Abstract

TAr Journal of Social Plychology. 1972, 88, 241-246. ATTITUDE-BELIEF AND ATTITUDE-BEHAVIOR CONSISTENCY. Uni'Perlity of Calijor"ia. BtI'f'itltY WILLIAM H. BRUVOLD A. INTRODUCTION In an earlier article related to the work of Insko and Schopler (4) and Anderson and Fishbein (1), Bruvold (3) presented an hypothesis regarding consistency between beliefs, behavior, and attitudes and also some data bearing upon the newly stated hypothesis. Essentially the data indicated that while consistency between specific behavior patterns and attitudes was not always statistically significant, substantial consistency between behavior and attitudes was obtained when several behaviors were considered combinatorially. The same pattern of results was obtained for beliefs and attitudes. The aim of the present paper is twofold: to extend the earlier consistency hypothesis in light of the new data, and to report results from survey research performed specifically to test the elaborated hypothesis. Attitude, belief, and behavior, as well as attitude-belief and attitude­ behavior consistency, are defined in the earlier article (3). These definitions will not be repeated except to point out that belief, attitude, and behavior are given independent definitions, that each may be separately assessed without reference to the other two, and that attitude is seen as continuous, while be­ havior and