Attitudinal and Behavioral Inference in Social Influence: A Process Model of Direct and Indirect Judgments and Decisions

Psychologists and other behavioral and social scientists have long examined how others’ attitudes and behaviors influence a person’s decisions, attempting to establish the relative impact of attitudinal and behavioral information in persuasion and social influence. However, these comparisons have not always considered how recipients process attitudinal or behavioral information, leading to inconsistent findings. Both attitudinal and behavioral information can inform direct judgments and prompt recipients to draw inferences that influence judgments and decisions. These processes are governed by the processing goals and ability of information recipients and the characteristics of the information.