Counter-Attitudinal Behavior
Counter-Attitudinal Behavior
Counter-attitudinal behavior refers to acting in a way that contradicts your privately held beliefs, attitudes, or feelings. Essentially, it's when what you do doesn't align with what you think or feel. It's important to note this isn't simply being hypocritical, though hypocrisy can sometimes involve it. Counter-attitudinal behavior often happens when there's some kind of external pressure – social, financial, or situational – influencing the action. It's not necessarily a conscious decision to be deceptive; sometimes, the pressure is strong enough to override internal beliefs, and people act in a way they wouldn’t normally.
Example
John strongly believes that drinking alcohol is harmful and a waste of money. He's always been very vocal about this to his friends and family. However, John starts a new job. After work on Fridays, his coworkers all go to a local pub for drinks. They are very friendly, and ask John to join them. To avoid seeming unfriendly and to fit in with his new coworkers, John goes to the pub with them and has a few drinks.
This is counter-attitudinal behavior. John believes alcohol is bad, but his behavior goes against that belief. He acts in a way that contradicts his internal attitude because of the social pressure to be friendly and accepted by coworkers.
Why it Matters
Understanding counter-attitudinal behavior is important because it highlights the complex relationship between attitudes and actions. It demonstrates that people don't always behave consistently with their beliefs. This has significant implications in areas like persuasion and attitude change. For example, research shows that asking someone to argue for a position they don't believe in can actually change their attitude towards that position. This is because performing the counter-attitudinal behavior creates internal cognitive dissonance that people may try to resolve by subtly shifting their beliefs. This principle is widely used in marketing, political campaigns, and even everyday social interactions, making it a key concept in social psychology.