Self-monitoring and the attitude–behavior relation.

Abstract

It has been suggested that self-monitoring moderates attitude-behavior relations by influencing the perceived relevance of attitudes as guides for action. To test an alternative interpretation, 155 male and female college students responded to three questionnaires over a 6-week period before and after the 1980 presidential election. The questionnaires assessed self-monitoring tendency, attitudes and intentions with respect to voting in the election and with respect to smoking marijuana over a 3-week period, and self-reports of actual behavior. As in previous studies, low self-monitors tended to exhibit stronger attitude-behavior correlations than high self-monitors. There was, however, no difference in the predictability of intentions from attitudes, a finding which discontinued the preceived relevance interpretation of the effect of self-monitoring. Instead, the difference was located in the relation between intentions and behavior; low self-monitors exhibited significantly stronger intention-behavior correlations than did high selfmonitors. These findings supported the alternative interpretation, according to which the two types of individuals are equally aware of their attitudes' action implications; however, high self-monitors, being sensitive to situational demands, are less likely to carry out their previously formed intentions than are low selfmonitors, who are more attentive to internal cues. Research on the relationship between attitudes and behavior has undergone a marked shift of focus in recent years. Attitudes are no longer expected to predict behavior unconditionally; instead, their relation to behavior is said to be moderated by other variables. The strength of attitude-behavior relations is assumed to be contingent on a variety of factors, including the judged influence of extraneous events (Wicker, 1971), direct experience with the attitude object or with the behavior (Fazio & Zanna, 1978a; Regan & Fazio, 1977), confidence with which the attitude is held (Fazio & Zanna, 1978b), internal consistency of the attitude (Norman, 1975), heightened self-awareness (Wicklund, in press), and such individual difference variables as self-monitoring (Snyder, 1974, in press) and self-consciousness (Scheier, 1980; Scheier, Buss, & Buss, 1978).