People read their own attitudes off their behaviour, inferring what they must have thought from what they did.
Bem's 1972 theory, and the principal rival to cognitive dissonance for the same findings. It predicts the foot-in-the-door effect without any appeal to discomfort.
In practice
- An employee who agreed to chair one meeting describes herself as someone who chairs meetings, and takes the next without being asked.
- A volunteer who has given up three Saturdays concludes they care about the cause, having started for a friend.
- Standing
- The principal rival explanation to cognitive dissonance for the same body of findings.
- Further reading
- Wikipedia
- Subject
- Psychology & Behavior
- Essay
- Theories of the mind, from the lab to the bookshop