Attitude–Behavior Consistency

Definition

The study of attitude–behavior consistency concerns the degree to which people's attitudes (opinions) predict their behavior (actions). Attitude–behavior consistency exists when there is a strong relation between opinions and actions. For example, a person with a positive attitude toward protecting the environment who recycles paper and bottles shows high attitude–behavior consistency. The study of attitude–behavior consistency is important because much of the usefulness of the attitude concept is derived from the idea that people's opinions help guide their actions.

Background

Common sense would dictate that attitudes should predict behavior. It seems sensible to predict that a student who strongly supports saving endangered animals will make an annual donation to the World Wildlife Fund. However, is the link between attitudes and behavior this simple?

To answer this question, it is helpful to consider some early research on this topic. Initial research on attitude–behavior consistency was conducted in the early 1930s. At this time, a college professor named Richard LaPiere was traveling across America with a young Chinese couple. At the time, there was widespread anti-Asian prejudice in America. As a result of this prejudice, LaPiere was concerned whether he and his traveling companions would be refused service in hotels and restaurants. Much to his surprise, only once (in over 250 establishments) were they not served. A few months after the completion of the journey, LaPiere sent a letter to each of the visited establishments and asked whether they would serve Chinese visitors. Of the establishments that replied, only one indicated that it would serve such a customer. While there are a number of problems with LaPiere's study (for instance, there is no guarantee that the person who answered the letter was the same person who served LaPiere and his friends), the study was taken as evidence that that people's behavior might not necessarily follow from their attitudes.

By the late 1960s, a number of experiments had examined the relation between attitudes and behavior. In 1969, Allan Wicker reviewed the findings of these studies. He reached a rather sobering conclusion: Attitudes were a relatively poor predictor of behavior. Wicker's conclusion contributed to a “crisis of confidence” in social psychology and led a number of researchers to question the usefulness of the attitude concept. It was argued that, if attitudes do not guide actions, then the construct is of limited value.

When Do Attitudes Influence Behavior?

Attitude researchers responded to this criticism by devoting greater attention to the study of when attitudes predict behavior. In the past 30 years, research findings have led to a more optimistic conclusion: Attitudes do predict behavior, under certain conditions. What are some of these conditions?

First, attitudes do a better job of predicting behavior when both concepts are measured in a similar way. Returning to LaPiere's study, his measure of attitude asked establishments to indicate whether they would serve someone of the Chinese race. This measure of attitude is quite broad in comparison to the measure of behavior, which involved service being offered to a highly educated, well-dressed Chinese couple accompanied by an American college professor. Had LaPiere's attitude measure been more specific (e.g., if it had read, “Would you serve a highly educated, welldressed Chinese couple accompanied by an American college professor?”), there would have been greater consistency between attitudes and behavior.

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