A recent article in this Journal reported the results of a study that compared the attitudes toward product innovations of a group of housewives and a group of students.' The author notes that there have been a number of studies focusing on the uses of students as surrogates for various other populations, particularly businessmen and housewives.2 The results of these studies have been inconclusive. However, economy, convenience, and educational value to the students serve as inducements to continue to study students rather than less accessible respondent groups. Shuptrine, as well as other investigators, has overlooked a factor of major importance in the surrogate issue. An examination of research studies in consumer behavior reveals two ways in which students are utilized. Onie aspect of the surrogate issue involves surface-level differences in responses such as differences in existing attitudes or in attitude change caused by specific experimental conditions.3 The second aspect of the surrogate issue involves differences in the underlying, psychological processes between students and other groups. This involves such factors as differences in the attitude-behavior relationship or differences in the formation of cognitive dissonance.4 It is interesting to note that most of the research has focused on attitude differences between students and other groups. Yet few researchers,