Abstract
The present study is concerned with the moderating role of affective-cognitive consistency in the relationship between attitudes and behavior. Based on earlier research ( Millar & Tesser, 1986), attitudes were conceptualized as containing an affective and a cognitive component and subsequent behaviors as being driven by one of these components. It was hypothesized that if the affective and cognitive components are in good evaluative agreement (high affective-cognitive consistency), then thought emphasizing either component would lead to a similar general evaluation that should relate to all behavior in a similar manner. However, if the affective and cognitive components are not in agreement (low affective-cognitive consistency) then thought emphasizing different components would lead to different general evaluations that relate deferentially to subsequent behavior. To test this hypothesis, the affective-cognitive consistency of attiudes about analytic puzzles was measured. The participants were either affectively or cognitively focused prior to an evaluation and then played with the puzzles under instrumental and consumatory conditions. As predicted, thought prior to the evaluation only affected the attitude-behavior relation when attitudes were low in affective-cognitive consistency.
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