Information alone rarely changes real-world attitudes or behavior

Evidence

I asked what impact the feedback lecture about the secret survey had had upon their attitudes or behavior. Most said ‘‘none,” beyond being surprised at various results. The most common answer came from the virgins, who said they had been relieved to learn they were not the only ones left. Only one person said the lecture had changed his behavior: “It forced me to realize a distinctive cheating pattern… Since then I have not cheated and have discovered that sexual intercourse should not be taken lightly.” — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 4238

Categorization

• QUESTION: Bearish evidence for attitude-change interventions that rely on feedback once behaviors formed; worth chasing whether norm-revelation is only effective pre-behavior.
• XREF: connects to: Modest affective depolarization gains fail to shift downstream attitudes and behaviors. — Derek E. Holliday, Yphtach Lelkes, and Sean J. Westwood, Why Depolarization Is Hard: Evaluating…, 41