Self-perception theory is an account of attitude formation developed by psychologist Daryl Bem, asserting that people develop their attitudes by observing their own behavior and concluding what attitudes must have caused it, rather than the conventional view that attitudes determine behavior. The theory is counterintuitive in that it suggests people induce attitudes without accessing internal cognition or mood states, interpreting their own overt behavior rationally in the same way they explain the behavior of others. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
Core ClaimWhen a person has no strong prior attitude, they infer their own attitude by observing their own behavior and the circumstances in which it occurred, the same way an outside observer would judge someone else's attitude. 1 Connections
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Self-Perception Theory
Wikimedia FoundationIntroduction
people develop their attitudes...by observing their own behavior and concluding what attitudes must have caused it
Bem experiment section, observer inference
Because the observers, who did not have access to the actors' internal cognition and mood states, were able to infer the true attitude of the actors, it is possible that the actors themselves also arrive at their attitudes by observing their own behavior.
References, Bem 1972 citation
Bem, D. J. (1972). "Self-perception theory".
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