Attitude and Behavior in (Classic) Social Psychology and Rabbinic Thought: Implications for Psychology of Religion Research

Abstract

Certainly attitudes influence behavior; however, less intuitively obvious is the empirical literature revealing that external behavior affects internal attitudes sometimes even more powerfully. This article explores the parallel literatures about the relationship between attitude and behavior in social psychology and the rabbinic tradition. Judaism, characterized by orthopraxy, has considerably more emphasis on legislated behavior than belief, doctrine, or attitude. Moreover, rabbinic text is replete with observations that complement the empirical demonstrations of social psychology. These relate to the causal influence of behavior on attitude, behavioral factors leading to internalization or externalization, and the relationship between effort and satisfaction.