Attitudes versus Actions: The Relationship of Verbal and Overt Behavioral Responses to Attitude Objects
Abstract
Gordon Allport (1954) has described the attitude concept as "the primary building stone in the edifice of social psychology [p. 45], " and the extensive attitude literature in the past 20 years supports this contention. Stimulated primarily by the cognitive consistency theories, thousands of pages have been written recent-ly on attitude formation and change. One possible reason for the popularity of the attitude concept is that social psychologists have assumed that attitudes have something to do with social behavior. Cohen (1964), in the con-cluding chapter of his book. Attitude Change and Social Influence, states: 'The writer is indebted to the following colleagues for helpful suggestions and comments on an earlier version of this paper: Roger Barker, L. B. Korn-reich, Eugene Levitt, and Lawrence Linn. Thanks are also due to Anthony Fazio and James Green who supplied unpublished studies for review, and to Dean Bolton and Douglas Simpson for library work. Locating relevant references was facilitated by Deutscher's bibliography (1966a). This research was supported
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Relative to other comparisons of attitudes or behaviors observed within survey settings and real-world behavior, this represents an impressive degree of correspondence.
“Relative to other comparisons of attitudes or behaviors observed within survey settings and real-world behavior (see, for instance, Wicker, 1969;Bertrand and Mullainathan, 2001), this represents an impressive degree of correspondence.”
From Partisan Gaps in Political Information and Information-Seeking Behavior: Motivated Reasoning or Cheerleading? (2019) · cites this paper as Wicker, 1969
General attitudes toward broad targets often fail to predict specific behaviors directed at the target of the attitude.
“The failure of such general attitudes to predict specific behaviors directed at the target of the attitude has produced calls for abandoning the attitude concept (Wicker, 1969).”
From The theory of planned behavior (1991) · cites this paper as Wicker, 1969
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References 72 · Cited by 2,152
- Authors
- Wicker, A. W.
- Affiliations
- University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (US)
- Corresponding author
- Wicker, Allan W.
- Venue
- Journal of Social Issues
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 1969-10
- Volume
- 25
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 41-78
- ISSN
- 0022-4537 (ISSN-L)
- 1540-4560
- OpenAlex
- W2057733567
- Cited by
- 2,152
- References
- 72
- Citations by year
- 2026: 12 · 2025: 34 · 2024: 48 · 2023: 52 · 2022: 56 · 2021: 56 · 2020: 103 · 2019: 50 · 2018: 50 · 2017: 54 · 2016: 64 · 2015: 59 · 2014: 57 · 2013: 51 · 2012: 51
- FWCI
- 119.40
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Social Issues (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Behavioral Health and Interventions
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Management Science and Operations Research › Psychometric Methodologies and Testing
- Keywords
- attitude-behavior relationship, verbal responses, overt behavior, attitude objects, attitude change, cognitive consistency, attitude formation, social behavior
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