ABSTRACT
In the quarter century or more since functional theories of attitudes were first proposed (Katz, 1960; Katz & Stotland, 1959; Kelman, 1958, 1961; Sarnoff & Katz, 1954; Smith, Bruner, & White, 1956), they have become a popular set of theories to cite, if not to test. Although treated as an important set of theories in the domain of attitudes and persuasion (virtually every social psychology text that discusses attitudes presents a summary of the functional approach), until recently, they have almost completely eluded empirical scrutiny. Why have there been so few attempts to test functional theories?
