Attitudes are like calling cards that appear to represent our true self, but in fact often prove inconsistent with the true self when tested.
Attitudes are like pictures in a photo album.
Though their construction appears to be contemporaneous with the stimuli eliciting their formation, they are actually based on the culmination of our life experience up to that point. In an early demonstration of the association between attitudes and behaviors, a psychologist interested in prejudice wrote to 251 hotels and restaurants to ascertain if they would serve Chinese patrons. In a study, the residents of Stockton, New Jersey will be asked to plant flowers in their yards as part of a town beautification program. A month later, researchers will ask residents to plant trees in their yards as part of the same program. In a study, investigators will present test subjects with a series of black and white faces followed by either a positive or negative adjective.