In an attempt to decide if individuals induce their attitudes as observers without accessing their internal states, Bem used interpersonal simulations, in which an "observer-participant" is given a detailed description of one condition of a cognitive dissonance experiment.
There are numerous studies conducted by psychologists that support the self-perception theory, demonstrating that emotions do follow behaviors.
In the end of the experiment, subjects inferred and reported their affections and attitudes from their practiced behaviors despite the fact that they were told previously to act that way.
[5] Participants were asked to contract or relax various facial muscles, causing them to smile or frown without awareness of the nature of their expressions.
[5] Laird interpreted these results as "indicating that an individual's expressive behavior mediates the quality of his emotional experience.
After teenagers participated in repeated and sustained volunteering services, their attitudes were demonstrated to have shifted to be more caring and considerate towards others.
[8] Research incorporating self-perception theory has continued in recent years, appearing in conjunction with studies dealing with motivational "crowding out," terrorism, mindwandering, and the inclusion of others in the self.
Also in 2010, Clayton Critcher and Thomas Gilovich performed four studies to test a connection between self-perception theory and mindwandering.
Critcher and Gilovich looked at whether people also rely on the unobservable behavior that is their mindwandering when making inferences about their attitudes and preferences.
Participants relied on the content of their wandering minds as a cue to their attitudes unless an alternative cause for their mindwandering was brought to their attention.
"[11] Participants were made to feel a sense of merged identity with an actor through a perspective-taking task or feedback indicating overlapping brainwave patterns.
[11] The study addresses the self-expansion model: close relationships can lead to an inclusion of another person in an individual's sense of self.
This effect is shown to be quite long-lasting as the reduction in perceived heterosocial anxiety resulted in a significantly greater number of dates among subjects 6 months later.
It is because people observe their own behaviors (paying attention to and complying with the initial request) and the context in which they behave (no obvious incentive to do so), and thus infer they must have a preference for those products.
An early study on cognitive dissonance theory shows that people indeed experience arousal when their behavior is inconsistent with their previous attitude.
Waterman[19] designed an experiment in which 77 male college freshmen were asked to write an essay arguing against the position they actually agreed with.
The chief difficulty lay in finding an experiment where the two flexible theories would make distinctly different predictions.
Cognitive dissonance theory, however, was readily able to explain these results: if the participants could attribute their state of unpleasant arousal to the placebo, they would not have to alter their attitude.
Studies have shown that, in contrast to traditional belief, a large proportion of people's attitudes are weak and vague.
Thus, the self-perception theory is significant in interpreting one's own attitudes, such as the assessment of one's own personality traits[22][23] and whether someone would cheat to achieve a goal.
[24] According to G. Jademyr and Yojiyfus, the perception of different aspect in the interpreting theory can be due to many factors, such as circumstances regarding dissonance and controversy.