Economic utility versus the attitudinal perspective of consumer choice

Consumer behavior has been extensively researched by economists and social psychologists under the labels of demand theory and attitude theory, respectively. These schools have historically ignored each other's contributions, largely because demand theory has focused on constrained choice while attitude theory has not. However, Warshaw, Sheppard and Hartwick have recently extended attitude theory so that constraints and choice are now endogenous to the model. The points of tangency and distinctiveness between this paradigm and that version of demand theory which is most pertinent to brand choice (i.e., Lancaster economics) are critically discussed, providing a frame of reference for future research at the boundary of economics and social psychology.