attribute_access.rb

require 'active_record'
require 'benchmark/ips'

ActiveRecord::Base.establish_connection(adapter: 'sqlite3', database: ':memory:')

class Post < ActiveRecord::Base
  connection.create_table :posts do |t|
    t.string :name
  end
end

p = Post.create! name: 'omg'

Benchmark.ips do |r|
  r.report('access') { p.name }
end

string.txt

Calculating -------------------------------------
              access      6534 i/100ms
-------------------------------------------------
              access   420970.0 (±21.1%) i/s -    1927530 in   4.987156s

symbol.txt

Calculating -------------------------------------
              access      8583 i/100ms
-------------------------------------------------
              access  1540592.1 (±1.1%) i/s -    7681785 in   4.987032s