Attitude-Behaviour Gap

Why this matters for your decision

Attitudes are general, decisions are concrete. Someone who says in a survey that climate protection matters faces, at the moment of the offer, a green electricity tariff that costs two euros more per month, a switching process and a familiar provider they are already a customer of. The attitude is not a lie. It is simply one factor among many, and often not the strongest.

For companies this is risky when business cases rest on attitude data. Inferring demand for a sustainable product line from high agreement with sustainability often overstates demand. This applies not only to innovations, but also to price premiums, tariff variants and brand promises of existing products.

The classic evidence is almost a hundred years old: in the 1930s, Richard LaPiere travelled through the USA with a Chinese couple and was turned away only once in 251 establishments. When later asked in writing, over 90 per cent of the establishments replied that they would not serve such guests.

Example

A manufacturer is planning a cordless kitchen machine with a recycled housing and a long spare-parts guarantee. In a survey, 70 per cent say sustainability is very important when buying kitchen appliances. In the behavioural test, two groups see the same machine: once with a sustainability promise for €349, once without this promise for €299.

The cheaper variant achieves the higher measured purchase intent. Among the people who see the sustainability promise, a smaller share chooses the offer. So the attitude is there, but in this target group it does not carry the price premium. This insight steers the decision towards the question of which premium or which wording does carry.

How it differs

The Say-Do Gap is the umbrella term for any gap between what is said and what is done. The Intention-Behaviour Gap describes the gap between a concrete intention, such as signing up for a tariff, and acting on it. The Attitude-Behaviour Gap starts one level earlier: with general attitudes from which no intention needs to follow at all.

Social desirability is one cause that widens the gap, because sustainable or healthy attitudes are well received socially. But it does not explain the gap on its own. Price, habit, availability and effort play a role as well.

How to deal with it

Attitude data is well suited to understanding topics and target groups. For the question of whether an offer with a price and alternatives is chosen, you need a measurement at the moment of the offer. For this, Horizon uses a Painted Door Test to measure the purchase intent of real people on realistic offer pages, with the price that is later meant to be in the market. Nothing is sold.

Limitations

A single behavioural test shows the decision at the moment of the offer, not long-term loyalty to a product. Attitudes can change over years, for example through regulation or new norms. Anyone testing sustainability claims must first have it clarified legally which environmental claim is permissible. That is for the legal department to clarify. The test measures which permissible wording triggers purchase intent.