The relationship between attitudes and behavior has been the topic of considerable debate. This article reports a meta-analysis of 88 attitude-behavior studies that reveals that attitudes significantly and substantially predict future behavior. Relatively large and significant moderating effects were found for the attitudinal variables of attitude certainty, stability, accessibility, affective-cognitive consistently, and direct experience. Methodological factors associated with high attitude-behavior correlations included self-report measures of behavior, the use of nonstudents as subjects, and corresponding levels of specificity in the attitude and behavior measures. The practical magnitude of attitude-behavior correlations is considered, as are the future directions of attitude-behavior research.
Samenvatting