Attitude and behaviour influence each other in a complex relationship. Attitude, which is one's thoughts or opinions, can predict behaviour when other influences are minimized, the attitude closely corresponds to the behaviour, and the attitude is strong. Conversely, behaviour can shape attitude through social roles defining behaviour and attitudes, the "foot-in-the-door" effect where small commitments lead to larger ones, and people justifying their actions to maintain consistent attitudes. The relationship is circular rather than strictly one-way, as behaviours and attitudes generate each other depending on the situation.

1. Page 1 of 10
DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, ESUT BUSINESS
SCHOOL, ENUGU
DOES BEHAVIOUR
INFLUENCE ATTITUDE OR
DOES ATTITUDE
INFLUENCE BEHAVIOUR
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY (EBS 667)
ANTHONY EMEKA ALU
(PG/EMSc./08/3332)
JUNE. 2010
[ABSTRACT
Attitudes are generally positive or negative views of a person, place, thing, or event – this is
often referred to as the attitude object. People can also be conflicted or ambivalent toward an
object, meaning that they simultaneously possess both positive and negative attitudes toward the
item in question (Wikipedia, 2010). Behaviour is the response(s) – the way in which a person,
organism, or group responds to a specific set of conditions. While many social psychologists
study social influences on behaviour, others focus on the changing of attitudes. The question that
“does behaviour affect attitude or does attitude affect behaviour?” is likened to the question “egg
and hen or chicken – which one came first?” Myer (2002) observes that our attitudes will predict
our behaviour on three conditions – if ‘other influences’ are minimized; if the attitude
corresponds very closely to the predicted behaviour; and if the attitude is potent. Conversely,
behaviour or action can affect or mold our attitudes in the following ways – through the ‘foot and
door’ phenomenon; through prescribed social roles which mold the attitude of the role player;
and the tendency for people to defend or justify already executed actions. Both attitude and
behaviour generate each other. As much as Thought (Attitude) is the child of Action
(Behaviour), Action is also the child of Thought; that is why people think then act at times and at
other times, act before thinking.]

2. Page 2 of 10
TITLE PAGE
DOES BEHAVIOUR INFLUENCE ATTITUDE OR DOES
ATTITUDE INFLUENCE BEHAVIOUR
BY
ANTHONY EMEKA ALU
(PG/EMSc./08/3332)
BEING A SEMINAR PAPER SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL
FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT OF THE COURSE:
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY (EBS 667) IN THE DEPARTMENT OF
ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT (GEOGRAPHY AND
METEOROLOGY), FACULTY OF ENVIRONMENTAL
SCIENCE
ESUT BUSINESS SCHOOL, ENUGU
JUNE, 2010

3. Page 3 of 10
Anecdote: Attitudes (thoughts) and behaviours (Actions)
Many sports events, which glorify health and physical prowess, are sponsored by manufacturers of products like
cigarettes, which are dangers to health. And the ads themselves are incongruous: with the surgeon general’s
warning: “quitting smoking now greatly reduces serious health risk or smokers are liable to die young.”
Cigarette Advertising
Television has received much criticism due to the significant amount of advertising used during regular
programming, especially with regard to addictive substances such as cigarettes and alcohol. Special interest groups
along with the Federal Communications Commission (the federal broadcasting agency) have attempted to regulate
such advertising. Today, cigarette commercials can no longer be aired on television, although printed materials,
such as newspapers and magazines, continue to advertise them. This 1956 magazine ad typifies the attempts by
cigarette manufacturers to glamorize smoking.
A.T. Co. Product of The Amer. Tobacco Co.
Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

4. Page 4 of 10
If I can conceive it and believe it, I can achieve
it. It's not my aptitude but my attitude that will
determine my altitude—with a little intestinal
fortitude!
Jesse Jackson (1941 - ) U.S. clergyman, civil
rights leader, and politician.
INTRODUCTION
Attitude has been defined as personal view of something: an opinion or general feeling about
something (Microsoft® Encarta® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation). Wikipedia (2010)
amplifies the definition of attitude as a hypothetical construct that represents an individual's
degree of like or dislike for an item. Attitudes are generally positive or negative views of a
person, place, thing, or event-- this is often referred to as the attitude object. People can also be
conflicted or ambivalent toward an object, meaning that they simultaneously possess both
positive and negative attitudes toward the item in question.
Behaviour is defined as Psychology response: the way in which a person, organism, or group
responds to a specific set of conditions (Microsoft® Encarta® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft
Corporation).
While many social psychologists study social influences on behaviour, others focus on the
changing of attitudes. Attitudes are relatively enduring beliefs or opinions that predispose people
to respond in a positive, negative, or ambivalent way to a person, object, or idea. In particular,
social scientists study how people are led to change their attitudes—the process known as
persuasion (Kassin, 2008; Microsoft® Encarta® 2009).
A person’s or group opinion of an action or event would determine his or their response(s) to the
action or event. In the Nigerian elections, quite some legitimate voters disenfranchise themselves
from participating, since they believe that their votes does not count because of SARS (Severe
Acute Rigging Syndrome). Some have the voter’s card while some others do not bother with the
card or with the registration process. This opinion is attributed to situational disposition during
the June 12 elections and subsequent elections thereafter. Thus this opinion has led to the
negative responses to the voting system. The voter’s behaviour about the election is seen as a
product of their attitude or opinion about the voting system.
Nonetheless, persons or group response to events can affect their opinion, since attitude can be
changed through the process of persuasion. Persuasion is an integral part of human social life.
Many people have a direct interest in knowing how to effectively persuade others: politicians
trying to win votes, salespeople and advertisers hawking their products, religious leaders seeking
converts, trial lawyers arguing before a jury, and fund-raisers seeking donations (Kassin, 2008;
Microsoft® Encarta® 2009).
.
The question that “does behaviour affect attitude or does attitude affect behaviour?” is likened to
the question “egg and hen or chicken – which one came first?” Both generate each other. As

5. Page 5 of 10
much as Thought (Attitude) is the child of Action (Behaviour), Action is the child of Thought;
that is why people think then act at times and at other times, act before thinking.
HOW ATTITUDE AFFECTS BEHAVIOUR
Attitude is a favourable or unfavourable evaluative reaction toward something or someone,
exhibited in one’s beliefs, feelings, or intended behaviour (Myers, 2002:130).
Attitude is one of Jung's 57 definitions in Chapter XI of Psychological Types. Jung's definition of
attitude is a "readiness of the psyche to act or react in a certain way" (Jung, [1921] 1971:par.
687; Wikipedia, 2010). Attitudes very often come in pairs, one conscious and the other
unconscious. Within this broad definition Jung defines several attitudes in dualism.
The main (but not only) attitude dualities that Jung defines are the following.
• Consciousness and the unconscious. The "presence of two attitudes is extremely frequent,
one conscious and the other unconscious. This means that consciousness has a
constellation of contents different from that of the unconscious, a duality particularly
evident in neurosis" (Jung, [1921] 1971: par. 687).
• Extraversion and introversion. This pair is so elementary to Jung's theory of types that he
labeled them the "attitude-types".
• Rational and irrational attitudes. "I conceive reason as an attitude" (Jung, [1921] 1971:
par. 785).
• The rational attitude subdivides into the thinking and feeling psychological functions,
each with its attitude.
• The irrational attitude subdivides into the sensing and intuition psychological functions,
each with its attitude. "There is thus a typical thinking, feeling, sensation, and intuitive
attitude" (Jung, [1921] 1971: par. 691).
• Individual and social attitudes. Many of the latter are "isms".
In addition, Jung discusses the abstract attitude. “When I take an abstract attitude...” (Jung,
[1921] 1971: par. 679). Abstraction is contrasted with concretism. “CONCRETISM. By this I
mean a peculiarity of thinking and feeling which is the antithesis of abstraction” (Jung, [1921]
1971: par. 696). For example "i hate his attitude for being Sarcastic (Wikipedia, 2010).
Before the 1960s, social psychologists held that people’s attitude governs their behaviour,
implying that what the mind perceives and conceives (the process of thought) the mind achieves
(the process of action).

6. Page 6 of 10
Leon Festinger in 1964 believes that attitude-behaviour relationship works the other way around
– behaviour being the horse and attitude being the cart – thus changing attitude does not mean
changing behaviour (Gerard, 1994; Myers, 2002:131). Further on this, Allan Wicker in research
studies, in 1969, covering a wide variety of people, attitudes, and behaviour concluded that
‘people’s expressed attitudes hardly predicted their varying behaviours’. Attempts to change
behaviour by changing attitudes often fail. Students attitude towards cheating or latecoming bore
little relation to the likelihood of their actually cheating or latecoming.
With this findings, the earlier pre-1960 Thesis that attitudes determine action or behaviour was
countered by the post-1960 Antithesis that attitudes determine virtually nothing in respect to
behaviour.
Further research in the early 1970s, came up with other factors that influence attitude and
behaviour; and if these factors are neutralised (ceteris paribus) could result in attitude being able
to accurately predict behaviour. This brought about the Synthesis that attitude can determine
behaviour or action depending on the circumstances. Kraus (1995) holds that it is now plain that,
depending on the circumstances, the relationship between expressed attitudes and behaviour can
range from no relationship to a strong relationship.
Summing it up, Myers (2002) amplifies that our attitudes predict our actions depending on three
circumstances:
i. If other influences are minimal;
ii. If attitude is specific to the action; and
iii. If the attitude is potent.
Other influences in this sense include over 40 separate factors that affect or complicate the
relationship between attitude and behaviour; for example consciousness and unconsciousness or
rational and irrational. For instance, if a suspected criminal, who believes that lie detector works,
is being screened with the device, he obviously would admit the truth. This implies that he is
conscious of the influence (which is minimized by this consciousness) and his thought would no
doubt affect his response or action to owning up during the screening test. Another instance is
the duality of good and evil/bad and how confessors (priest) use it during cancelling/ or retreat
before the laity confesses their sins. Other influences include personal and situational disposition
of the person involved. The thoughts of Hajia Turai Yar’adua during the debilitating health saga
of her husband President Yar’adua, prior to his death, did not predict her behaviour, because so
many other influences were obvious.
Also, when the attitude is specific to the action, then there is likelihood of it predicting
behaviour. For instance, attitude towards smoking predict the use of cigarettes and other tobacco;
but if it involves a general attitude to a particular behaviour or a particular attitude to a general
behaviour, then thoughts would not predict action.
If the attitude is strong or potent, it can also predict actions or behaviours. Attitude could be
strong either because something reminds us of it or because we gained it in a manner that makes

7. Page 7 of 10
it strong. An experienced sales man or marketing executive going for a marketing job
opportunity usually has a strong or potent attitude about the interview, and his response to the
interviewers would be determined more from his thoughts about the recruitment requirement and
his experience. An inexperience jobseeker would naturally have dampened attitude towards the
same job position.
HOW BEHAVIOUR AFFECTS ATTITUDE
We become just by the practice of
just actions, self controlled by
exercising self-control, and
courageous by performing act of
courage.
– Aristotle –
As it has been established that only in three circumstances that attitude predict behaviour, this
relationship also works in the reverse. We are not subjected to thinking ourselves into action but
also act ourselves into a way of thinking. Three circumstances under which behaviour or action
determines attitude is listed below:
i. The actions prescribed by social roles mold the attitudes of the role player;
ii. Research on the foot-in-the door phenomenon reveals that committing a small act
later makes people more willing to do a larger one; and
iii. The need to justify our moral attitude.
Social roles (actions) mold attitude. Role is a set of norms that define how people in a given
social position ought to behave. Stepping into a new role tend to change ones attitude of the role.
For instance, in the Nigerian Police Force (NPF), people assume Police Officers as corrupt, mean
and wicked (seeing them as extortionist). Someone that shares the same believe tends to change
his thoughts when he gains employment in the force. By performing the duties of the Police
Officer, his new role presents more meaning of the Police Force to him, thus he becomes an
advocate of praising or supporting his new role playing. The Officer will then be internalizing
attitudes appropriate to his new role. One important property of attitude, which differentiates it
from personality attributes, is that attitudes can be changed quickly unlike other personality
attributes (Ugwu and Onyeneje, 2002)

8. Page 8 of 10
In the concept of foot-in-the door phenomenon, from research findings, there is the tendency for
people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request. For
instance, to get people to donate blood or money, it often helps first to elicit a smaller
commitment to the same cause – perhaps to sign a pledge, agree to a poster on one’s door, or
state one’s intention (Myer, 2002:141). Negotiators have a direct interest in knowing how to
effectively apply this concept on others: politicians trying to win votes, salespeople and
advertisers hawking their products, religious leaders seeking converts, trial lawyers arguing
before a jury, and fund-raisers seeking donations. Aminu Kano, for instance, applied this concept
during is campaign for election in Kano State. He gave out transistor radios to Muslim faithful to
play tape-recorded campaign messages. Subsequently, he provided them with bicycles and
encouraged them to play the tape message in the early hours of the morning and in the late hours
of the evening, assuring them that the transistor radios and the bicycle will be theirs if only they
comply with the broadcast. Eventually, he encouraged them to join in the campaign team, which
eventually spurred his victory in the gubernatorial seat of Kano State.
Another instance is that applied by religious leaders/evangelizers. Usually, on their first visit,
they present one with a tract or sticker. Subsequently, they offer prayers and other scriptural or
religious materials to their. Eventually, they invite the faithful or brethren to join in their church
services and other religious matter.
Through small commitments, higher grounds are gained and bigger advances made that will lead
to full participation in the campaign and voting process or in church activities as seen in the two
instances above. As Cialdini (1988) succinctly puts it, “you can use small commitments to
manipulate a person’s self-image; you can use them to turn citizens into ‘public servants,’
prospects into ‘customers,’ prisoners into ‘collaborators,’ ”
The need to justify our moral attitude could as well serve as another circumstance where our
actions predict our attitude. Wartime killings or inter-tribal clashes are committed, and the
warlords justify their actions as right by giving reasons. The cruel acts in the massacre of the
Rwandan Tutsis by the Hutus, built even crueler, more hate filled attitudes by the perpetrators
and victims. The Jos killings which have quite tribal and religious undertone have created a
lingering distaste and sour attitude amongst the parties involved.

9. Page 9 of 10
CONCLUSION
According to Moorhead and Griffin (1995), attitudes are complexes of beliefs and feelings that
people have about specific ideas, situations or other people. Attitudes in work settings are very
important because they are vehicles through which people express their feelings (Ugwu and
Onyeneje, 2002). Behaviour is the way in which a person, organism, or group responds to a
specific set of conditions.
The relationship between attitude and behaviour is that both of them predict each other. One
thing is plain; depending on the circumstances, the relationship between expressed attitudes and
behaviour can range from no relationship to a strong relationship. It is like a relationship between
egg and chicken – they generate each other.
REFERENCES

10. Page 10 of 10
Cialdini, R. B. (1988). Influence: Science and practice. Glenview, III. : Scott, Foresman/Little,
Brown. pp. 142, 149.
Gerald, H. B. (1994). A retrospect review of Festinger’s A theory of cognitive dissonance.
Contemporary Psychology, 39, 1013-1017. p. 131.
Jung, C.G. [1921] (1971). Psychological Types, Collected Works, Volume 6, Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-01813-8.
Kassin, Saul (2008). "Social Psychology." Microsoft® Encarta® 2009 [DVD]. Redmond, WA:
Microsoft Corporation, 2008.
Kraus, S. J. (1995). Attitudes and the prediction of behaviour: A meta-analysis of the empirical
literature. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 21, 58-75. pp. 132, 135.
Microsoft® Encarta® 2009 (2009). Encarta Dictionaries, Microsoft® Encarta® 2009 [DVD].
Redmond, WA: © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation.
Moorhead, G and Griffin, R. (1995). Organization Behaviour. Houghton: Miffin.
Myers, D. G. (2002). Social Psychology. 7th
Ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill.
Ugwu, L. I. and Onyeneje, E. C. (2002). Foundations of Industrial and Consumer Psychology.
Enugu: Our Saviour Press Ltd.
Wikipedia, (2010) “Psychological attitude” – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.htm (Retrieved
from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attitude_(psychology)") Website visited on 14/07/2010
6:37pm LZT.