Source credibility,attitudes, and the recall of past behaviours

The hypothesis that individuals' memory for their past behaviours may be biased toward apparent consistency with their current attitudes was tested by exposing subjects to a message that argued against frequent toothbrushing. Some subjects believed that the source of this message was an expert (high credibility condition), whereas other subjects learned after the message that the speaker was misinformed (low credibility condition). Subjects in the high credibility condition expressed less favourable attitudes toward toothbrushing and reported that they had brushed their teeth less often in the preceding four weeks than did subjects in the low credibility condition. A three-week follow-up showed that the attitudinal difference was still significant but that estimates of past toothbrushing did not differ reliably between the two conditions. The results suggest that when attitudes are very salient, they increase the accessibility of consistent behaviours in memory.