Attitude formation has three components: Affect which refers to the way a consumer feels about an attitude object. Behaviour involving the person's intentions to do something with regard to an attitude object. However, intention does not always lead to behaviour. Cognition refers to the beliefs a consumer has about an attitude object. These three components can respectively be thought of as feeling, doing and knowing. Consumer attitudes towards products can't be identified based on the beliefs held about them alone. E.g. A researcher may find that shoppers 'know' the iPhone 4s has an eight megapixel camera, but this does not indicate whether they think it's good or bad, or whether they intend to buy the phone or prefer a competitor's model. Attitude researchers have developed the concept of hierarchy of effects to explain how each component can lead to an attitude. Three Hierarchies of Effects
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