ABSTRACT
A s currently used in psychology, the term attitude refers to a hypothetical construct, namely a predisposition to evaluate some object in a favorable or unfavorable manner (Eagly & Chaiken, 1993; Prislin & Crano, this volume). This predisposition cannot be directly observed and needs to be inferred from individuals’ responses to the attitude object. These responses can run from overt behavior (such as approaching or avoiding the object) and explicit verbal statements (e.g., answers to an attitude question) to covert responses, which may be outside of the person’s awareness (such as minute facial expressions or the speed with which a letter string can be recognized as a meaningful word). In principle, any one of these responses can be used to infer a person’s attitude; however, each response may be infl uenced by variables other than the person’s evaluative predisposition toward the attitude object, raising complex theoretical issues. Moreover, the same person’s responses to different attitude measures may suggest different underlying attitudes; for example, a person’s verbal statements may not converge with the person’s overt behavior or spontaneous facial expressions.
