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The effects of structural consistency including affective-cognitive consistency (ACC) and attitude based on attitude-intention consistency (AIC) and attitude-behavior consistency (ABC) were explored. Results revealed the effect of ACC on attitude-intention consistency and the interaction of ACC and attitude based on attitude-behavior consistency. Specifically, an attitude with high ACC led to stronger intention. Regarding the attitude-behavior relation, cognitive-focus attitude with high ACC was a more reliable predictor of behavior, whereas affective-focus attitude predicted behavior equally in high and low ACC conditions.
Keywords: structural consistency, affective-cognitive consistency, attitude base, attitude-intention, relation, attitude-behavior relation.
Social psychologists have long been interested in understanding the conditions under which attitudes influence behaviors, and they have formed the approach adopted in the present paper focusing on the effect of attitude strength on the attitude-behavior relationship (Fabrigar, Petty, Smith, & Crites, 2006). Specifically, in the present research the role of structural consistency, a dimension of attitude strength, in the attitude-behavior relationship (Wegener, Downing, Krosnick, & Petty, 1995) was investigated. Structural consistency has been defined as the extent to which one aspect of an individual's attitude is consistent with either his or her overall attitude toward the object or the other aspect of the attitude (Maio, Esses, & Bell, 2000). The three types of structural consistency are (a) affective-cognitive consistency (ACC), (b) evaluative-cognitive consistency (ECC), and (c) evaluative-affective consistency (EAC) (Eagly & Chaiken, 1995). The relative levels of ECC and EAC indicate whether the general attitude is based primarily on cognition or affect (Chaiken, Pomerantz, & Giner-Sorolla, 1995). Typically, structural consistency has been assessed by the absolute value of the discrepancy between an individual's positions in two corresponding rankings (Chaiken & Baldwin, 1981; Chaiken & Yates, 1985; Norman, 1975).
Structural consistency between affective and cognitive components of an attitude (i.e., ACC) can moderate the attitude-behavior relationship. Norman (1975) measured students' attitudes toward volunteering for psychological research, and offered them an opportunity to actually volunteer as the participants later. Students showing high ACC were more likely to act in accord with the stated attitude than were those with low ACC. Also, Schleicher, Watt, and Greguras (2004) surveyed employees' job satisfaction and performance in organizations, suggesting that for employees with higher ACC there was a higher correlation between job satisfaction and performance than for those...