Answer:
Attitude measurement is of more than just theoretical interest. Consumer and marketing researchers have applied the forgoing principles of attitude measurement in a variety of domains such as substance abuse among adolescents and tobacco use among college athletes as well as trying a new diet suppressant, getting mammograms, using condoms, drinking and driving, eliciting donations, purchasing environmentally friendly products, paying more for energy from renewable sources, purchasing food, voting, purchasing software, and even purchasing attitude research (by marketing directors). In these domains, as well as in many other domains, improved attitude measurement has resulted in an improvement in the prediction of behavioral intentions and behaviors from attitudes.
Improving the prediction of behavioral intentions and behaviors is not the only function of good attitude measures. It sometimes happens, although not very often, that an attitude does not do a good job of predicting a particular behavior. Before psychologists and consumer researchers had valid attitude measures, a low correlation between an attitude and a behavior was susceptible to at least two explanations. First, the low correlation could show that the behavior is caused by something other than an attitude. Second, the low correlation could be due to an invalid attitude measure. An advantage of valid attitude measures is that they decrease the plausibility of the latter explanation and thereby increase the plausibility of the former one. Thus, when valid attitude measures nevertheless result in low correlations between attitudes and behaviors, researchers can be more confident in exploring other variables. A well-researched example of such an area is condom use. Although attitudes are capable of predicting condom use to some degree, other variables have also been shown to be good (perhaps better) predictors. Two of these are subjective norms and confidence that one knows whether others (e.g., one’s sexual partner) think a condom should be used.
To illustrate the importance of valid attitude measures for consumer research regardless of whether the measures show that attitudes are a strong or weak predictor of behaviors, consider an example of a consumer researcher who wishes to increase sales of a particular product. Before investing money in an ad, the researcher needs to know what variables to address in the ad. If the behavior of buying the product is under attitudinal control for the population of interest, it makes sense for the ad to focus on variables that are likely to affect people’s attitudes toward buying the product. Some of these variables might be beliefs about the product and affect. But what if the behavior is not under attitudinal control? In that case, there is little point in focusing an ad on variables designed to affect attitudes; for a behavior that is not under attitudinal control, there is no reason to believe that causing attitude change will increase sales. Consequently, the consumer researcher would be better served by creating an ad that focused on a different variable such as subjective norms. In general, having valid attitude measures increases the confidence that researchers can have in their data and provides a more solid basis for creating ads. Data showing that attitudes are good predictors of the behavior of concern provide a strong reason for creating an ad that is designed to affect attitudes; otherwise, the data provide a strong reason for creating an ad that focuses on other variables.
A further issue in attitude measurement, as applied to evaluating the effects of advertising, concerns the types of attitudes that should be measured. Consumer researchers have measured the effects of an ad on attitudes toward the ad, the product, or the brand. It has been rarer for researchers to measure the effects of an ad on attitudes toward the behavior the ad was designed to influence (e.g., buying the advertised product, voting for the advertised candidate). According to the principle of correspondence, if the reason for creating an ad is to influence behavior, it is precisely this last type of attitude that should be measured. Although there have been some demonstrations that an ad affects attitudes toward the behavior rather than merely attitudes toward the ad, the product, or the brand, more research is needed to establish the size of these effects. This is particularly so because the effects are likely to depend on a large number of variables such as the product domain, the type of ad, the type of use to which the product is put, and the frequency with which people are exposed to the ad.
One final example illustrates the importance of whether one measures attitudes toward the ad, the brand, the product, or the behavior of buying the product. Suppose that a consumer researcher for a company wishes to increase sales of a particular product. In addition, suppose that this researcher is evaluating an ad that has been shown to cause a change in people’s attitudes toward the ad, the brand, or the product. It should be clear from the principle of correspondence that these attitudes, despite their seeming importance, are likely to not be particularly relevant to whether people will buy the product.
There may be cases where the consumer researcher’s goal is something other than increasing sales of a particular product. Perhaps the goal is to increase sales of all of the products made by the company. In that case, it might be worthwhile to run an ad that focuses on increasing people’s attitudes toward the brand. Even though such an ad might be unlikely to cause much of an increase in the sales of a particular product, a small increase in the sales of several products may justify the cost of the ad.
