In order to be credible, it must be perceived by the person as resulting from his internal motivations or true reactions to a stimulus, i.e., it must be attributed to properties of oneself as opposed to controlling aspects of the environment. For behavior to be used to infer individual characteristics, it must be a credible indicator of his internal state. Self-perception theory postulates the mechanism and the conditions under which a person uses his own behavior as data to make inferences about himself. Individuals come to "know" their own attitudes, emotions, and other internal states partially by inferring them from observations of their own overt behavior and/or the circumstances in which this behavior occurs (Bem, 1972, p. The basic postulate of self-perception theory is that:
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It attempts to explain and predict how individuals come to understand the causes of their own behavior, and to specify the consequences of this causal assignment. That is, self-perception theory takes the perspective of the actor. Like other attributional paradigms (see Kelley, 1967 on object attribution, Jones & Davis, 1965 on other person attribution, and Kelley, 1973 for an integrated view of all three paradigms), self-perception theory is phenomenological in character. Self-perception theory (Bem, 1965, 1972) can be viewed as one portion of a general set of propositions commonly referred to as attribution theory. Finally, the implications of this work for consumer behavior theory and research are considered. Several current issues of relevance to consumer researchers are identified and research related to them are discussed. Next, basic evidence for the theory is presented. First, the basic postulates of self-perception theory are reviewed. Self-perception theory's central province is the feedback loop, often postulated by theory and often neglected empirically.Īlthough self-perception theory has been developed within social psychology, it has major implications for the study of consumer behavior, and this is the primary focus of this paper. Specifically, self-perception theory (Bem, 1965, 1972) attempts to explicate how an individual interprets his own behavior, how he assigns meaning to that behavior, and under what conditions the individual accepts experiential information as valid and worthy of incorporation into his attitude and behavior set. Recent theoretical developments provide the analytical tools necessary for exploring this rich and exciting area. While this link between past and future behavior is acknowledged, little research attention has been focused on the process by which behavior in one time period forms the basis for subsequent attitudes and actions. This property of dynamism is incorporated implicitly in most research (e.g., studies which control for past experience by using new or fictitious brand names), and explicitly in theoretical statements which include feedback loops from behavioral to cognitive variables (e.g., Engel, Kollat & Blackwell, 1973 Howard & Sketch, 1969 Nicosia, 1966) and in research utilizing Markov, linear learning, or stochastic models of brand choice (e.g., Bass, 1974 Kuehn, 1962). Implications for consumer research are then considered.Ĭonsumer behavior has been conceptualized traditionally as a dynamic process in which actions are affected by what is learned from previous behavior as well as by in- formation from external sources (e.g., advertisements, friends, relatives, etc.). The basic postulates of and evidence for self-perception are reviewed, and current research issues are identified and discussed in this paper. Recent developments in self-perception theory, however, provide the analytical tools necessary for investigating this process. Scott, The Ohio State UniversityĪlthough consumer behavior has been conceptualized as dynamic in nature, little empirical work has been done on the process by which behavior in one time period forms the basis for subsequent attitudes and actions. SELF-PERCEPTION PROCESSES IN CONSUMER BEHAVIOR: INTERPRETING ONE'S OWN EXPERIENCESĬarol A.
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Kent Hunt, Ann Abor, MI : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 714-720.Īdvances in Consumer Research VolPages 714-720 Scott (1978) ,"Self-Perception Processes in Consumer Behavior: Interpreting One's Own Experiences", in NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 05, eds. Implications for consumer research are then considered.Ĭarol A. ABSTRACT - Although consumer behavior has been conceptualized as dynamic in nature, little empirical work has been done on the process by which behavior in one time period forms the basis for subsequent attitudes and actions.