Desired attitudes guide actual attitude change

Whereas actual attitudes represent people's evaluations of specific objects as being good or bad, desired the attitude positions that people wish they held. Previous work has established can have psychological consequences, but not yet tested extent to which predict change. In five datasets involving a variety populations and procedural variations, we explored how political moral factors motivate form distinct from their attitudes. These then predicted change occurring after formation attitudes, even though participants received no new information about object. The present demonstrates an additional value construct: its ability anticipate will shift in future.