Self-perception theory (SPT) is an account of attitude change developed by psychologist Daryl Bem. It asserts that people develop their attitudes by observing their behavior and concluding what attitudes must have caused them. The theory is counterintuitive in nature, as the conventional wisdom is that attitudes come prior to behaviors. Furthermore, the theory suggests that a person induces attitudes without accessing internal cognition and mood states. The person reasons their own overt behaviors rationally in the same way they attempt to explain others’ behaviors.
Read more about Self-perception Theory: Original Experiment On Self-perception Theory, Another Study On Self-perception Theory, Further Evidence, Applications, Challenges and Criticisms, Disproof of Self-Perception Theory?, Reviving Self-perception Theory: The Truce Experiment
Famous quotes containing the word theory:
“In the theory of gender I began from zero. There is no masculine power or privilege I did not covet. But slowly, step by step, decade by decade, I was forced to acknowledge that even a woman of abnormal will cannot escape her hormonal identity.”
—Camille Paglia (b. 1947)