Attitudes, Intentions, and Behavior Change

Are attitudes or intentions related to behavior change? Does changing attitudes or intentions change behavior? These are important questions for increasing our understanding of the determinants of behavior and how to change behavior. This review employs four stages of the experimental medicine approach to answer these questions. First, attitudes and intentions have been identified as key determinants of behavior in many theories (identification stage). Second, correlational studies show that attitudes and intentions have small- to medium-sized relationships with behavior change, while experimental studies show that medium-sized changes in attitudes and intentions produce small-sized changes in behavior (validation stage). Third, evidence shows that interventions can change attitudes or intentions (engagement stage). Fourth, changes in attitudes and intentions at least partially mediate the intervention effects on behavior change (intervention stage). A systematic program of experimental work is needed to extend our understanding of what works for whom, when, how, and for what behaviors.