Beliefs and Attitudes in a Gubernatorial Primary: Some Limitations on the Fishbein Model¹

In order to investigate hypothesized limitations on a portion of the Fishbein expectancy‐value model, a three wave panel survey was conducted during the 1978 Texas Democratic gubernatorial primary. The survey elicited respondents' beliefs about the candidates, attitudes toward the candidates, and commitment to the candidates. Analyses revealed that the correlations between evaluative beliefs about candidates (Σ e i b i ) and global attitudes toward them (Ao) were affected to varying degrees by three factors extraneous to Fishbein's model. There was evidence that belief‐attitude correspondence was affected by (1) respondent education and income, (2) degree of commitment to the candidates, and (3) familiarity with the candidates (salience).