The effects of attitude action activity on the attitude-behavior relationship

Abstract

Past research has found that attitudes are only modest predictors of behavior (Eagly & Chaiken, 1993; Schuman & Johnson, 1976; Wicker, 1969). One explanation for low attitude-behavior correlations involves the cognitive representation of an individual's attitude. Attitude Representation Theory (ART) predicts higher attitude-behavior consistency when the cognitive representation associated with an attitude matches rather than mismatches the cognitive representation associated with the behavior (Lord & Lepper, 1999). The proposed research investigated the actions component of attitudes. Previous work has addressed the specificity of attitude-relevant behaviors. Actions, however, differ in more ways than their specificity. One important way that actions differ is on their activity level. The present studies extended the matching hypothesis and the moderating effects of attitude-behavior consistency by showing that matches in the activity level of the attitude relevant actions and the behavioral measures elicited greater attitude-behavior consistency than mismatches and that it was possible to manipulate attitude action activity levels. When people associate active actions with their attitudes, they behave more predictively in situations that afford opportunity for active than passive ways of showing their attitudes. When they associate passive actions with their attitudes, they behave more predictively in situations that afford opportunity for passive than active ways of showing their attitudes. Evaluation may be the most important dimension of attitudes, but activity is important as well (Tesser, & Martin, 1996).