Abstract
Three studies investigated the influence of past behavior on the stability of the attitudes it elicits. In Experiment 1, the effect of a bogus behavior feedback was long lasting when people engaged in biased scanning, presumably because this process elicits behavior-consistent beliefs. In contrast, the effect of the feedback decayed when participants were forced to consider whether the behavior might have undesirable outcomes. A second experiment using a different behavioral paradigm and a field study further supported the interpretation that individuals resolve conflict between a past behavior and subsequent beliefs about it by aligning attitudes with beliefs instead of behavior.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 719-733 |
Number of pages | 15 |
Journal | Personality and social psychology bulletin |
Volume | 31 |
Issue number | 6 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jun 2005 |
Keywords
- Attitude toward the behavior
- Behavior outcomes
- Past behavior
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Social Psychology