Do attitudes predict behaviors?

Question

For a long time, the advertising world believed in the old "hierarchy of effects" or "AIDA" model. AIDA was a late 19th century selling acronym that stood for something like "Aware, Informed, Desire, Action." Some also call this "think, feel, act." More recent research suggests that our attitudes do not reliably predict our behaviors.

Consider a typical new year's resolution to lose weight, for example. If you polled the person on December 31, you would get a strong "behavioral intent" to lose weight. But that person's actions might ultimately speak louder than his or her words.

Answer 1

people with bad attitudes usually have bad behaviors

people with good attitudes usually have good behaviors

so i would say yes

thanks,

SS

Answer 2

Attitudes Predict Behavior

Answer 3

1

Answer 4

Attitudes might predict behavior, but it probably is not the best thing to predict a person's behavior.
In your New Years Resolution example: the people who have made resolutions to lose weight are probably more likely to lose a little weight than the people who made resolutions for other things. But I think if the person's attitude toward food and exercise were right (knowing which foods are healthy and looking at exercise as a daily activity not a chore) then they would lose weight. This would be a more ideal situation than just making the old New Year's Resolution to lose weight.

Answer 5

In some ways, they are related. If you are able to change your attitude then more than likely you would want to change behaviors as well. A positive attitude and an open mind doesn't usually lead to inappropriate or negative behaviors. An attitude of respect would probably lead to more respectful behaviors. This is a good question regarding behavioral modification therapy. Improve the attitude and understand how that affects others and the behaviors would probably follow. The change in attitude must come first.

Answer 6

No attitudes do not PREDICT behaviors - however they do influence behaviors but only if given the time to resolve and react.

BTW your example about weight is a fallacy BECAUSE unless you tested the person with numerous indexes you would be unable to ascertain their true attitudes. Words do not strictly align with attitudes, this is because humans are conditioned to "give" the words, responses, that they feel is the "correct" one, ie that which presents an attitude that will be acceptable to the populace. Thus, as your argument is based on faulty information no conclusion can be arrived at as your hypothesis is invalid.

Answer 7

Almost never, and here is why. You can have more than one attitude and each may contradict causing cognitive dissonance. So to function, one tries to eliminate cognitive dissonance. Thus, you can just focus on one attitude and behave accordingly while ignoring the others, but that can change any time depending on which attitude is your focus. So because of that variability, PREDICTION is impossible, without conditions.

Case in point, a pro-life conservative who is against killing innocent people may use only their attitude toward abortion to decide to vote for an anti-abortion political figure. However, if that politician is elected and then starts an illegal war that results in the death of nearly a million innocent people, the conservative would surely rely on their pro-life attitude to reject that politician in future. On the other hand, the conservative person may hold an attitude about small government and not interfering in people's lives or nation building. if they ignore that attitude in favor of the pro-life attitude, they might make faulty behavioral choices in voting.

Answer 8

Ones own attitude is a precuser towards overall behaviour outcomes if you evaluate the overall attitude hierachy that is which dictates the human behaviour for more then an instant and inspect the attitude devlopment from the onset-childhood to adulthood then and only then you could use teh model correctly but when you are trying to make a quick judgemnt about peoples intrenal motivator then the answer would be no it is not possible.

Answer 9

no- because there are environmental-- or "right now" things that affect our attitudes at any given moment... a hangover, a commercial inspiring us to impulse purchase, a bluesy feeling, full moon, sick friend, smoking a joint etc, etc...

A person that may have a high percentage of upbeat time-- "always in a good mood" is certainly more predictable-- or reliable than most. I think track record is more an indicator than "attitude"-- look at ones' track record to predict their future behavior. Most adults don't change very much...

Answer 10

Attitude can only predict behavior depending on the correlation between the person attitude and behavior linkage.

Answer 11

Yes.

A person's attitude is his disposition. Attitude means more than describing one's behaviour or even intent... it is the way that a person's heart is resolved. Attitudes are in and fed through our hearts, therefore a person will be propelled towards those things that are in his/her heart and will act accordingly. Action is often found in non action as well. A person will always strive to remain true to him/herself and because the heart is the man, whatever is in the heart is what will become manifest.