Three classes of attitudes and their implications for IS research

An individual’s attitude has always been a core concept in IS research and a major determinant for individual technology adoption behavior. However, screening information systems (IS) and underlying social psychology literature reveals a one-dimensional view on attitude as evaluative affect in IS research compared to three classes of attitude (affective, cognitive, and behavioral) in social psychology. In order to improve the theoretical and methodological understanding of attitude, the social psychological tripartite view on attitude is transferred to IS research. Based on the results of a linear regression and ANOVA with scientometric data coming from 378 measurements for attitude in 147 articles in IS top journals, the following insights could be outlined: Regarding hedonic systems, attitude should be scaled affectively, whereas the research subject of utilitarian IT applications demands a cognitive-based scaling of attitude in order to increase predictive validity of attitude. Moreover, the adjustment of attitudinal scales according to the characteristics of the regarded attitude object (in IS: hedonic and utilitarian technologies), does influence the impact of attitude on behavior. Implications, supporting future technology adoption research in handling the attitude construct, are outlined