Lecture 9

Question 1

relation between attitudes and behavior discussion

Answer 1

has been discussion about if attitudes are indespensable or irrelevant in predicting behavior. it is a usefull starting point, but later research says it is maybe not needed.

Question 2

are attitudes and behavior related?

Answer 2

study on religion found that depending on how you analyze the data you either get a low or high correlation.
- single behavior gives a low correlation
- aggregated behavior gives a higher correlation

Question 3

difference in correlation between attitudes and behavior

Answer 3

suggests the principle of compatibility

Question 4

principle of compatibility

Answer 4

we can only make sense of the question when we are specific about what type of attitude and type of behavior we are talking about. we will only find a correlation when they match.

Question 5

types of behavior and attitude

Answer 5

• global attitude / behavior
• specific attitude / behavior

Question 6

has the principle of compatibility helped us answer the question?

Answer 6

a few meta-analysis using the principle showed that the relation between attitudes and behavior is between medium and large.

Question 7

theory of reasoned action

Answer 7

common starting point when thinkin about why people do what is folk psychology
- beliefs
- desires

you can’t just understand a correlation

Question 8

model of theory of reasoned action

Answer 8

attitude towards the behavior and subjective norm -> behavioral intention -> behavior

Question 9

problem with theory of reasoned action

Answer 9

the control you have is not included. you can’t play tennis alone, no matter how strong your intentions to play tennis are.

Question 10

theory of planned behavior

Answer 10

additions to the reasoned action theory:
- control beliefs
- percieved behavioral control
perception of control is influenced by actual control and can also influence intention.
held up pretty well when tested
~.5 correlation, so 25% of behavior is explained by intention.

Question 11

theory of reasoned goal pursuit

Answer 11

uses formulas to explain why an attitude/norm/control is what it is.
might make sense, but has no substantial evidence for us to say it is a good general model that captures everything.

Question 12

intention behavior gap

Answer 12

gap between behavior and intention, because intention only explains a quarter of the variance in behavior.

Question 13

do intentions cause behavior

Answer 13

meta analysis that only looked at the experimental studies done (so not correlational) found a small to medium change in behavior because of intention.

Question 14

two key points of the intention behavior gap

Answer 14

• disconnect between intentions and behavior can be due to failing to act on positive intention, but also due to acting when intention is negative
• there are more inclined abstainers than disinclined actors

Question 15

causes for failure to pursuit goal

Answer 15

• fail to get started (-> should initiate goal pursuit)
• fail to keep goal pursuit on track (-> should maintain goal pursuit)
• fail to bring goal pursuit to a succesful close (-> should close goal pursuit).

Question 16

how can we close the gap?

Answer 16

if at all possible the gap between intention and behavior can be reduced by increasing behavioral control.
we can use people’s ability to make plans, if you help them make plans it will increase their ability to reach goals.

Question 17

shape of attitude-behavior relation

Answer 17

theory of planned behavior assumes the shape of attitude-behavior relation is linear, but a correlation isn’t always linear

Question 18

the feeling to action relationship

Answer 18

we saw earlier in a study that people changed things if they were dissatisfied and these correlations where fairly linear.

Question 19

Bechler, Tormala Rucker (2021)

Answer 19

while the majority of research implies lineairity this study found that the relation is systematically nonlinear.

Question 20

plausible options for shape of relation

Answer 20

• classic perspective
• categorical perspective
• attitude-strength perspective

Question 21

classic perspective

Answer 21

linear

Question 22

categorical perspective

Answer 22

light s shape. in this persepective you don’t really have an attitude, it only really matters if you are above or below the neutral point.
change between valence is seen as larger than change within valence

Question 23

attitude-strength perspective

Answer 23

strong S shape.
more extreme attitudes are stronger and have bigger effect on behavior.

Question 24

valenced versus nonvalenced behaviors

Answer 24

study hypothesised that categorical perspective only applies to valenced behavior, but not for nonvalenced.
and this was the case with voting for certain candidate (s-shaped) or voting at all (not s-shaped)

Question 25

high barrier behavior?

Answer 25

for high-barrier behavior the threshold might not be at neutral, but more extreme value.
- implication: some attitude changes have more effect on behavior

Question 26

implications for advertising

Answer 26

• Tailor persuasive message to the strongest determinant of the behavioral intention (attitudes, norms, control).
• Identify specific (behavioral, normative, control) beliefs that are basis of behavior and target those.
• Consider intention-behavior gap: Is the problem disinclined actors or inclined abstainers?
• Consider combining attitude change with implementation intentions.
• Determine shape of attitude-behavior relation.
• Consider what attitude change has most impact on behavioral intention.