self-perception theory
the hypothesis that people often have only limited access to their attitudes, beliefs, traits, or psychological states. In such cases, they must attempt to infer the nature of these internal cues in a manner similar to the inference processes they use when making judgments about other people. For example, a person may infer what his or her attitude is by considering past behaviors related to the attitude object: Approach behaviors imply a positive attitude; avoidance behaviors imply a negative attitude. Self-perception theory has been offered as an alternative explanation for some phenomena traditionally interpreted in terms of cognitive dissonance theory. The theory has also been used to explain the success of the foot-in-the-door technique. [originally proposed by U.S. psychologist Daryl J. Bem (1938– )]