Abstract:

This paper reviews the evidence, from social psychology and market research, for the suggestion that from a knowledge of an individual’s attitudes, the individual's behaviour can be predicted. It looks at psychologists' and market researchers' attempts to measure attitudes, the tools they have used, the problems they have faced and the mistakes they have made. The author supports the view that given improved methods of measurement and data collection, a priori models of behaviour based upon social psychology are likely to prove more useful than alternative predictive approaches. Some suggestions are made about how attitude measurement can be improved.