Relation between Attitude and Behavior

Generally individuals show behavior according to their attitudes .Attitudes are considered as guides for various behavior. But various studies like La Piere studies indicate that individual can show behavior contrary to their attitudes. There are some factors which determine attitude behavior links. These are:

- Social context and social consequences of behavior
- Awareness and accessibility of attitudes
- Lack of external pressure
- Person’s behavior is not evaluated by others
- Person himself thinks that his behavior would have positive consequence

Attitude’s Influence and Relation with Thought and Behavior
Attitude and behavior are comparable but they are two different concepts. Following differences can be observed between both:

Attitude is internal whereas behavior is external. In other words, behavior can be seen by others as it is external whereas attitude wrapped in the mind of the individual and hence cannot be seen.

Your Action defines your behavior while your thought process defines your attitude.

Attitude shapes the behavior of a person. With increase in understanding of things attitude change which is reflected in behavior of a person. A person with the right attitude may reflect it with right behavior too. But sometimes people act in accordance with their attitudes, and other times they act in ways that are quite inconsistent with their attitudes.

What opinion someone has about something in life shapes his Attitude. Behavior is about how one responds to the impulsion and the pulls of the environment. This response is very much byproduct of the attitude of a person. Even though attitude is not visible externally it is possible to judge one’s attitude through one’s behavior. Someone may say that person A has a good attitude towards poor. It is evident from A’s behavior. Hence even though attitude and behavior are different concepts they are related in some sense.

Is there a relation between attitude and behavior?
During the early 1930s, La Piere conducted study of the attitude–behavior relation which became one of the most cited study. While traveling across the western USA along with a Chinese couple, La Piere visited more than 200 restaurants and hotels. The Chinese couple was refused service at only one location. Some 6 months later, La Piere wrote to the owner of each of the hotels and restaurants and asked whether the establishment welcomed Chinese guests. Surprisingly, 92% of those who responded indicated that they did not provide service to Chinese guests. Therefore, there was a startling inconsistency between the attitude response to La Piere’s letter and the actual behavior toward the Chinese couple with whom La Piere had visited those locations.
A very similar study related to an African American guest, instead of Chinese guests, also observed a lot inconsistency between people’s reports on their attitudes and their actual behavior. Although it cannot be denied that many of the studies suggest that attitudes do not influence behavior, but sometimes attitudes do predict a person’s behavior. For example, studies of voting behavior consistently have indicated a substantial relation between pre-election attitudes and actual voting. Basically, people vote for the candidates they like.

Researchers through extensive study have revealed everything from findings of no relation whatsoever to the nearly perfect relation.
So far as the question “Is there a relation between attitudes and behavior?” is concerned answer is unmistakably “sometimes.” Given wide range of findings, it becomes evident that the question of attitude–behavior consistency has to be approached uniquely: Rather than asking whether attitudes relate to behavior, we should ask, “Under what prevailing conditions do particular kind of attitude, on certain kind of individuals predict what kinds of behavior?” We need to treat the power of the attitude–behavior relation as we would treat any other dependent variable and determine what elements affect it.