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Attitude-behaviour consistency is a central concept in social psychology, referring to the relationship and alignment between an individual’s beliefs, or attitudes, and their actions, or behaviour. Specifically, the concept attitude-behaviour consistency addresses the parts of the study of attitudes in which social psychologists examine whether people's actions can be understood as arising from their beliefs and opinions.

It should be noted that the relationship has been highly debated among researchers, given the fact that individuals often act in ways that seem inconsistent with their attitudes. Many argue that attitudes are not the only factors influencing behaviour; some people may behave more in line with their attitudes than others, and people’s behaviour may align more with their attitudes in some circumstances than in others.

The consistency between attitudes and behaviours can be explained by moderating factors, which strengthen or weaken the relationship. Some of the categories of moderators include attitude strength and accessibility, as well as situational/contextual factors, and individual factors.

Consistency Theories

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In his famous work A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance, Leon Festinger suggests that the existence of cognitive dissonance automatically leads to pressures to reduce it. The three main ways in which we reduce this postdecision dissonance are 1) changing or revoking the decision, 2) changing cognition about the alternatives, and 3) establishing cognitive overlap.

Changing or revoking the decision occurs immediately after a decision, when the dissonance is not overwhelming as the choice was likely to have been the most favourable at the moment. The discomfort of slight dissonance may tempt undoing the decision, but Leon Festinger points out that simply reversing the decision does not reduce dissonance–as what should be reversed to properly reduce dissonance is the cognitive elements that were involved in the decision making, not the mere decision itself. Alternatively, individuals may psychologically revoke the decision by denying responsibility, attributing the decision to external forces. For example, someone who regrets accepting a particular job offer may convince themselves that they had no real choice in it and that they had to accept it.

The more common way individuals attempt to reduce postdecision dissonance is by altering one’s perception of the alternative decision. By reframing or reducing the positive elements of the rejected option, and the negative elements in the chosen one, one can increase cognitive consonance and lessen discomfort. This approach is not always effective as for if contradictory evidence emerges, dissonance may persist despite cognitive efforts to justify the decision. Lastly, creating cognitive overlap occurs when individuals find or invent similarities between the chosen and unchosen alternatives; when alternatives share common elements, dissonance decreases partly because the decision feels less like a loss. In practice, this may look like reframing all the options, including the chosen and rejected, as all serving towards the same end (e.g., a child choosing between a ball game and a circus may come to realise that both serve the purpose of entertainment making the decision less conflicting). Another method is to identify the directly overlapping aspects (e.g., “the circus will also have ball games for me to play!”).

Factors Influencing Consistency

[edit] Recent research has shown that attitudes accurately predict behaviour only under certain conditions, and that certain factors in particular have an impact on attitude-behaviour consistency:

Cultural Factors

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Culture plays a significant role in attitude-behaviour consistency as it shapes the factors that influence whether attitudes accurately predict behaviour. In individualistic cultures, social behaviour is more likely to be predicted by the personal attitudes that individuals hold. In these cultures, there is a higher emphasis on independence and people’s behaviours are predicted by their self-interest and personal preferences. Independent self-construals are fostered in individualistic cultures, where people see themselves as unique from others. This type of self-construal is categorized with Western cultures, with European Americans emphasizing individuality and placing high importance on their internal attributes. As a result, individual concerns are placed above the concerns of the group . This encourages acting based on personal beliefs, which results in higher attitude-behaviour consistency.

In contrast to this, the behaviours of individuals in collectivist cultures is more strongly predicted by social norms and group behaviours. Due to this, collectivist cultures have been predicted to have less consistency as their behaviour is more likely to be influenced by contextual factors. In cultures that promote collectivism, it is much more important for individuals to learn to adapt and be flexible, rather than be consistent. Interdependent self-construals are fostered in collectivist cultures, where individuals emphasize themselves as part of social relationships. This includes Asian, Southern European, and Latin American countries. These cultures promote the importance of adjusting one's behaviour according to the perception of other people's thoughts, feelings, and actions . Because of these factors, individuals in these cultures are more likely to adapt their behaviour to fit the situation or social group they are in, which ultimately reduces attitude-behaviour consistency.

Cultural contexts play a role in determining whether individuals perceive their actions as driven by personal choice or social responsibility. Individualistic cultures show stronger attitude-behaviour consistency because of the emphasis on autonomy and individual uniqueness, while collectivist cultures generally show weaker attitude-behaviour consistency because of the strong emphasis on adapting to social expectations.

Attitude Accessibility and Strength

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Accessibility

The Attitude Accessibility Theory, developed by Russell H. Fazio suggests that attitudes are more likely to guide behaviours when they are easily accessible in memory. This theory focuses on the strength of association between an attitude object and an individual’s evaluation of it. It is measured by an individual's reaction time to evaluate an attitude object where faster responses suggest higher accessibility. Determinants of accessibility include the frequency of activation and recency of activation.

The factor of attitude accessibility is important when the accessibility of underlying affective and cognitive components of attitudes are aligned. For instance, when an attitude is assessed in a context where people primarily focus on its cognitive aspects, but the behaviour occurs in a situation where the affective components of the attitude are more prominent, attitude-behaviour consistency will be weak.

Strength

More broadly, attitude strength has been defined as referring to the durability and strength of attitudes, with stronger attitudes being considered to be ones that are stable, accessible, and resistant to change, which is why they are more likely to predict consistent behaviour. Some components of attitude strength, as has been shown in work by Fazio, include certainty, personal importance, and direct experience. These kinds of attitudes are thought to be more resistant to persuasion, and therefore more likely to predict behavior.

Weak attitudes are more likely to be influenced by context, situational factors, and social pressures, thus leading to less consistent behavior. Weak and/or ambivalent attitudes were shown to result in lower ability to predict behavior, with low consistency between the expressed beliefs and the actual behaviors of individuals. When attitudes are strong, they have a greater influence on behaviour; individuals are more motivated to behave in ways that align with their beliefs and feelings towards the attitude object, leading to a higher level of attitude-behavior consistency. Thus, individuals with stronger attitudes might be less impacted by situational factors.