A new perspective on the attitude-behavior relation: The essential function of goals

In theory, knowing an individual’s attitude about a topic should allow us to predict his or her behavior. However, in a classic study, Wicker (1969) came to the surprising conclusion that attitudes and behaviors are only weakly related. We present a new theoretical perspective that describes the conditions necessary for an attitude to be translated into a behavior. More specifically, we propose that an attitude (i.e., liking of an end state) is not sufficient to cause behavior. Rather, that liking must first become a desire, which will only occur if an individual likes a potential future state more than the present state. The desire must subsequently be transformed into a goal, which will only occur if the desire is perceived as attainable. The goal must then become a focal goal (i.e., be momentarily dominant in an individual’s goal system). Lastly, in order for a particular behavior to be enacted, it must be selected as a means that serves the focal goal. We offer empirical evidence for our theory and describe how it goes beyond previous models of attitude-behavior relations, such as the Theory of Planned Behavior (Fishbein & Ajzen, 2010) and the MODE model (Fazio, 1990).