The Effects of Direct and Indirect Experience on Affective and Cognitive Responses and the Attitude-Behavior Relation

The present paper investigated the effects of direct and indirect experience on the production of affective and cognitive responses. In Study 1, we hypothesized that direct experience with an attitude object would tend to produce more affective reactions than indirect experience with the object and, alternatively, that indirect experience would produce more cognitive reactions than indirect experience with the object. To test this, participants were given either a direct or an indirect experience with a set of puzzles and then required to indicate their reactions to the puzzles. As predicted, direct experience produced more affective reactions and indirect experience produced more cognitive reactions. In Study 2, we hypothesized that attitudes produced after direct experience would predict consummatory behavior better than instrumental behavior and that attitudes produced after indirect experience would do the opposite. Again the results supported the hypothesis. In Study 3, we hypothesized that attitude accessibility mediates the relationships found in Study 2. That is, in a consummatory situation attitudes formed through direct experience are more assessable that attitudes formed through indirect experience. The results supported the hypothesis.