“Attitudes Versus Actions“: Lapiere's (1934) Classic Study Revisited

LaPiere's (1934) seminal research into the attitude-behavior relationship has been commonly misinterpreted as pointing out a discrepancy between attitudes and behavior. In fact, the actual discrepancy uncovered was between true attitudes – the tendency to act in a certain way – and that which is measured by an attitude questionnaire. LaPiere's primary concern was to point out the danger of assuming that questionnaire-assessed “attitudes” lead to actual behavior in specific situations. The present paper theoretically and methodologically critiques LaPiere's classic study.