ABSTRACT
The “attitude-behavior gap” refers to the discrepancy between people’s stated attitudes and their behavioral reactions. Attitudes are enduring positive or negative feelings toward objects, persons, or issues. They can influence a person’s behavioral intentions, which in turn drive their actual behaviors. One may assume that recognizing someone’s attitudes allows the prediction of their behavior. However, it turns out that what a person expresses as their attitude does not always translate into a corresponding behavior. This points to the phenomenon of actions not being aligned with personal dispositions – also referred to as the “value-action”, “intention-behavior”, “knowledge-attitudes-practice”, or “belief-behavior” gap.
