The structural relationship between attitude and behavior statements from the unfolding perspective.

Empirical correlations between attitudes and behaviors toward a common construct are generally poor. This suggests that attitudes and behaviors do not reflect the same dimension. An alternative hypothesis proposes that these are on the same continuum but reflect different levels of intensity. In this article, a recently developed single peaked response model, consistent with Thurstone's original methods for measuring attitudes, was used to analyze the responses of young adolescents to statements concerning attitude and behavior toward the environment. It was found that the behavior statements were at systematically different locations from the attitude statements on the same continuum and that their relationship was easily understood as consistent even though they implied a low correlation between attitude and behavior.