USA, since Republicans are opposed to same-sex marriage.
Age	Older people more conservative and lean towards ‘political’ democracy. (Younger people want ‘economic democracy). Young people more liberal / radical. They’re interested in change, because they’ll ‘live’ to enjoy fruits of those changes. But there are no hard and fast rules e.g. When Ronald Regan was young, he was a supporter of Democrats and wanted government intervention in market. But when he grew old, he leaned towards republican party, and worked for market oriented reforms.
Economic Status	Poor will align towards communist / socialist ideology. He’ll vote for a party promising to get food, fertilizer and kerosene subsidy. Rich will align towards right wing- free market, capitalism. He’ll vote for a party promising to remove wealth tax. So, why did Socialism thrive in post-colonial democratic third world countries from 50s to 80s? Because people were mostly poor.
Residence	“Local” unemployed youth more likely to align with party that promises “action” against the migrants or reservation based on region.
Family	Children more likely to espouse the political ideology of their parents.
Race	If a race feels they’re deprived of opportunities because of other races, then more likely to lean towards a party offering radical solutions against other races. E.g. German “Aryans” joining Nazi party.
Gender	Females more likely to lean towards liberal ideology.
Education	School syllabus plays an important role. A Chinese may find Indian democracy as repulsive, because he has been taught that Mao’s Communist ideology is best.
Conception about human nature	Hobbes said, “A person is fundamentally evil.” Therefore, a strong-powerful state is required. Locke said, “Man is a good rational person”. Therefore, state should be kept weak, and men should be made strong by giving more freedom and rights. Thus, if we believe people have feeling of altruism, we’ll support communist ideology.
Disposition	Some people hate order and prefer chaos-like Joker in the Dark Knight. They’ll naturally be in favor of anarchy / radicalism. If a person is born and raised in a military family, he’d be in favor of strong state, discipline, order, authoritarianism. Japan is a disciplined society, you’ll find the same in their building Architecture and political functioning.
Social media	The information processed and shared on social media, molds a person’s political views. Social media has played big role in swinging the opinion of youth towards Modi/BJP during 2014 General elections.

Keep in mind that a person’s political attitude is shaped not by any single, but complex combination of all above factors. E.g. A “Poor” Muslim youth may be pro-Congress/SP but a Rich Dawoodi Bohra Muslim may be pro-Modi.

Role of Social Media in Political Attitude

In 2014 general election, ~16 crore voters were 18-24 age group first time voters. In such demographic composition, social media/internet plays huge role in shaping political attitude.
Social media has helped both Modi and Kejriwal to reach surprise victories in election.
Social media is full of both Hindu vs. Muslim, India vs Pakistan, Shia vs. A teenager exposed to such groups, is likely to develop extreme radical or reactionary political views.
ISIS is using social media to recruit soldiers for their war.
Muzaffarnagar riots were a result of a viral video about eve teasing. Here moral attitude (about dignity of women) + Religion + politics created a deadly stew.
Whatsapp has become an App for activism and empowerment- for coordination of political and violent agitation. During recent Paatidar agitation in Gujarat, mobile internet was banned to prevent perpetrators from coordinating their attacks/spreading false rumors.
Self-Study: Section 66A and freedom of speech

Strength of Attitude

Government of Maharashtra has imposed beef ban in the states. How do you feel about this?

Strength of attitude	Result?
Strong	You’ll go out in dharnaa-Pradarshan for/against meat-ban
Neutral	You’ll not say /do anything thinking “this doesn’t concern me at personal level”.
Mild	You may murmur about it to your family members while watching news.

In short, we can ‘predict’ behavior by measuring strength of the attitude.

Accessibility of Attitude

Conscious	You’re aware. Those “C-A-B” components immediately light in your brain.
Hidden (unconscious)	You’re unaware. “C-A-B” won’t immediately reflect in your thoughts.

Study: Participants were asked “will you vote for Obama?”

Those who immediately raised hands (conscious), they’ll go for voting on the election date.
Those who raise hands after few minutes – they did not go to voting.

Milgram Experiment

Hitler was an evil dictator. But even ordinary Germans participated in atrocities against Jews. Why?
Prof. Stanley Milgram of Yale University (1961) began experiment to study it.
The participant (teacher) would ask a series of questions to another “participant” (learner).
The teachers were instructed to shock the learners whenever an incorrect answer was given.
The learner was not a participant at all but actually an actor who would pretend to be hurt by the shocks and yell out in pain when the button was pushed.
2/3rd of the participants gave shocks upto fatal level (450 volts).
Because behind participant, there was a doctor, he’ll keep saying “go on…increase the voltage, person will not die.”

Moral of the story

Lack of accountability, overwrites your conscience: Doctor is the authoritarian figure. Individual participant’s conscience is overpowered, when participant thinks “it’s not my responsibility, I’m only following orders”.
Authoritarian figure can overwrite your conscience: Hitler was a great orator; he could sway the crowd in his favor just by a speech.
Peer-pressure is stronger than obedience: If there are two participants, second participants refuses to give shock to the subject and storms out of the room, then first participant may also walk away
Thus, Strength wise: peer-pressure (Conformity) > obedience > conscience.

This can explain

Nuremberg trials	German officers justified their actions saying we were just following orders (obedience).
Mass-movements Mass hysteria	Peer-pressure. You’ve to participate, if others are participating. (conformity). Examples of Mass-Hysteria- “Ganpati drinking milk”

E2/P3: Video Lecture by Kavan Limbasiya (AIR-198/CSE-2014)

In the previous part (E2/P2) we learned about moral and political attitudes and role of social media in their development. Moving on-

Youtube Link:https://youtu.be/eBWF2QkPSkE

Attitude: Formation

Attitude is formed by ‘stimuli’ – it can be internal or external. Following are the 3 prominent theories about Attitude formation:

Pavlovian condition (Classical)	Igor Pavlov would struck a bell when the dogs were fed. Dogs learnt to associate the sound of the bell with food. After a while, at the mere sound of the bell, they responded by drooling.
Instrumental / operant conditioning	If your behavior leads to positive outcome, It’ll be strengthened If your behavior leads to negative outcome, it’ll be suppressed. e.g. if you find a wrongdoing in other branch of your office, report it to your supervisor, but he orders you to ‘mind your own business’, then next time you’ll ignore it.
Observational learning	By seeing how other people get punishment / reward, you change your behavior. e.g. if your subordinate is getting reward by speaking fake praises of Boss, you’ll feel inclined to do the same.

Why study with Attitude?

If a person believes something, he’ll behave accordingly.
But there is long distance between belief and behavior.
Recall belief is part of attitude (cognitive component).
Attitude is in close proximity to behavior. So if we can change attitude, we can change behavior=>behavior change=>nation/society changed. HOW?

Consider following example of my attitude towards snakes:

Snake is poisonous	Cognitive component
I run away if there is a snake	Behavioral component

If an expert shows a snake and says “it is non-poisonous”. Then your cognitive component is altered.
You’ll not run away, may be you’ll walk away but won’t run away. (behavior, changed).
At the same time, it doesn’t mean you’ll grab the snake in your arms and start to fondle it but still behavior is changed.

Behavior prediction

Two models for predicting behavior.

Mode model
Theory of reasoned action.

They’re more technical than practical, so Consider your homework / self-study only if interested. I’ll only cover the gist:

Social /External pressure

Through an experiment in USA during the heydays of racial discrimination.

Hotels, restaurant owners were sent letter “if Chinese couple coming, will you receive them?
Most owners replied “no”. (=Racial prejudice) However, when a Chinese couple was sent to those hotels, majority of the owner received them well. Owners feared negative media limelight.
Same way, if you’re health conscious, you’ll avoid junk food at home but may be at friend’s private party you’ll eat junk food or even drink desi liquor, because of peer-pressure.
Non-Cooperation movement: many did not participate. So others simply began “social outcasting” e.g. refusing to clean their laundry, serve them grocery in the shop and so on. Then they’ll also
Bottom line: Relation between attitude and behavior is not straight forward. “social influence / peer-pressure” matters.

Accessibility

We all have dislike for salesman and tele-callers. If they call you, you’ll put down the phone without thinking of consequences.
When you’re disinclined to “think” (you’re in low-cognitive mode), and accessibility is very high (you’re immediately putting down the phone).
Behavior prediction possible? Yes, in all such cases you’ll put down the phone if low cognitive and high accessibility. But in reverse case, difficult.

Strength

As we learned strong attitude helps predicting behavior easily then weak attitude.
Even if people are in minority but they’ve e strong attitude towards a cause, they may force their will upon others.
Consider some labour reform that will help 90% of the workers in unorganized sector.
But still Government may not implement It, fearing that labour unions (from organized sector), will begin strikes. (doing “strike” is behavioral component).

Behavior specific attitude

Consider this study:

Do you like Church? Ans. Yes
But from above question and answer, it’s difficult to predict whether the respondent goes to Church mass every Sunday.
So, let’s ask him a “specific” question- Do you like going to Mass every Sunday? If he says “yes”, then easy to predict he likes Church, he may be doing charity to the poor, he’d be avoiding seven cardinal sins and so on.
Thus, event is only “one” (going in Sunday Mass), but helps predicting many things.

Prejudice vs discrimination

Stereotypes	Jains are traders Gujaratis are business minded Tamils are proficient in maths. Punjabis are alcoholic party lovers. And so on.
Prejudice	It’s your Attitude. Prejudice is formed by negative-stereotyping. E.g. all the Nigerians in Goa are drug dealers.
Discrimination	If that prejudice is guiding your behavior. E.g. refusing to give NOC to a Nigerian person rent a house in your cooperative society.

Consider following experiment:

Students were divided into two groups- (1) wearing yellow shoes (2) wearing red shoes.
There is no difference in them, except shoes color.
Subsequently, red-shoe group students began badmouthing about yellow shoe groups e.g. those students are lazy/notorious/bully and so on. And vice versa.
So, this is my group so everything is justified (in-group), and since he is in other group, everything is wrong in with him (out-group).
Humans are not different. race, religion, regions etc. just like red shoes vs. yellow shoes.

Implicit and explicate prejudice

Explicit prejudice

Example: Untouchability

Implicit prejudice

As society develops, the explicit prejudice begin to decline.
Example, in USA, when a black man meets a white man, the white man will not show explicit prejudice
but some negative things may be reflected in his facial expression, body language etc. Even himself may not be aware of it.
Same way, in urban India, while there is no untouchability , you’ll find it during renting of rooms, selling of property etc.

In 2009, Bollywood Actor Emaraan Hashmi said he wanted to buy a house in the posh Pali Hill but the housing society refused to give him the NOC because he is a muslim.
Although Society administrators claim they did not give him NOC because his ‘serial-kisser’ image will be a bad influence on the teenagers of the society.
For Either case Mr.Hashmi is facing prejudice (A) because of his religion OR (B) because of his on-screen image.

Importance of Attitude change

Advertisement	Using ads, you change attitude of a person to make him like/buy your product.
Mass campaign	To get juntaa support, you’ve to change their attitude. e.g. Modi = Gujarat; Attack against Modi = attack against Gujarat.
IEC	Information-education-communication : for public awareness. As Explained below

From Administrative point of view, the burning issue is- “despite all the schemes and policies, how to change attitude of the people?”

In Bangladesh open defection is very less. They built pit-latrine- that’s safer than open defecation and cheaper than conventional toilet.
But in India, many villagers have bikes, TVs and mobiles but not toilets at home and they don’t feel guilty about it.
Even if Government builds toilet for individual house in the village, the family may use it as ‘store-room’.
So, basic issue is “their attitude towards cleanliness or dignity of women.”
Pouring money can’t help. Hence Swatch-Bharat Abhiyan has enrolled celebrities to change to influence people.
National Health policy has a component: “De-stigmatization of mental disorder”. Otherwise no amount of money can help rehabilitate a cured mental patient =attitude change required.
National Skill policy- person will do post-graduation and remain unemployed but may not learn ‘welding’ to earn money, because for his attitude is: “education =graduation and all other trades are inferior.” So, unless we change that attitude, he is less likely to enroll for any skill Development program.
Therefore, Information-education-communication (IEC) components must be included in all Government schemes and policies for changing attitude of people.

Dr.Amartya Sen talks about “provision”
Private provision	Government giving medical insurance to people.- they’re free to use any sarkari/private hospital.
Public provision	healthcare in sarkari hospital. Dr. Armatya Sen says “attitude change” must be inculcated if Government wishes to opt public provision route. Because we are a socially backward country. Many feudal structures still running.

Consider following

“Mid-Day meal”	Immunization
Cook may be of any caste, yet child will have to eat. Students from all caste and religion will sit together and eat. Thus, A child develops ‘tolerant/inclusive’ attitude towards other castes and religions.	Unsuccessful in Pakistan because people’s attitude towards immunization is negative. They think it’s against Islam, or American policy to make Pakistanis infertile.

Thus Attitude change important for civil servant, because he is a leader, he is a policy maker in the society.

Cognitive dissonance

American is one of the largest GHG emitters in the world. Their industrialists/academicians are in ‘climate denial’- that global warming /climate change / environmental problems are fictional theories.
They’re adopting this ideology to prevent cognitive dissonance.
Self-perception: Juvenile will not be sent to jail but to rehabilitation home, and ordered to do social service in old-age house. Impact? He’ll feel good about himself. We attacked his “B” component, his “A” and “C” will change automatically. (remember CAB mode
Case Study: Ashley Madison & Extra Marital Affairs

AshleyMadison.com is an online dating website meant for married people who want extra-marital relationship. Its slogan is “Life is short. Have an affair.” In 2015, A hacker group “The Impact Team” stole the user data and threatened to leak it unless the owners stopped this “unethical” website that encourages adultery.
Social scientists who study marriage and fidelity say that Ashley Madison doesn’t create a market for cheating, the site only helps facilitate our biological predisposition to get a new partner for procreation. Male affairs tend to be physically-driven, while women have affairs for emotional reasons. Just like water will find its level, such male or female will find extra-marital relationship irrespective of Ashley Madison website runs or shuts down. Hence it is not ‘unethical’ for an entrepreneur to own and operate such website.
Answer following Questions:
1. Is Impact team’s action justifiable on ethical grounds? Yes/No and Why?
2. Do you agree with the views given by Social scientists in above passage? Yes/No and Why?
3. Youngsters these days, don’t have the same attitude towards love and relationship as the older generation. Discuss the factors have led to this change in attitude?
4. List the foundational values of marriage and examine the factors shaking those foundations in Modern times.
5. Your best friend, who helped you in every crisis, has come to seek financial assistance from you. His age and attempt limit in UPSC and other competitive exams is over. He is unable to find any other job/business. So, now he wants to start such cheating website for Indian couples. He wants to borrow money from you to rent the server. What will you do?
6. In above question, suppose your best friend borrowed money from you without disclosing his intent to start adultery-website. You later come to know about his business through third friend, you confront him, he says he shall return your money with interest as per the agreed terms but will not shut down the website. Would you consider filing a PIL /complaint against his website to the authorities? Yes/No and Why?
7. Suppose you come across the Ashleymadison.com’s user-data leaked by those hackers and….
  1. One of the users happens to be your friend’s wife. But he is unware of her affair or this website or this hacked data. Will you inform him? Yes/No and Why?
  2. If one of the users happens to be your wife or husband, what will you do?
Case study: Transgender rights

In April 2015, Supreme Court on Tuesday recognized the transgender community as a third gender along with male and female and ordered the government to treat them as “socially and economically backward classes” and provide them reservation in government jobs and admissions.
Answer following:
1. Why do ordinary people show negative attitude towards transgender? Examine the reasons and suggest remedies to change their attitude.
2. Suppose you are the dean of a government institute wherein a transgender have availed admission. List the steps you’ll initiate to ensure she doesn’t face discrimination.
3. Suppose you are the Head of a government department wherein some transgender have got job. List the steps you’ll initiate to ensure they don’t face discrimination.
Case Study: Organ donation

In Australia, a dead person’s organ can be donated only after consent from next of kin. But the consent rate is dismal. Recent Studies gave following reasons why family members decline consent:
1. Religious belief that body integrity must be maintained during burial.
2. Family members can’t sit and watch as their loved one dies and immediately wheeled out of an intensive care unit for organ donation. It’s very traumatic sight for them.
3. When doctor declares a person brain dead, his body becomes eligible for donation, but often family members suspect doctor’s judgement and believe that by some miracle the patient will gain consciousness again.
4. They fear their loved one’s organs will be sold in black market illegally.
5. They suspect that doctor has not tried ‘hard’ to save their family member because he was a willing organ donor.
Answer following
1. What should be done to change the attitude of ordinary people towards organ donation of their loved ones?
2. As an Australian law maker, would you consider removing the condition of “next-of-kin consent” altogether in organ donation process? Justify your stand.
Case Study: Nido Tania

On 29th January 2014, Nido Tania, a 20-year-old Student from Arunanchal Pradesh had gone to Lajpat Nagar in Delhi and was looking for an address, when someone at a sweet shop allegedly began mocking his hairs. Nido responded by breaking a glass door at the sweet shop and the incident escalated. Nido was beaten up with sticks and iron rods by a group of around seven men. Police had reached the spot and brokered compromise after taking bribes. Subsequently, Tania returned to his Safdarjung home but died in sleep because of internal bleeding.
Answer following:
1. Murder as a result of “Hate crime” should be punishable to death. Do you agree? Justify your stand in the light of Nido Tania case.
2. Discuss the factors behind the rising incidents of prejudice and violence against migrants and minorities working Metro cities of India? Suggest remedies to change the attitude of people.
3. If a group of strangers begin mocking you for your hairs/clothes/facial features. What would you do? (A) argue with them (B) suffer in silence because you can wind up dead (C) something else. Justify your choice.
Case Study: Jessica Lal

On the midnight of April 29, 1999, Manu Sharma walked in with his friends and demanded to be served liquor. Barmaid Jessica Lal refused to serve Manu Sharma, even though He was ready to offer Jessica Rs.1000 for it. Manu Sharma then produced a .22 calibre pistol and fired it twice: the first bullet hit the ceiling which was to serve as a warning to Jessica not to refuse liquor, but when Jessica refused again, Sharma fired again and the second hit Jessica in the head and killed her.
Answer following:
1. If you were in place of Jessica, would you have served liquor after the first warning shot from Manu Sharma’s pistol, to save your life? Justify your stand.
2. Why do the rich and affluent brats in Northern India like to brandish wealth and weapon in public view and create nuisance? What should be done to change their arrogant attitude?
Case Study: Bhai hates Jugaad

Recently, RBI Governor Dr.Raghuram Rajan observed, “Jugaad, or working around difficulties by hook or by crook, is a thoroughly Indian way of coping, but it is predicated on a difficult or impossible business environment. And it encourages an attitude of shortcuts and evasions, none of which help the quality of final products or sustainable economic growth.”
Answer following:
1. It is the economic factor rather than attitude of Indians, responsible for “Jugaad” Do you agree? Justify your stand.
2. Indians indulge in Jugaad because their Moral compass is not pointing to the straight North. Do you agree? Justify your stand.
3. Suggest remedies to change the typical Indian “attitude of shortcuts and evasions” observed by Dr.Rajan.
4. “If we change the Jugaad attitude of Indians, then Grassroot innovation will stop.” Do you agree? Justify your stand.
Case Study: Road Rage

Panna Lal was a migrant laborer residing in Delhi. As he reached Gandhi road, his bicycle brushed by a car. Panna Lal dragged the driver out of his car and began abusing him. The driver whipped out a knife and stabbed Lal thrice and fled from the spot. Onlookers did not rush Panna Lal to hospital, Police arrived late and he died of excessive bleeding.
Answer following:
1. If you were in place of Panna Lal, what would you have done If some car-driver brushed your bicycle because of his irresponsible driving?
2. If you were the car-driver, what would you have done IF your tempo brushed Hira Lal’s bicycle because of Panna Lal’s irresponsible cycle-riding, and yet he is accusing you and demanding money for repairs?
3. “If others are driving in irresponsible manner, you should do nothing, suffer in silence and go about your way, because they can murder you in road-rage in broad day light and no onlookers will help you”. Would you give this advice to your child? Yes/No and Why?
4. Often, people show indifferent / passive attitude towards road accident / road-rage victims. Discuss the factors responsible and suggest remedies.
5. List the factors responsible for rising incidents of road-rage in Indian cities. Suggest remedies to change attitude of drivers.
Case study: Raju, the Guide
- Raju was a boy in fifth standard, until his drunkard father forced him to leave studies and work at a snack and souvenir shop in the newly opened railway station after the death of his mother.
- Raju grows up to become a freelance tourist guide. He is hired by a wealthy and aging archaeologist Marco and his young wife Rosie. Raju learns that Rosie was daughter of a Devdasi who had to give up her passion of classical-dancing after marriage, because (1) it was an unacceptable profession/hobby to Marco (2) UPSC was not asking any culture related questions during that pre-CSAT era.
- Later, upon learning about Marco’s extra-marital affair from the leaked data of Ashleymadison.com, Rosie tries to commit suicide but Raju encourages her to leave husband and guides her into becoming a classical dancer/actress. As money begins to flow in with her success, Raju’s possessive instinct and general corruption alienates him from Rosie.
- Marco comes back to win Rosie, but Jealous Raju does not want him to have contact with Rosie and forges her name on the release of property in divorce settlement papers. Subsequently, Rosie and Raju drift apart. Raju is convicted of forgery, resulting in a two-year jail sentence.
- Upon release, Raju becomes a Sadhu, preaching the villagers to educate their children, respect women and reject superstitious practices. Ultimately, he dies while fasting to remove optional subjects from UPSC.
Answer following:
1. “Raju’s possessive instinct and general corruption alienates him from Rosie…. Jealous Raju does not want Marco to have contact with Rosie.” To what extent can we blame lack of education and parental nurturing, for Raju’s attitude towards Rosie? Would Raju have acted different manner had he completed a degree from IIT/IIM? Justify your stand.
2. After completing jail sentence, Raju comes to you seeking job in your travel company. During interview, he demonstrates having all the requisite skills to manage the travel business and how keep the tourists entertained. Will you hire him knowing fully well that he is a convicted fraudster who has completed his jail term? Justify your stand.
3. In above question, suppose Raju doesn’t tell you about his jail-term, you hire him, and later on you come to know about his criminal past from a newspaper photo tagged in Raju’s friend’s facebook profile. Will you fire Raju? Justify your stand?
4. Suppose, Raju comes out as a reformed man from jail and launches a political party with genuine intend to work for the nation. But he continues to receive unfavorable treatment in print-media and trolls/cyber-bullying on social media. As Raju’s PR-manager, what will you do to change the attitude people, and persuade them to vote for Raju?
5. What have you learned about human nature and behavior from this passage about “The transcend of Raju from a guide of tourists, to the guide of Rosie, to a guide of religion”?
6. “Death of Raju as a saint vindicates the perverse goodness of mankind”. Elaborate.
7. As the British Viceroy of Colonial India, suppose you enacted a law banning Devdasi system, which leads to civic unrest by orthodox Indians. Your deputies’ advice you to repeal the law, for the maintenance of law and order. What will be your course of action?
8. As independent India’s first minister for women and child welfare, what would you do to change attitude of Indians towards Devdasis?
Case Study: Aashiqui 2

Arohi, an aspiring singer meets successful musician Rahul Jaykar who helps her become a Bollywood singer and both fall in love. But when people and rivals begin to gossip that Rahul is using her for pleasure and money, he lapses into alcohol addiction and his own singing career suffers. Arohi attempts to rehabilitate Rahul, sacrificing her singing career in doing so. Rahul understands that he has become a burden in her life, and that leaving her is his only option to save her. The next day he bids her farewell and jumps from a bridge, killing himself.
Answer following:
1. Dissect the Cognitive, Affective and Behavioral components of Rahul’s attitude towards Arohi.
2. “Rahul’s incapacity to handle criticism was responsible for his death.” Do you agree? Justify your stand.
3. What would you have done as Rahul’s best friend, to change his attitude?
Case Study: Suicide of a UPSC aspirant

In May 2013, V.Y.Manjunath, a UPSC aspirant committed suicide. Police investigation revealed following
1. He had apparently created a charade of having qualified for the IAS among his family and friends by fudging documents, postings on social media and even flying with his parents to the UPSC in Delhi.
2. “Finally my Dad said ‘very good son’,” says an August 2012 Facebook post by Manjunath after he lied to him about having cleared prelims 2012.
3. After declaration of final result, Manjunath couldn’t hide the truth, unable to show face to family, neighbors and society, he hanged himself in an under-construction building.
Answer following
1. Discuss the moral culpability of the following, in the suicide of Manjunath:
  1. Expectations of Parents from their children.
  2. Manjunath’s attitude towards success.
  3. Society’s attitude towards failure.
2. Exam related suicides incidents are routinely appearing in newspapers. Suggest remedies to address this issue.
Descriptive Questions
1. Define attitude. Discuss its role in shaping behavior of a person towards society.
2. “There is one universal truth, applicable to all countries, cultures and communities: violence against women is never acceptable, never excusable, never tolerable.” Yet we find instances of gang-rapes and dowry deaths on daily basis in Indian newspapers. Examine the reasons and suggest remedies to change Indian society’s attitude of towards women.
3. The attitude of modern day school teachers towards children is full of greed (as in tuition) and violence (as in corporal punishment). Examine the reasons and suggest remedies to change their attitude.
4. An Indian has loyalty to the family but is apathetic to the community where he lives. Discuss the behinds this inconsistency in his attitude? How can we change it?
5. Suppose you’re tasked to design a TV advertisement to change the attitude of rural people towards open defecation, how will you go about it?
6. A friend of yours in engaged in gambling, debauchery and lavish lifestyle beyond his income. He believes that life is short and full of uncertainties- you can die any moment, so there is no point in saving money or remaining faithful to your life partner. How will you persuade him to change his attitude?
7. In 2015, there have been reports of Indian youths being recruited by ISIS through social media. ISIS wants to establish a caliphate under the leadership of Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, through whatever violent means necessary. Why do youth feel attracted towards such radical ideology/views? What can be done to change their political attitude?
8. The increasing spread of the Internet frames the urgency for effective social controls on attitudes online. Elaborate.
9. Examine the reasons behind lack of civility among digital citizens. What should be done to change their attitude?
10. Culture is the sphere where we socialize ourselves – and the Internet- global in its reach, is a dimension of that sphere. In this context, discuss the role of social media in shaping moral attitude of a person.
11. Compare and contrast the political attitude of Urban and rural people and analyse the underlying factors.
12. Compare and contrast the moral attitude of Western vs. Indian society and analyse the underlying factors.
13. Attitudes are shaped by moral convictions and therefore, they transcend the boundaries of culture, region and religion. Elaborate.
14. Narrate a real life incident where your moral conscience was tested. How did you handle it?
15. With your personal example, discuss the role of peer-pressure in shaping one’s behavior.
16. “Attitude determines the altitude of your life.” Elaborate.
l from E2/P1).

Attitude Change theories
Dissonance theory	By planting an idea that challenges the contrast in your beliefs e.g. tax evasion is same as corruption. So tax evader will either try to justify his action or change his tax-evasion behavior.
Learning theory	By actively persuading others.
ELM	Elaboration likelihood model. If you’re sleepy/just woken up then your cognitive capacity is very low. Your elaboration will be low, but if you’re doing maths your elaboration level will be high. So depending on your place in the elaboration spectrum, your persuasion capacity will change. Advertisement works on people in low cognitive capacity mode. But it doesn’t have long lasting effect, so today you bought one brand mobile, after six months, another brand. In governance, people have to be convinced during their high cognitive mode, for long lasting impact.

Persuasion

It is the communication intended to make other person believe or do something. The success of persuasion depends on three factors: (1) source (2) message (3) target.

#1: Source

Trust worthiness: After terrorist attack, religious leaders ask devotees to maintain peace. Because people more likely to follow ‘guru’s order’, than collector’s order during such crisis.
Similarly for increasing voter’s turnout or increasing cleanliness- you’ll have to rope in celebrities, spiritual leaders etc. Because if municipal commissioner says keep the city clean, very less will follow. (Hence Modi’s idea of nominating 9 people for Swatch Bharat).
Perceived expertise: In toothpaste commercial, it is always a person wearing white apron, pretending to be a dentist and saying “This toothpaste is, Indian dental association dwaaraa pramaanit!”
Doctor tells Obese person – “you should stop eating rice and your weight will reduce by 15 kgs in a month”, then obese person more likely to follow it, than same advice by his neighbor.
If your elaboration level is very high / your cognitive capacity is very high, then you’ll question each and every point even if propounded by an ‘expert’. e.g. if you’re on an operation – table, you shouldn’t ask the surgeon whether he sterilized the scalpel!

#2: Message

Message should be simple compared to the capacity of the audience.
Gadar Movement: They simplified the “Drain of wealth theory” in their pamphlets and newspaper.
Catchy Slogans required: “Kutch nahi dekhaa toh kuchh nahi dekhaa”- to promote Gujarat tourism.
Foot-in-the-door: if you want a big favor, ask for a small favour first. E.g. to borrow laptop from a friend, first borrow his book and return it unharmed to win his trust and confidence.

#3: Target

Ego defense	Never challenge the ego of target- e.g. showing God/Godess portrait in jewelry ad = good, but in shoe-ad= your persuasion will fail, audience will not buy your product.
Neutral attitude	Voter turnout is low: People are not ‘hating’ democracy. They’re neutral about voting- they are lazy, want to enjoy public holiday, believe their vote won’t make any difference in the outcome. EC will have to organize the hoardings and street-plays accordingly- to connect with the youth, to connect with the rural masses.
Negative attitude	After communal riots, the society is polarized, you can’t change mood by putting hoarding. You’ll have to place cognitive dissonance: Loss of life/property on both sides vs. taking ‘revenge’ Anne Franke’s Diary, Nazi War-memorial: Even a pro-Nazi will feel dissonance- and see how precious each human life is.
Self-persuasion	Ask a student to explain to the class, “why is smoking bad for health.” Then during adult life, that person will resist smoking even under peer-pressure.

Persuasion in peripheral route: when you buy biscuit, since they’re cheap, you won’t do market research. Just go and buy.
Persuasion in central route: while buying home, computer or car- you’ll do analysis of various products, persuasion will be difficult for salesman. But once convinced you’ll go ahead and buy.
So, if your attitude towards democracy is changed in central route, then it’ll have long lasting impact. You’ve to design message accordingly. Convince people that message is relevant to them e.g. “pro-development, anti-corruption” ideology. Nowadays, those are the buzz words and even erstwhile casteist and communal parties are forced to toe that line to make people vote for them.

Belief	Belief is What we think about things. e.g. IPL is corrupt.
Value	Value is what we think ‘should happen’. e.g. Corruption is bad. Honesty is best policy. Value can be ‘desirable’ or ‘undesirable’. They guide our behavior. Values can be for individual, group, organization and nation, while virtues are associated only with an individual (e.g. physical fitness=> courage.)
Attitude	Attitude is our like / dislike for an object, event, organization or person. Belief (IPL Corrupt) + Value (Honest is best) = frame our attitude towards event/people. In above example, person’s attitude will be of Hatred / cynicism towards cricket, cricketers, products endorsed by those cricketers.

E2/P1: Video Lecture by Kavan Limbasiya (AIR-198/CSE’14)

Attitude: Meaning & types

Attitude: Salient Features

CAB Model of Attitude

Attitude Structure #1: Uni-Directional

Attitude Structure #2: Bi-directional

Potential vs felt ambivalence

Attitude: Functions

Belief + Value = Attitude

E2/P1: Video Lecture by Kavan Limbasiya (AIR-198/CSE’14)

Moral Attitude: Meaning

Moral Attitude: Implications of

Role of Social Media in Moral Attitude

Political Attitude and ideologies

Factors affecting Political attitude

Role of Social Media in Political Attitude

Strength of Attitude

Accessibility of Attitude

Milgram Experiment

Moral of the story

E2/P3: Video Lecture by Kavan Limbasiya (AIR-198/CSE-2014)

Attitude: Formation

Why study with Attitude?

Behavior prediction

Social /External pressure

Accessibility

Strength

Behavior specific attitude

Prejudice vs discrimination

Implicit and explicate prejudice

Importance of Attitude change

Cognitive dissonance

Case Study: Ashley Madison & Extra Marital Affairs

Case study: Transgender rights

Case Study: Organ donation

Case Study: Nido Tania

Case Study: Jessica Lal

Case Study: Bhai hates Jugaad

Case Study: Road Rage

Case study: Raju, the Guide

Case Study: Aashiqui 2

Case Study: Suicide of a UPSC aspirant

Descriptive Questions

Persuasion

#1: Source

#2: Message

#3: Target