Sometimes people's attitudes predict their behavior and sometimes they don't. Most people have a positive attitude toward donating money to charity, but they don't tend to give their hard-earned cash away whenever a charitable organization requests it. Similarly, many White individuals harbor a negative prejudice toward Blacks, but they often treat many Black individuals they meet with kindness and respect. Why do people's behaviors seem to naturally flow from their attitudes on some occasions but not on others? The MODE model (motivation and opportunity as determinants of the attitude–behavior relationship) addresses this question.

Key Concepts

Before describing the model, it is important to clarify some concepts. Attitude means any positive or negative association that one has with a given object, which can be anything—a person, political issue, ...

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