Reasoned action theoRy

think so because the hatred occurs in the unconscious mind. This circular reasoning has received much criticism, but belief in the unconscious still persists. As another example, educators often assume that people wish to express themselves, and when a student is reluctant to participate in class or in a discussion, the student is suffering from social fears, sometimes called communication apprehension. Actually, many persons simply do not talk as much as others. As a third example, a received view in persuasive communication assumes that messages cause attitude change, attitude change creates behavioral intentions, and behavior intentions create behavior. This model is usually demonstrated by elaborate measurement and complicated structural statistics. Examination of the effect sizes of these models strains belief in these causal chains. Many times a person’s behavior is quite different from his or her attitudes. Health communication research shows again and again that many gaps exist between what people know they should do and what they actually do. For example, a recent study of pregnant Appalachian women showed that they knew that smoking might injure their fetus, but they continued to smoke in spite of the knowledge. Communication theorists need to be careful in constructing what they think a useful theory might be and carefully view their reasons for accepting one point or another. The received view is seductive and persuasive. However, it can lead to serious errors of judgment.