The Impact of Social Constraints on the Relationship Between Attitudes and Behavior

Abstract

The present research is concerned with situational variables which may influence the relationship between attitudes and overt behavior. More specifically, the research tried to assess the effects of social participation, attitudinal congruence and disclosure on the relationship between a subject's attitude toward legalizing marijuana and an overt act toward that same attitude object. In this laboratory study, only attitudinal congruence seems to have any direct effect on the relationship between attitudes and behavior. The statement that attitudes are good predictors of behavior is, at present, controversial. Several studies relating to the above claim have been published.1 Deutscher (1966) states that to expect a between attitudes and behavior is unreasonable. DeFleur and Westie (1963) have argued that sociologists and social psychologists have fallen into the fallacy of expected correspondence when they anticipate a direct relationship between attitudes and behavior. And Warner and DeFleur (1969), following Yinger's (1965) suggestions, have proposed that only a postulate of contingent consistency can adequately explain attitudebehavior discrepancies. They emphasize the importance of interaction effects between individual dispositions and situational variables in accounting for the relationship between attitudes