The dispositional basis of attitudes: A replication and extension of Hepler and Albarracín (2013)

As a departure from traditional situational perspectives, researchers have given increased attention to the dispositional basis of attitudes. Recently, Hepler and Albarracín (2013) introduced a construct that they called "dispositional attitude" and provided validity evidence for a new scale--the Dispositional Attitude Measure (DAM). Although the DAM was introduced as a "new" approach for assessing the dispositional component of attitudes, there is considerable conceptual similarity between it and the Neutral Objects Satisfaction Questionnaire (NOSQ; Judge & Bretz, 1993; Weitz, 1952). In a series of 4 studies, we attempt to replicate the predictive validity of the DAM and empirically examined the distinctiveness of the DAM from the NOSQ. Our findings suggest that the DAM does not consistently predict attitudes (e.g., attitudes toward fictional consumer products, attitudes toward common objects, job satisfaction) after the NOSQ is controlled. As a whole, our results suggest that the DAM and NOSQ assess the same underlying construct and both are valid measures of the dispositional basis of attitudes.