Attitudes guiding social behavior as a function of perceived knowledge: The moderating role of epistemic vs. hedonic mindsets

The current research introduces a new variable (epistemic vs. hedonic mindset) that helps elucidate the conditions under which a previously established phenomenon reverses: the moderating impact of perceived knowledge on attitude-behavior correspondence (ABC). Four studies (plus four more additional studies reported in the supplementary material), in the domain of person perception and consumer choice show that higher perceived knowledge enhances ABC under an epistemic mindset, but it can reverse under a hedonic mindset. An epistemic mindset involves focusing on making accurate impressions whereas a hedonic mindset focuses people on enjoyment and having fun. Beyond manipulating mindset, perceived knowledge was also either measured or manipulated across the studies (including one pre-registered experiment), holding constant the actual amount of information participants received about the attitude object. Under a hedonic mindset, greater ABC was observed under low (vs. high) perceived knowledge, reversing a classic effect for the first time. However, under an epistemic mindset, attitudes were predicted and found to guide behavior significantly more with high (vs. low) perceived knowledge. This outcome provides a conceptual replication of the traditional effect shown in the attitude strength literature. These effects were driven by changes in the meaning (positive or negative) associated with knowledge in each mindset as shown by both measuring and manipulating the proposed mediator. This research advances the literature on knowledge, attitudes, person perception, and consumer judgment by introducing a new variable in this domain capable of specifying the conditions that facilitate when an important phenomenon occurs in one direction or the other and explaining why these effects occur.