Social Psychology 473COGNITIVE COMPONENT Finally, the cognitive component of an attitude is the way a
person thinks about himself or herself, an object, or a situation. These thoughts, or cogni-
tions, include beliefs and ideas about the focus of the attitude. For example, the country
music lover might believe that country music is superior to other forms of music.
So if you know what someone thinks or feels about something,
you can predict what that person will do, right?Oddly enough, attitudes turn out to be pretty poor predictors of actual behavior in a
number of controlled research studies. The results of several decades of research indicate
that what people say and what people do are often two very different things (van de Gar-
de-Perik et al., 2008; Wicker, 1971). Studies have found that attitudes predict behavior only
under certain conditions. For example, in one study, researchers found that a randomly
chosen sample of people indicated in a survey that they believed in protecting the envi-
ronment and would be willing to pay more for fruits and vegetables raised under environ-
mentally friendly conditions. When the people of that same sample were studied for their
actual buying habits, the only sample members who bought the ecofriendly fruit did so in
grocery stores in areas of higher income levels. These consumers actually had the financial
means to “put their money where their mouth was” (A. Clarke et al., 1999). Those members
of the sample who did not live in a higher-income area gave what they probably saw as a
socially desirable answer on the survey, but in practice, their lower income influenced their
actual behavior—they did NOT buy the more expensive ecofriendly fruit.
Another factor in matching attitudes and behavior concerns how specific the atti-
tude itself is. People may hold a general attitude about something without reflecting that
attitude in their actual behavior. For example, doctors generally hold the attitude that
people should do everything they can to protect their health and promote wellness, yet
many doctors still smoke tobacco, fail to exercise, and often get too little sleep. But a very
specific attitude, such as “exercise is important to my immediate health,” will more likely
be associated with the behavior of exercising (Ajzen, 2001; Ajzen & Fishbein, 2000). Even
playing a simulation game in which players control a character within a fictional health
care setting, making specific decisions about health behavior, has been shown to have a
positive effect on attitudes toward health care in those players (Kaufman et al., 2015).
Some attitudes are stronger than others, and strong attitudes are more likely to pre-
dict behavior than weak ones. A person who quit smoking because of failing health might
have a stronger attitude toward secondhand smoke than someone who quit smoking on
a dare, for example. The importance, or salience*, of a particular attitude in a given situa-
tion also has an impact on behavior—the more important the attitude appears, the more
likely the behavior will match the attitude. Someone who is antismoking might be more
likely to confront a smoker breaking the rules in a hospital, for example, than they would
a smoker outside the building (Eagly & Chaiken, 1998).
AT T I T U D E F O R M AT I O N Attitude formation is the result of a number of different influ-
ences with only one thing in common: They are all forms of learning.
DIRECT CONTACT One way in which attitudes are formed is by direct contact with the
person, idea, situation, or object that is the focus of the attitude. For example, a child who
tries and dislikes brussels sprouts will form a negative attitude about brussels sprouts.
DIRECT INSTRUCTION Another way attitudes are formed is through direct instruction,
either by parents or some other individual. Parents may tell their children that smoking
cigarettes is dangerous and unhealthy, for example.
*salience: importance or having the quality of being obvious or easily seen.
While many people may believe in helping
the environment by using organically grown
products, one study found that only those
with the money to buy these more expensive
products did so.