Attitude-Behavior
Consistency
Psychology of Attitudes (PSY320)
Outline
Early evidence for lack of consistency
– LaPiere
– Corey
– Wicker's review
Improving Attitude-behavior consistency
1. The Principle of Aggregation
– Single-act versus Multiple-Act Criteria
2. The Theory of Reasoned Action
Outline
3. Theory of Planned behavior
– The best predictor of the future is...
4. Attitude Accessibility
– The Object-Evaluation Association (Fazio)
– Response Latency as an Index of
Accessibility
5. Personality Influences
Do Attitudes Guide behavior?
LaPiere Road Trip
 Trip with a Chinese couple through the USA –
the couple was refused service only once.
 LaPiere wrote to the owners and asked them if
they would serve a Chinese couple at their
establishment - 90% of the replies said ‘NO.’
Results:
 negative attitudes (questionnaire) and positive
behaviors (actually serving)!
Corey (1937)
• Attitude-behavior consistency and
cheating.
• Objective: predict from the attitude survey
who would cheat
Results:
• No correlation between attitude and
behavior.
Wicker’s Review
• Wicker (1969) reviewed all the studies on
attitude-behavior consistency.
Conclusion:
• The relationship between attitudes and
behavior was very weak.
• Psychologists should abandon the concept
of an “attitude” (Wicker, 1971).
How can we explained
these discrepancies
?
The Revenge
Psychometric Principle
• Any single measure of behavior / psychological
construct (single-act criterion) is not reliable due
to the error associated with each single
measure.
SOLUTION?
• Aggregation Principle
Generality
• The level of attitude-behavior consistency is
related to the level of generality of the constructs
that are correlated.
• Attitudes are general and are measured in general
terms (positive or negative), while actions like
‘praying before meals’ are very specific.
• Therefore, we should measure attitude (i.e.,
general) by looking at the general trend among
many behaviors (i.e., aggregation).
Theory of Reasoned Action
Theory of Reasoned Action
The Theory of Reasoned Action is premised on
the belief that the immediate predictor of
behavior is a behavioral intention.
So what predicts behavioral intention?
Behavior: Buying erotic magazines
Attitude: includes salient beliefs/thoughts (‘includes
beautiful models,’ ‘is sexist,’ ‘entertains.’
1. Belief (R)– if you buy an erotic magazine, what
is the probability of your salient beliefs coming
true (expectancy)? (range from +3 to –3)
2. Evaluation (e)– how valuable is that salient
belief to you? (range from +3 to –3)
Attitude Toward behavior
Consequences
Exciting entertainment
Beautiful models
Is sexist
Funny jokes about sex
Belief (R)
+2
+3
+1
+1
Evaluation (e)
+3
+2
-3
+1
(R)(e)
+6
+6
-3
+1
+10
Total (Σ)
ATTITUDE = Σ(R)(e)
+10 is pretty high, but will the person buy the magazine?
It depends on the person’s subjective norms about the
behavior.
Subjective Norms About behavior
Important Referents
My girlfriend
My father
My neighbor
People in the store
(NB)
-2
-1
+3
-3
(MC)
+3
+1
+1
+2
Total (Σ)
(NB)(MC)
-6
-1
+3
-6
-10
SUBJECTIVE NORMS = Σ(NB)(MC)
NB – Normative beliefs (referents’ opinions on magazines?)
MC – Motivation to comply (how important is their approval?)
The Complete Model
Meta-Analysis Results
Attitudinal
Beliefs
.53
.62
.68
Normative
Beliefs
.53
Conclusion
• Theory of Reasoned Actions shows that
sometimes attitudes fail in predicting / influencing
behavior.
• Social norms can trump attitude (i.e., exert a more
important influence on behavior).
• The relative influence of attitudes and social norms
is influenced by situational and personality factors
and may vary across attitude objects.
• The theory do not account for situations in which
people do not have control over their behavior (i.e.,
unable to carry out their intentions).
Theory of Planned Behavior
Theory of Planned behavior
Ajzen (1985; 1991) proposed a modification
to the Theory of Reasoned Actions.
He suggested that perceived behavioral
control influenced intention and behavior.
Theory of planned behavior
• Specific attitudes are better predictors of
behavior than are general attitudes
(Davidson & Jaccard, 1979).
• Subjective norms: People’s beliefs about
other’s view of the behavior in question.
• Perceived behavioral control: Extent to
which people believe they can perform the
behavior.
(Actual Control)
Theory of Planned Behavior
Beh. Beliefs
Attitudes
Evaluations
Intention
Norm. Beliefs
Subj. Norms
Compliance
Perceived
Beh. Control
Behavior
Conclusion
• The Theory of Planned Behavior uses
attitudes towards behaviors to predict
behavior, whereas the original problem
was to link attitudes towards objects to
behaviors.
• The Theory of Planned Behavior neglects
some additional influences on behavior.
– Automated behavior (habits) may reflect
neither attitudes nor social norms.
Predicting Spontaneous Behavior
Accessibility Theory (Fazio)
• Core Notion - Attitudes will predict
behavior if (and only if) they can be
activated from memory at the time of the
decision.
– Attitude must come spontaneously in the
situation
– Attitude must influence perceptions of an
issue or person, serving as a “filter through
which the object is viewed”.
Accessibility Theory
• According to Fazio’s model, all the information
about a specific subject is contained in one
node.
• The summary evaluation (i.e., attitude +/-)
about the subject is contained in another node,
connected to the subject node.
• The strength of the association between the
subject node and the summary evaluation node
determines attitude accessibility.
Accessibility Theory
• Weak association between the subject and
the summary evaluation→ attitude is
inaccessible and unlikely to influence
behavior.
• Instead, arbitrary aspects of the
situation/context will tend to determine
behavior.
Accessibility Theory
• When attitudes are expressed many times,
a strong association develops between the
summary evaluation and the subject.
• Strong association between the two nodes,
then spreading occurs quickly from one
node to the other (attitude is very
accessible) → influence behavior.
Response Latency
• Response latency has been used as a
measure of accessibility – i.e., “How long
does it take for someone to provide an
answer/attitude...?”
Now What?
Moderators of Attitudes/Behavior
Consistency
• Three key variables which can moderate the
relation between attitudes and behavior:
1. Qualities of the attitude (attitude
factors/nature),
2. Aspects of the situation (situational factors)
3. Characteristics of the individual (personality
factors).
Situational Factors
• Situational factors can influence whether an
attitude is activated.
• Typically, it is assumed that attitudes have a
stronger influence on behavior when an attitude
is activated in a situation.
• However, can you think of situations in which
awareness of an attitude reduces the influence
on behavior?
Situational Factors
• Two types of Situational Factors:
– Norms and roles: Attitudes or judgments
towards social norms (appropriateness)
become stronger – other attitudes are
inhibited in a situation “x”.
– Scripts: attitude towards the situation
trumped other attitudes
Qualities of Attitudes
Nature of Attitude – Good/Bad attitudes
– Awareness of an attitude strengthen or weaken
the relation between attitude and behavior
depending on the desirability of the behavior.
– Desirable behavior: strengthen attitudebehavior relations (e.g., condom use).
– Undesirable behavior: decrease attitudebehavior relations.
Qualities of Attitudes
• General vs. Specific
– General Attitude (attitude toward object) – Global
evaluation across different situations.
– Specific attitude (attitude toward the behavior) –
Evaluation of a single act/behavior.
• Compatibility Principle – Strong relationship
between attitude and behavior is possible only if
attitudinal predictor corresponds with the
behavioral criteria.
Qualities of Attitudes
• Attitude Strength
– Strong attitude are more likely to influence behavior
– Ambivalence. People recognize positive and negative
aspects of an attitude object - can moderate the
relation between attitude and behavior.
– High ambivalence: Behavior can be influenced by the
positive or the negative aspects (inconsistent).
– Low ambivalence: Only positive or negative aspects
are activated (consistent).
Self-Monitoring
• Self-monitoring is a personality variable
thought to influence behavior.
• People who are high in self-monitoring
behave according to the situation (most
likely behave inconsistently).
• People who are low in self-monitoring draw
on feelings and attitudes when behaving
(behavior is normally much more consistent
across situations).
Conclusion
• Whether attitudes influence behaviors
depends on several factors.
• Attitudes have a stronger effect when they
are activated by situational cues.
• Attitudes have a stronger effect when
people are self-aware.
• Consistent attitudes have a stronger effect
on behavior than ambivalent attitudes.