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By: Brian Lunde
 a reply to Behavioral Engineering and the Design of Influential Experiences: Example - Influencing Sustainable Behaviorby Brian Lunde on May 19, 2008 - 11:26 AM read 145 times Source: http://customerinnovations.wordpress.com/?p=83#comment-220 |
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Frank,
I think there is an important factor in the attitude-behavior link that you didn’t address is this interesting post. I would contend that the “general rule” is that attitudes do in fact tend to lead to behaviors unless there is an exceptional condition present. You mentioned some, such as perceived (or real) barriers. Another obvious one is addictive behaviors, where a person keeps doing something they attitudinally do not want to do.
But another type is when the domain has strong social approval overtones, a.k.a. peer pressure. We claim a positive attitude toward things that we feel others see as important, but we may have no intention of acting on these attitudes. Environmentalism is a classic example. The reason behaviors don’t [yet] follow attitudes is the emotional benefit of the positive attitude is far stronger than the perceived benefits of actually living in an environmentally responsible way.
But in most typical commercial situations this is not the case, and “attitudes drive behavior” is a very reliable hypothesis for business to use to influence what customers actually do.
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