Attitude-behavior Inconsistency Research Articles

Unraveling the inconsistency in captive riders’ behaviors and attitudes within public transportation service usage: An integrated modeling approach

Fostering enduring patronage among passengers for public transportation (PT) services is crucial for sustaining ridership. However, a significant concern arises from the inconsistency between passengers' negative attitudes and their robust patronage behaviors toward PT services, particularly evident among the captive riders. This paradox entails the risk of these passengers potentially shifting to alternative transport modes in the future, thereby diminishing ridership. To unravel the intricate dynamics inherent in the relationship between captive riders' attitudes and behaviors, this study introduces a novel integrated model merging Satisfaction-Loyalty Theory (SLT) with Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). The integrated model seeks to enhance the comprehension of the mechanisms that drive captive riders' ongoing utilization of PT services, specifically within the context of attitude-behavior inconsistency. Evident in a case study involving 637 samples collected in Dalian, China, the integrated model not only shows excellent goodness-of-fit but also outperforms both the conventional SLT and TPB frameworks. It excels in explaining why captive riders may persist in their behaviors towards the service even in the face of dissatisfaction and highlights how the perceived service quality shapes their attitudes and behaviors. This substantially contributes to the development of targeted service improvement strategies for sustaining captive riders’ continued patronage.

Why are kiwifruit farmers reluctant to adopt eco-friendly green food certification? An investigation of attitude-behavior inconsistency

As conventional kiwifruit production began to face sustainability challenges, the adoption of the green food certification (GFC) has emerged as an eco-innovative solution to promote sustainable production practices beneficial to the environment and farming communities. However, the implementation of this sustainable alternative has stagnated. Therefore, this research investigated the factors influencing the adoption and intergenerational gaps in the adoption of the GFC based on a primary survey with 404 farmers in the major kiwifruit production belt of China. To ensure disaggregated analyses through bivariate Probit, kiwifruit farmers' adoption was divided into two stages: adoption willingness and adoption behavior. The results revealed that the common factors influencing both the willingness and adoption of GFC were farmers' participation in training, education, farm labor, perceived benefits, perceived risk, and farmers' access to information through organizational, farmer, and network channels. The factor specifically affecting the willingness was perceived cost, while age of kiwi trees affected the farmers’ adoption behavior. Furthermore, the research findings demonstrated significant intergenerational gaps in the factors affecting the willingness and behavior to adopt the GFC. Therefore, it is crucial to promote the GFC through institutional support that can organize training programs, increase awareness of the benefits of GFC, and broaden information channels across generations.

A New Explanation for the Attitude-Behavior Inconsistency Based on the Contextualized Attitude.

Inconsistency between attitude and behavior is a major obstacle to research on the predictive power of attitudes on behavior. To clarify the mechanism underlying such inconsistency, we combined event-related potential (ERP) and questionnaires to explore the relationship between contextualized attitudes and retrospective attitudes in the context of illusion of privacy empowerment (IPE). When the participants read the IPE events (including platform empowerment intention, technique, result, etc.) on slides, we measured retrospective attitudes with questionnaires and recorded contextualized attitudes with ERPs. We found that individuals' retrospective attitudes were different from contextualized attitudes: retrospective attitudes were mainly affected by the individual's analytic system, while contextualized attitudes were mainly affected by the direct stimulus-response (i.e., heuristic system). Therefore, retrospective attitudes may not accurately reflect individual cognition in the immediate context, and inconsistency between attitudes and behavior may be caused by the mismatch between retrospective attitudes and immediate behavior. Our findings provide a more reasonable account of the relationship between attitudes and behavior.

What Makes Hypocrisy? Folk Definitions, Attitude/Behavior Combinations, Attitude Strength, and Private/Public Distinctions

Past research has rarely examined what makes behaviors appear more or less hypocritical. This work expands our understanding, identifying and exploring factors contributing to perception of hypocrisy. An initial study surveyed participants’ definitions of the concept. Experiments 2a/2b then demonstrate that attitude–behavior inconsistency is viewed as most hypocritical, followed by attitude-attitude and behavior-behavior inconsistency. Experiments 3 and 4 examined how perception of hypocrisy depends on attitude strength, communication method, and whether attitudes/behaviors are privately or publicly held/enacted. We conclude that hypocrisy is perceived as strongest when attitudes are publicly imposed on others in an attempt to appear morally superior.

Effect of eco-friendly clothing knowledge and consciousness on ecological clothing consumption behavior

Consumers’ interests in the environment have been growing; hence, their consciousness about the environment has changed and affected their clothing shopping behavior. Prior study indicated attitude-behavior inconsistency in eco-friendly consumer behavior. It was because consumers’ consciousness or attitude was often measured at an abstract level, not at a product specific level. This study investigated eco-friendly clothing knowledge, eco-friendly clothing consciousness, and ecological clothing consumption behavior. The effects of consumers’ level of clothing involvement and subjective norms in this process were also investigated. For the empirical research, a questionnaire was developed, and responses from 480 women in their 20s to 50s were statistically analyzed. Results indicated that interest and fashion consciousness dimensions of clothing involvement had a significant influence on ecofriendly clothing knowledge, which thereby significantly influenced the three factors of eco-friendly clothing consciousness: social responsibility, health orientation, and clothing resource-saving consciousness. Such factors had different roles in the clothing consumption process. Social responsibility had a significant influence on the entire process of clothing consumption: shopping, purchasing, using, and disposing behaviors. Health orientation consciousness had a significant influence on shopping and purchasing behaviors, whereas resource-saving consciousness had a significant impact only on shopping behavior. Subjective norms were significantly correlated with all aspects of the clothing consumption process. Influence on disposing behavior was relatively weaker than other aspects of clothing consumption behavior.

Application of vested interest theory to prevention of non-medical prescription stimulant and marijuana use: Unforeseen benefits of attitude-behavior inconsistency

BackgroundVested interest (VI) has been found to enhance attitude-behavior consistency in several contexts. With an eye toward a potentially novel method of prevention (i.e., reducing perceived VI to minimize attitude-behavior consistency among those positively inclined toward psychotropic substance use), the current investigation explores whether VI moderates attitude-intention consistency regarding nonmedical use of prescription stimulants (NUPS) and marijuana. MethodsEmphasizing prevention, the study focused exclusively on non-users. Study 1a assessed college students (N = 310) attitudes, VI, and intentions regarding NUPS among those with no prior NUPS experience. Respondents were sampled using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Study 1b investigated marijuana-abstinent college students (N = 93), recruited from college classrooms. ResultsThe pattern of results was similar in both studies. In addition to an association between attitudes and VI, analysis revealed main effects for attitudes and VI on substance use intentions. Moreover, VI moderated the attitude-intention relationship (p < .01). Attitudes were most weakly associated with usage intentions when perceptions of VI were low (vs. moderate or strong). ConclusionResults of these studies replicate and expand prior findings relating VI to drug use, and suggest a potential path for future prevention efforts. The current study was cross-sectional, however if the causal pathways are as theorized, an intervention that reduces subjective VI has the potential to reduce positive attitudes while simultaneously reducing the influence of favorable attitudes on intentions.

Australian medical students have fewer opportunities to do physical examination of peers of the opposite gender.

PurposePeer physical examination (PPE), by which junior medical students learn physical examination skills before practicing on patients, is a widely implemented and accepted part of medical curricula. However, the ethical implications of PPE have been debated, since issues including student gender impact on its acceptability. Research has previously demonstrated the phenomenon of ‘attitude-behavior inconsistency’ showing that students’ predictions about their participation in PPE differ from what they actually do in practice. This study asks whether gender and student self-ratings of outlook affect engagement in PPE.MethodsThis study gathered data from students who had completed PPE with the objective of determining what factors have the greatest impact on the actual practice of PPE by students. Data were used to derive the number of opportunities students had to examine a peer, for various body parts. Respondent gender and self-ratings of outlook were recorded.ResultsResponses from 130 students were analysed: 74 female (57%) and 56 male (43%). Students have fewer opportunities to examine peers of the opposite gender; this is statistically significant for all body parts when male students examine female peers.ConclusionGender is the factor of overriding importance on whether these peer interactions actually occur, such that students have fewer opportunities to examine peers of the opposite gender, particularly male students examining female peers. Student outlook has little impact. We speculate that the more acceptable PPE is to participants, paradoxically, the more complicated these interactions become, possibly with implications for future practice.

An Exploratory Study on University Students' Perceptions of Posthumous Organ Donation Base on the Theory of Reasoned Action.

In view of the general support for organ donation but low registration rate in Hong Kong, the present research attempted to understand the attitude-behavior inconsistency by identifying the underlying beliefs for organ donation through employing the theory of reasoned action. A qualitative approach using semi-structured focus groups was adopted and 19 students from three universities in Hong Kong participated; 10 constructs were identified: attitude, subjective norm, helping, continuation, contribution, body intact, distrust to the medical system, indifference to organ donation, negative affect, and family burden. Findings suggested that their attitudes toward organ donation were of both the cognitive and affective nature; subjective norm of family, friends, and people they respect were identified as influential to students' views on organ donation. The study provided insight in promoting organ donation, that the cognitive concerns about keeping the body intact, and the negative affects introduced should also be addressed.

How intergenerational interaction affects attitude–behavior inconsistency

Social norms play an important role in maintaining social order, but at the same time, they can act as a constraint that compels people to take specific actions which run contrary to their attitudes. This paper treats the latter case: we investigate conditions in which attitude–behavior inconsistency persists, constructing mathematical models combining evolutionary games and cultural transmissions. In particular, we focus on the effect of intergenerational interactions. Our models show that both information about others׳ attitude (e.g., through social surveys) and the combination of intra- and inter-generational interactions are key factors to generate the situation where all people adopt the same behavior but different people have different attitudes.

Exploring people's viewpoints on air travel and climate change: understanding inconsistencies

This study aims to objectify people's subjective viewpoints toward air travel and climate change. Using an online questionnaire, a series of statements about aviation and the environment were scored by 491 subjects in the Netherlands. Through factorization of the response patterns six distinct viewpoints on aviation and climate change are revealed and identified as integration, ignorance, denial, necessity, guilt and indulgence/fatalism. Each viewpoint is shown to be associated with fitting levels of air travel behavior and general environmental awareness. As in previous research, it is shown that air travel behavior does not significantly correlate with general environmental awareness. Notable differences were found, however, between those subjects under 30 years old and those over 30 years old: the older group were much more likely to claim both necessity and indulgence/fatalism as a reason for flying. The results add to our understanding of attitude-behavior inconsistency by revealing how people from their own standpoints reconcile and/or prevent possible inconsistencies between certain air travel behaviors and pro-environmental attitudes. Practically, the viewpoints offer more effective sustainability discourses, and point to several new policy measures to remove the “sting” from the denial position by enhancing the credibility of the “rationalization of lifestyle” discourse.

Using visualization to alter the balance between desirability and feasibility during choice

We extend Wyer, Hung and Jiang's (2008) analysis of visualization to consider how it could overcome the tendency for consumers to focus much more heavily on end states and goals that products and services are intended to meet and underweight the steps consumers need to take to bring about those outcomes. We summarize related literature on consumers' mental construal of end state desirability in relation to feasibility and apply it to rebate redemption, where there is strong evidence that consumers make suboptimal economic decisions that underweight redemption feasibility. Our data confirm benefits for visualization but only for those who have a propensity to visualize. Both visualization and equivalent thought about rebate redemption steps produce choice reversals and attitude–behavior inconsistency.

Gender Differences in Affective Responses to Having Cheated: The Mediating Role of Attitudes

Although women hold more negative attitudes toward cheating than do men, they are about as likely to engage in academic dishonesty. Cognitive dissonance theory predicts that this attitude-behavior inconsistency should lead women to experience more negative affect after cheating than would men. This prediction was tested in a sample of 92 male and 78 female college students who reported having cheated on an examination during the prior 6 months. Consistent with the results of previous research, women reported more negative attitudes toward cheating than did men, but cheated at the same rate. However, women did not experience more negative affect than did men, although they reported experiencing less positive affect. The gender difference in positive affect was partially mediated by the gender difference in attitudes.

Attitude prototypes as determinants of attitude-behavior consistency.

This article addresses the questions of when we can predict from an individual's attitude toward a social group to the individual's behavior toward a specific member of that group. One possibility is that individuals determine their attitudes toward a social group by assessing their reactions to an imagined group representative who embodies the defining or central group characteristics--the prototypical group member. When they encounter a specific group member whose characteristics match well those of the "attitude prototype", individuals display attitude-behavior consistency; when the match is poor, they display attitude-behavior inconsistency. This proposition was tested in two experiments, and in each the attitude-behavior relationship was greater in relation to prototypical than to unprototypical group members. In addition, knowledge of an unprototypical group member had little or no effect on attitude prototypes. Rather, the unprototypical group member was dismissed as atypical, leaving the prototype intact to influence future social behavior. The implications for attitude change, and possible applications to more abstract attitudes, are discussed.

Attitude prototypes as determinants of attitude–behavior consistency.

This article addresses the questions of when we can predict from an individual's attitude toward a social group to the individual's behavior toward a specific member of that group. One possibility is that individuals determine their attitudes toward a social group by assessing their reactions to an imagined group representative who embodies the defining or central group characteristics--the prototypical group member. When they encounter a specific group member whose characteristics match well those of the "attitude prototype", individuals display attitude-behavior consistency; when the match is poor, they display attitude-behavior inconsistency. This proposition was tested in two experiments, and in each the attitude-behavior relationship was greater in relation to prototypical than to unprototypical group members. In addition, knowledge of an unprototypical group member had little or no effect on attitude prototypes. Rather, the unprototypical group member was dismissed as atypical, leaving the prototype intact to influence future social behavior. The implications for attitude change, and possible applications to more abstract attitudes, are discussed.

Contraceptive attitude-behavior consistency in adolescence

Thornburg (1973) suggests that adolescents experience a high level of value-behavior inconsistency compared to individuals in other stages of the lifespan due to engaging in peer-oriented behavioral realms that are contrary to values shared with the parental family. Extending Thornburg's value-behavior inconsistency model to encompass contraceptive attitudes and behavior, it is predicted that contraceptive attitude-behavior inconsistency is prevalent among sexually-active adolescents, and that inconsistency would be greatest when parental and peer contraceptive attitudes are perceived to be incongruent. Analysis of a sample of 167 sexually-active adolescent females ages 13-to-18 indicates that general contraceptive attitudes are consistent with contraceptive use, whereas attitudes toward specific contraceptive methods are unrelated to contraceptive behavior. The data lend support to the predictions of Thornburg's model in that contraceptive attitude-behavior inconsistency is greatest under peer favorable/parent unfavorable and peer unfavorable/parent favorable contraceptive attitude conditions.

Theoretical and methodological implications of the influence of sex preferences on the fertility attitude-behavior relationship

Data was collected from a sample of 72 volunteers from the University of Colorado introductory psychology subject pool in order to explore the theoretical possibility that measures of preferred family size generate good aggregate but poor individual fertility predictions because they ignore the influence of family sex composition preferences. The average preferred (1st choice) family size of 2.80 for this sample closely matches the average expected value of 2.86 children. Longitudinal studies of fertility intentions sometimes report the proportions of respondents who have exactly the number of children they said they desired at the time of the 1st interview. The expected proportions for this sample again assuming strict adherence to the stopping rules are as follows: 66% of the respondents would have exactly the number of children they desire; 26% would miss their ideal by 1; and 8% would miss their ideal by 2 or more. The maximum correlation between most preferred family size and actual outcomes would be .78. Study results demonstrate that poor attitude-behavior correlations in fertility studies must be partially attributed to the measures of attitude used and to the probabilistic nature of the determinants of fertility behavior as well as to true attitude-behavior inconsistency. The strategy suggested for improving attitude measures is to develop measures which capture the inherent dependence of fertility decisions on probabilistic events.

Dissonance motivation: Its nature, persistence, and reinstatement

This paper examines whether arousal is a necessary component of the motivation to reduce dissonance. Alternative responses to attitude-behavior inconsistency include attitude change, explaining the behavior by a consonant cognition (i.e., low choice), and attributing the dissonance-induced state to an alternative source, such as the purported side effects of an ingested “drug.” For conditions in which there are few consonant cognitions (i.e., high choice), a comparison of different “drug” conditions in which attitude change does or does not occur was expected to clarify which components of the dissonance-induced state mediate attitude change. Attitude change occurred in high choice conditions where the “drug” was described as pleasant, but not in high choice conditions where the “drug” was described as unpleasant or in a low choice condition. In addition, when the “drug” was descibed as arousing there was, if anything, more attitude change than when the “drug” was described as nonarousing. These results suggest that unpleasantness and not arousal per se is the motivating factor in dissonance reduction. The effects of the passage of time and reinstating the counterattitudinal behavior on the alternative responses to attitude-behavior inconsistency were also examined. Subjects returned 2 weeks later, stated their attitudes, recalled their original counterattitudinal essay, and again stated their attitudes. Although there was a general decrease in attitude change during this period, the pattern of attitude change remained basically the same. Attitude change following reinstatement increased from its original level only in those conditions where it had been initially attenuated through misattribution or a consonant cognition.

Methodological problems of research about attitude-behavior consistency

Research about the consistency between attitudes and attituderelated behavior has a long history, perhaps starting with the classic study by Lapiere (1934) which showed that there was no relation between attitudes toward Chinese and the behavior of restaurant managers toward a Chinese couple. More recent research has emphasized a series of methodological problems which might explain why the controversy is still very much alive after more than forty years of research and debate. This trend is present in the writings of Calder and Ross (1973), Campbell (1963) Erlich (1969), Dillehay (1973) Fishbein (1967), Fishbein and Ajzen (1974, 1975), Kelman (1974), Liska (1975), McGuire (1968), Scott (1969) and Wicker (1969, 197 1). In this paper we will attempt to organise the various conceptual and methodological problems into a coherent framework. This framework will allow us to generate some interesting new perspectives for analysing sources of attitude-behavior inconsistency. The study of attitude-behavior consistency is basically the study of the relationship between two variables. Low correlation between the two variables can sometimes be attributed to choices one has to make in deciding how to measure or conceptualise each variable. In the case of the attitude-behavior consistency issue, it is apparent that much attention has been paid to the measurement of attitudes, but measurement of behavior, on the other hand, has been considered to be self-evident. Besides attributing it to decisions about how to measure each variable, one can also attribute low degree of association between variables to a failure to meet assumptions which are commonly required for a valid interpretation of various measures of association. Finally, lack of attitude behavior correlation can be attributed to intervening variables

Emergent Issues in the Attitude-Behavior Consistency Controversy

In this paper we review recent efforts to examine attitude-behavior inconsistency as a multivariate research problem. Rather than either assuming a one to one relationship or documenting the contrary, recent researchers have reconceptualized the problem as identifying the conditions which affect the relationship. Although numerous variables have been examined in the recent literature, most of the multivariate research seems to be addressed to three underlying issues: one, the extent to which measurement invalidity may depress the observed attitude-behavior relationship; two, the extent to which other competing but unmeasured attitudes may depress the observed attitude-behavior relationship; and, three, the extent to which attitude incongruent social norms may depress the observed attitude-behavior relationship.

A Configurational Approach to Contingent Consistency in the Attitude-Behavior Relationship

Using 202 subjects, this study develops and tests a configurational approach to the contingent consistency concept of the attitude-behavior relationship. Its theoretical position is that neither attitude, nor social situational variables adequately predict behavior when treated separately. When combined in a linear model based on interaction between variables, behavioral predictions are improved considerably. Attitude toward the legalization of marijuana was measured along with perception of the position of peers and family. At a later date subjects were observed in an experimental situation where they were asked to vote to legalize marijuana. A multiple regression solution showed that the independent effects of the three variables did not clearly predict behavior, their additive effects did somewhat better, and the interactions (configurations) led to the clearest predictions. These results supported a theoretical orientation similar to field theory. It should be noted that only one attitude object was used and only two situational variables were considered along with attitude. Nonetheless, the results strongly suggest that a configurational approach promises to unravel the attitude-behavior inconsistency problem generated in recent years. Therefore, the approach deserves further development and testing as a specific model of the contingent consistency relationship between attitudes and action.