Attitude-Behaviour Consistency

Attitude-Behaviour Consistency

"You can forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light"

Plato

• Background 
• Concept & Relationship between Attitude and Behaviour
• Factors determining Attitude-Behaviour Consistency
1. Individual Factors
• High on Self-monitoring
• Low on Self-monitoring
2. Situational Factors
• Bandwagon effect
• Heuristic effect
3. Attitude Strength
• Relevance
• Specificity
• How have one acquired that Attitude?
• Accessability

Background -

• Attitude is the specific determinant of the behaviour; BUT it does not mean that they are always consistent.

For Example -

1. You despise cheating, but it does not mean you will never cheat (it may be situational).
2. You worry about climatic change, but it does not mean you will not drive car.
3. You despise corruption, but it does not mean you will not have an alliance with the corrupt people.

So, now the myth was broken that the Attitude is always in consistent with the behaviour.

Lapierre's Study(1934) - It was to study the racial attitude towards Chinese couple in America. The finding of the study was that the attitude does not always math your behaviour.

Study

• During 1930s there was a racial attitude towards the Chinese people in America. So, Lapierre decided to have an extensive tour to USA along with a Chinese couple to study the racial attitude which US people have.
• He went to over 250 restaurants and hotels.
• He saw that the Chinese couple was not discriminated, infact they were welcomed.
• So, Lapierre thought that it might be some rumours.
• 6 months later, he again decided to visit US with the same Chinese couple. So, when he again wanted to make reservation in the same hotels and restaurants, they refused as they did not wanted to attend the Chinese.
• So, that time he realised that they do have some racial attitude.

Reason for such behaviour -

• First when he along with the Chinese couple visited the hotels as customers, and the customers are treated equally. So, inspite of having racial attitude, they did welcomed them.
• But when they were making an advance reservation, they gave excuses as they did not want to attend the Chinese people.

Conclusion -

• Not always attitude is in consistent with the behaviour, it depends on circumstances also.

Corey Study (1937) - According to his study the cheating behaviour does not depend on the attitude towards the cheating but how poorly one has performed

Study -

• He asked the students, "what is your take on cheating?"
• Every one says that they demise cheating.
• So, he organised a test and in the last period the students were allowed for doing a self evaluation.
• But in break, the teacher evaluated all copies and kept the data and when in the last class he asked the students for self evaluation.
• There were two-three students who have not done well but when he asked everyone about their score. Everyone was telling their score but these two-three students who performed poor lied about their score.

Reason -

• They don't want to get embarrassed in front of the class.

Conclusion -

• Attitudinal measures are not valid indicators of the actual incidences of cheating.

Other Examples -

Attitude 1 - You hate corruption, 

Attitude 2 - You want to support your community.

Therefore, in election you voted for a corrupt candidate only because he belongs to your community.

So, here Attitude 2 dominates over Attitude 1, therefore it will be reflected in his behaviour.

Hence, with respect to Attitude 1, Attitude-behaviour consistency does not exist but with respect to Attitude 2, Attitude-behaviour consistency is shown.

Question for practice 

What factors affect the formation of person's attitude towards a social problem. Why do there exist contrasting attitude about the Caste System in our society?

Factors determining Attitude-Behaviour Consistency

1.  Individual 

• High on self-monitoring - where people are highly concerned about what other thinks (i.e., What others will say). ⇒ Attitude-behaviour consistency does not exists.
• Low on self-monitoring - stand by attitude irrespective of situation and person. ⇒ Attitude-behaviour consistency exists.

High on Self-Monitoring - In different situations with different people, a person often acts like a very different person, i.e., the bahaviour results from pragmatic concerns, i.e., what is appropriate in each situation.

Low on Self-Monitoring - The behaviour is an expression of true feeling, attitude and beliefs of oneself, i.e., one's behaviour is not determined by circumstances. Hence, Attitude-Behaviour consistency is high.

2.  Situation  

• Band Wagon effect - If Y-Attitude holders are important than X-Attitude holders, then the behaviour reflected is determined by Y Attitude. or Behaving as per social norms even if these norms are against/not consistent with your attitude, beliefs and values. So, Attitude-behaviour consistency might not exist.
• Attitude as Heuristic - 
• In case of time crunch ⇒ Attitude-Behaviour consistency exists
• In case of full time for deliberation and discussion ⇒ Attitude-behaviour consistency may not exist as it may depend on other factors.

Band Wagon effect - It refers to the pressure to conform, i.e., situational factors affect the strength of Attitude-Behaviour link.

For example - Let us say we have X-attitude and others have Y-attitude. If we hold others in high regards then there is very less probability of Attitude-behaviour consistency.

Also, if the norms are very strong and extensively held, then everyone behaves according to the norms irrespective of the attitude. hence, Attitude-behaviour consistency is less.

For example - Inter-caste marriages, Child marriage, Dowry, Taking Science after 10th if you are good at studies, etc.

Attitude as Heuristic - Strategies based on past experiences which will lead to the solution but may not guarantee success.

You have information overloaded, no time to plan or contemplate before behaviour hence whatever attitude we posses, we act accordingly.

For example - You are a recruiter in an organisation and you posses a patriarchal attitude and there is a set of male and female candidate for recruitment. So, if you have a time crunch you will select according to your attitude, i.e., a male (from a reputed educational institution).

But if you get enough time for full deliberation then you might select a female (based on efficiency).

Other examples - Zomato case and Ola Cab driver case (where there is the first impression that the girl is right as we have an attitude that the girl can never do wrong, but after the deliberation and discussion the behaviour with respect to that girl change).

Example of Brand impact - While purchasing, if you are in hurry you will always buy that brand which made a positive impact on your attitude but if you have full time then you might buy other brand item after full deliberation.

3.  Attitude Strength - the stronger the Strength, higher will be Attitude-behaviour consistency

• Relevance of attitude object
• How have you acquired that attitude?
• Specific
• Accessibility

Relevance - Let us suppose you are a very empathetic person (i.e., Attitude - empathy and compassion). And you got a message from your friend that his distant relative got admitted in a hospital and he requires A+ blood. 

You have compassion towards that person, but here the attitude object is a distant relative of your friend.

So, in that case you might think, should I go or not? or think he may have send this message to so may people and may someone has come to help. So, you do not go there.

But if the person admitted is your close relative then you hurriedly went there without thinking.

So, if Attitude object is of much relevance, Attitude-behaviour consistency is high but if the attitude object of not of much relevance, Attitude-behaviour consistency is less.

i.e., Higher the relevance of the attitude object, higher will be the strength of the attitude and higher will be the attitude-behaviour consistency.

How have someone acquired the attitude? 

• Person 1 - Positive attitude towards cricket because he is a big fan of Dhoni.
• Person 2 - Positive attitude towards cricket because he himself plays cricket.

Now if some asked them to watch or play cricket in noon, then the person 1 might not interested but the person may be interested and may go to watch/play it.

So, the behaviour here depends on the way/means the person has acquired the attitude.

i.e., if someone acquires the attitude with 1st hand experience, then there is a strong attitude and the attitude-behaviour consistency is high. 

But if someone acquires the attitude by some secondary means, then the attitude is not that strong enough and the attitude-behavior consistency is less.

In simple words, if someone has acquired the attitude through some personal first hand experience, then the strength of the attitude will be automatically high which will be reflected in your behaviour.

Specific - More specific the attitude is, more stronger the attitude is and hence higher will be attitude-behaviour consistency.

For example - 

1. Someone has a positive attitude towards peace but he might not be interested in peace protest.
2. A person with attitude of religiosity may not go to temple to worship as for him god lies in himself. But a person with the specific attitude towards going to the temple will definitely go to the temple to worship.
3. Another example may be attitude towards religiousity and jagarata.

Accessibility - Accessibility means how quickly someone is able to access his attitude the moment you see the attitude object.

Quicker the attitude, stronger will be the attitude and higher will be the attitude-behaviour consistency.

Question for practice 

"If a country is to be corruption free and became a nation of beautiful minds, I strongly feel there are three key societal members who can make a difference - Father, Mother and the Teacher." (Quote by A.P.J. Abdul Kalam). Elaborate it with example.

• To make the country corruption free and a nation with beautiful minds - 
• Right kinds of value have to be inculcated by means of Socialisation (agency of socialisation)
• A virtuous state/society has to be created by means of value based socialisation.
• And the three main agency of socialisation - Father, Mother and Teacher.

Theory of Planned behaviour

Theory of planned behaviour - What is the possibility that you are going to behave in a certain manner is also determined by the intention to behave.

Let's take example of Inter-Caste marriage. Your attitude is that Inter Caste marriage should be allowed, i,e., you are positively disposed towards intercaste marriage. But do you have an intention to support intercaste marriage also? It is determined by other factors also. Such as -

• Subjective norms - incidences of honour killing, feeling of social ostracization, etc.
• Perceived behaviour control - Are you a person of high self-efficacy to believe in one's own ability?, Are you a person of internal locus of control, i.e., believe in oneself's ability to face any situation?

A person with high efficacy and having internal locus of control has courage to overcome the subjective norms.

Let's take another example of Family Planning. You have to convince people to adopt for family planning.

So, if the person has positive attitude towards the behaviour and has intention to do so, then it is reflected in his behaviour (to adopt family planning). 

Therefore, for people to have an intention, you have to make the subjective norms in favour or change their percieved behaviour control.

In every society there are three types of people

1. Facilitator - easy to change, not very rigid
2. Resistor - rigid and orthodox
3. Fence sitter - indecisive, herd mentality

So the first target will always be the facilitator because they are easier to convince and once they change, they create a snow balling effect.

Then the second target will be to change the attitude by providing the benefit of changed attitude or alternative of existing attitude (or disadvantage of existing attitude).

Let's take the same example of family planning. 

Reasons why people are not in favour of family planning -

• Perception of more number of children ⇒ more working hands
• Religious ideologies
• Lack of awareness or accessibility of family planning
• Son meta preference, etc.

So, to change the attitude of the people, there is a need to provide an alternative and generate awareness about the benefit of family planning by cost benefit analysis.

This can be done by creating awareness about benefits of less children and negatives of more children.

Social norms can be changed by providing conditional cash transfer to incentivise girl child, condition/restriction for contesting elections, restriction on getting benefits of government schemes, etc.

Resistors always tries to act as impediments. So, you have to create a society where people has internal locus of control and this can be done by providing good governance, transparency, responsibility, accountability, robust grievance redressal mechanism. democratic governance, etc. The stronger they are, the lesser will be the power distance between the government and the people and the higher will be the confidence.

Awareness can be created by - 

• Street plays
• IEC Campaign (Information, Education and Communication Campaign)
• Charismatic personality
• Waling the talk

So, in short to make any scheme successful or changing the attitude of the people, the first step is to mould the attitude, then create favourable subjective norms and then ensure circumstances to create people of internal locus of control.

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Note - This is my Vision IAS Notes (Vision IAS Class Notes) and Ashutosh Pandey Sir's Public Administration Class notes. I've also added some of the information on my own. 

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