Negative Behavioral Intentions Research Articles

Beyond Politics: Opposition to Marriage Equality Predicts Negative Reactions Toward LGBT Individuals

Past research has examined various factors that predict heterosexual individuals’ attitudes toward marriage equality, including gender, age, religion/religiosity, political ideology, and sexual prejudice (Herek, 2011). To our knowledge, no studies have examined the possibility that such attitudes predict consequential behaviors directed at LGBT individuals. Thus, the current work examined the role of opposition to marriage equality in predicting negative behavioral intentions and reactions to antigay hate crimes. Given the importance of gender in sexual prejudice and opposition to marriage equality (Herek, 2000a), these relationships were examined after including gender in the model. Fifty-nine heterosexual students participated in this study. Separate hierarchical regressions revealed that opposition to marriage equality significantly predicted greater negative behavioral intentions (β = .46, p < .001), reduced recognition of a hate crime (β = -.30, p < .05), and marginally increased perpetrator justification (β = -.23, p = .09) above and beyond the influence of gender. Moreover, a two-way interaction indicated that opposition to marriage equality predicted negative behavioral intentions to a greater degree for men than women (β = -.55, p < .05). These results suggested that marriage equality attitudes are not merely political, but rather, predict influential behavioral intentions and reactions toward LGBT individuals.

Are body image and eating attitudes, behaviours, and knowledge of parents of pre-schoolers associated with parent feeding practices?

Some parent feeding practices have been linked to disordered eating and higher BMIs in children. Relatively little research has examined factors that influence parent feeding practices. The aim of this study was to identify relationships between the parent feeding practices that have been linked to unhealthy eating patterns in children, and parent body image, eating attitudes, behaviours, and knowledge. Participants were 326 parents of pre-school children from Victoria (97.5% mothers). Parents completed measures of parent body dissatisfaction, body image knowledge, dieting behaviours, and parent feeding practices of their child closest to four years old (58% girls, aged 2-6 years). Knowledge scores were inversely associated with a number of negative feeding practices, including instrumental feeding, and with the frequency of parents reporting negative behavioural intentions to brief vignettes reflecting appearance-based stigma. Parent weight and shape concerns were positively associated with restrictive feeding practices, including restricting high-fat foods in their pre-schooler. Parent dieting was positively related to restricting and controlling feeding practices. Given that such parent feeding practices are associated with long-term risk of weight gain and disordered eating in children, these findings highlight the need for prevention interventions for parents of pre-schoolers. This abstract was presented in the Parental Roles in Prevention and Support stream of the 2014 ANZAED Conference.

The Determinants of Customers' Behavioral Intentions after Service Failure: The Role of Emotions

This study explores the effects of stability and controllability, two dimensions of causal attribution, on airline travelers’ negative behavioral intentions, namely switching and negative word-of-mouth (WOM) intentions, through their negative emotions. Data were collected through a survey of airline travelers who experienced a service failure in the past year. Results indicate that both causal attribution dimensions affect negative behavioral intentions. The results also confirmed the moderating role of negative emotions in the stability/controllability and switching intention relationship as well as stability and negative WOM relationship. Managerial implications of these findings are briefly discussed.

A scenario-based experiment and a field study: A comparative examination for service failure and recovery

Scenario-based experiments are an important method in service marketing, especially in the field of service failures and service recoveries. Field studies on these topical areas are rare because of the expense and ethical issues in a real setting. However, this raises a question: Can the results obtained from experiments accurately predict real-world field behavior? In order to obtain more accurate information regarding service failures and recoveries, this study compares the results from a scenario-based experiment with those from a field study. The findings provided mixed support for the concordance between the scenario-based experimental results and those obtained in a field setting. Negative emotions, such as anger and discontent toward service failures, were consistent in both cases. However, positive emotions (i.e., contentment with recovery efforts and overall satisfaction) and switching behavioral intentions significantly differed depending on the data source (i.e., scenario or field). Specifically, the scenario experiments tended to overstate positive feelings and understate negative behavioral intentions resulting from service failures. An analysis of these differences suggests practical implications to enhance the design of future scenario-based experiments.

Does travellers’ casual attribution affect pre-recovery emotions and behavioural intentions? A field study of airline travellers in Malaysia

This study examines the relationship between airline travellers' casual attribution, pre-recovery emotions, and negative behavioural intentions after a service failure and proposes a model for analysing direct effects of airline travellers' casual attribution of stability (failure frequency) and controllability (the extent to which the airline can control the failure) on negative behavioural intentions as well as its indirect effects through pre-recovery emotions. Data were gathered through a survey of airline travellers who experienced a failure in the past six months. The results indicate that both dimensions of casual attribution influenced pre-recovery emotions and negative behavioural intentions, and that pre-recovery emotions were significantly related to negative behavioural intentions. In addition, the results verify the mediating effect of pre-recovery emotions on the relationship between casual attribution and behavioural intentions. These results have important managerial implications.

Measuring effects of naming-rights sponsorships on college football fans’ purchasing intentions

Corporate sponsorship is now commonplace across the college athletic landscape; however, the introduction of naming-rights sponsorships for college football stadiums has been a significantly slower process. Although there are several Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) programs that have secured naming-rights partners (i.e. University of Minnesota), this practice is still the exception rather than the norm, which is also true in many other global sport contexts. In order to better understand this phenomenon, the goal of this study was to investigate fans’ attitudes related to sponsorship, tradition, and commercialism in college football. The results indicated fans that had more positive attitudes toward sponsorship had more positive behavioral intentions toward both the football program and a potential naming rights partner. On the other hand, those who had more positive perceptions of the institution's football tradition and venue had more negative behavioral intentions. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed, as well as suggestions for future research.

When Group Memberships are Negative: The Concept, Measurement, and Behavioral Implications of Psychological Disidentification

This research introduces a multi-component model of ingroup disidentification that distinguishes three disidentification components (detachment, dissatisfaction, and dissimilarity). In Studies 1a (N = 168) and 1b (N = 215), the authors developed a measurement scale that assesses these components, and examined alternative factorial structures. Study 2 (N = 115) provides evidence that the disidentification scale performs better at distinguishing between disidentification and nonidentification than an established identification scale. Using additional data from Studies 1b and 2, Studies 3a and 3b examined emotions and behavioral intentions as correlates of disidentification and revealed that the disidentification components predict negative ingroup-directed behavioral intentions (active harm, passive harm, and passive facilitation) and identity concealment over and above measures of identification. Theoretical implications for research on social stigma and social change are discussed.

The effects of social justice and stigma-consciousness on gay customers' service recovery evaluation

This study examines how social justice and the stigma-consciousness level of gay customers influence their service recovery perceptions. The results, based on an experiment involving 379 gay respondents, indicate that distributive justice, procedural justice, and interactional justice significantly affect gay customers' service recovery evaluations (satisfaction) and post-complaint behavioral intentions (negative word-of-mouth and repatronage). Also, higher stigma-consciousness gay customers show more negative service recovery evaluations and behavioral intentions than those with lower stigma-consciousness. Service providers who are interested in attracting and maintaining gay customers should create awareness among their employees about stigma-consciousness.

Price unfairness: the indirect effect on switching and negative word‐of‐mouth

PurposeThis study aims to present and test a conceptual framework for the consequences of price unfairness, positing trust and emotions as two important mediators of the perception of price unfairness and its relationship to switching and negative word‐of‐mouth intentions.Design/methodology/approachAn experiment with one factor with three levels (price unfairness: no price unfairness vs low price unfairness vs high price unfairness) is applied to 253 participants. The mediation analysis is made using bootstrapping procedure.FindingsThe findings reveal that existing customers that compare their price to a lower price offered to prospective customers experience the perception of price unfairness that, in turn, triggers negative behavioral intentions toward the company, through trust (cognitive driver) and negative emotions (emotional driver).Practical implicationsThe findings indicate that companies should consider the damage that targeted promotions to new customers may do among existing customers in the long run. They also highlight the importance of the companies' strategies to build consumer trust over time as this construct seems only partially affected by perceived price unfairness and is a key determinant of customers' behavioral intentions.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the understanding of price unfairness perception and its negative behavioral consequences, testing and validating a parallel mediating process with trust and negative emotions as mediators.

HPV Vaccine Information in the Blogosphere: How Positive and Negative Blogs Influence Vaccine-Related Risk Perceptions, Attitudes, and Behavioral Intentions

This research examines the impact of exposure to online blogs about the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine on vaccine-related risk perceptions, attitudes, and behavioral intentions. In a controlled experiment (N = 341), college students were exposed to either a negative blog post about the HPV vaccine or a positive one. Compared to the control group, participants who had viewed the negative blog perceived the vaccine as less safe, held more negative attitudes toward the vaccine, and had reduced intentions to receive the vaccine. In contrast, exposure to the positive blog did not alter any vaccine-related risk perceptions, attitudes, or intentions. Implications of the findings for online vaccine risk communication are discussed.

Liking is not the opposite of disliking: The functional separability of positive and negative attitudes toward minority groups.

Two studies tested the hypotheses that positive and negative attitudes toward minority groups are not interchangeable in predicting positive versus negative behaviors toward those groups. In Study 1, positive attitudes about Latinos were a better predictor of a positive behavior toward Latinos than were negative attitudes or stereotyped positive attitudes. In Study 2, positive attitudes about African Americans were a better predictor of positive behavioral intentions toward that group than were negative attitudes, whereas negative attitudes were better predictors of negative behavioral intentions than were positive attitudes. Taken together, the studies support the perspective that positive and negative attitudes toward minority groups are theoretically and functionally distinct constructs. We conclude that it is important to measure both positive and negative attitudes to understand and predict behaviors toward minority groups.

Stigma rises despite antiretroviral roll-out: A longitudinal analysis in South Africa

Stigma is a recognised problem for effective prevention, treatment, and care of HIV/AIDS. However, few studies have measured changes in the magnitude and character of stigma over time. This paper provides the first quantitative evaluation in Africa of the changing nature of stigma and the potential determinants of these changes. More specifically, it evaluates the dynamic relationship between stigma and (1) increased personal contact with people living with HIV/AIDS and (2) knowing people who died of AIDS. Panel survey data collected in Cape town 2003 and 2006 for 1074 young adults aged 14-22 years were used to evaluate changes in three distinct dimensions of stigma: behavioural intentions towards people living with HIV/AIDS; instrumental stigma; and symbolic stigma. Individual fixed effects regression models are used to evaluate factors that influence stigma over time. Each dimension of stigma increased in the population as a whole, and for all racial and gender sub-groups. Symbolic stigma increased the most, followed by instrumental stigma, while negative behavioural intentions showed a modest increase. Knowing someone who died of AIDS was significantly associated with an increase in instrumental stigma and symbolic stigma, while increased personal contact with people living with HIV/AIDS was not significantly associated with any changes in stigma. Despite interventions, such as public-sector provision of antiretroviral treatment (which some hoped would have reduced stigma), stigma increased among a sample highly targeted with HIV-prevention messages. These findings emphasise that changes in stigma are difficult to predict and thus important to monitor. They also indicate the imperative for renewed efforts to reduce stigma, perhaps through interventions to weaken the association between HIV/AIDS and death, to reduce fear of HIV/AIDS, and to recast HIV as a chronic manageable disease.

Interethnic Interactions: Expectancies, Emotions, and Behavioral Intentions

Two studies examine Hispanic and non-Hispanic White people's responses to interethnic interactions. Consistent with previous findings regarding White/Black interactions, participants who had negative expectations about intergroup interactions reported more anger and anxiety about interethnic interactions. These negative emotional responses, in turn, were associated with negative behavioral intentions such as the desire to avoid interethnic interactions and the externalization of blame if an interethnic interaction did not go well. Across the studies, White participants who were angry about interethnic interactions wanted to avoid these interactions, whereas anxiety was the key predictor of avoidance for the Hispanic participants. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for developing models of intergroup interactions and designing approaches to improve these interactions.

Disentangling the Causal Relations of Perceived Group Threat and Outgroup Derogation: Cross-national Evidence from German and Russian Panel Surveys

Despite the resurgence of interest in group threat theory for explaining negative interethnic relations, adequate empirical evidence on the causal ordering of perceived group threat and outgroup derogation is still missing. In the literature, three theoretical perspectives concerning this issue have been raised. The predominating view assumes that perceived group threat is a causal antecedent to outgroup derogation. Contrary to this perspective, a second theoretical model conceptualizes perceived group threat to be a consequence of prior levels of outgroup derogation. Alternatively, a third theoretical perspective suggests to consider the causal relations between perceived group threat and outgroup derogation to be reciprocal. In this article, we conduct a longitudinal test of these competing theoretical models drawing upon cross-national multiwave panel surveys from Germany and Russia. Using latent autoregressive cross-lagged models, we find that perceptions of threatened group interests are causally antecedent to German’s dislike and negative behavioural intentions against foreigners as well as to Russian’s ethnic distance towards minorities. The data provide no support for the two alternative models. Findings are discussed with regard to its meaning for group threat theory.

Effects of educational intervention on nurses’ knowledge, attitudes, and behavioral intentions toward supplying artificial nutrition and hydration to terminal cancer patients

This study aimed to investigate the effects of educational intervention on nurses' knowledge, attitudes, and behavioral intentions regarding supplying artificial nutrition and hydration (ANH) to terminal cancer patients. A quasi-experimental design was adopted. A structured questionnaire evaluated the effects of educational intervention. From April to June 2005, 88 nurses were enrolled in the gastroenterology, general surgery, and intensive care unit of Taipei Veterans General Hospital in Taiwan. The nurses were randomly assigned into experimental and control groups in equal numbers (44 nurses in each group). After the experimental and control groups completed the pretest, the experimental group participated in a 50-min lecture. Both groups received a post-test 2 weeks after the lecture. This study showed that prior to educational intervention, nurses have possessed experiences of ANH use in routine caring for terminal cancer patients. However, due to the lack of knowledge about supplying ANH to terminal cancer patients, the nurses trended toward the negative behavioral intention, although they realized the burdens of ANH in these patients. After educational intervention, mean scores of knowledge, attitudes and behavioral intentions of the experimental group increased significantly (z = -5.255, p < 0.001; t = -5.191, p < 0.001; z = -3.274, p <== 0.001). Mean score changes of knowledge and attitude between these two groups reached significant differences (t = -7.306, p < 0.001; t = -4.165, p < 0.001), but no significant difference was observed in the mean score change of behavioral intention (z = -1.943, p > 0.05). The educational intervention remarkably improved nurses' knowledge and attitudes regarding supplying terminal cancer patients with ANH. As for the changes in the behavioral intentions, it requires long-term moral and ethical training and communication. The results of this research emphasized the importance of educational interventions, which should be considered seriously in future reference nursing education program.

The importance of social identity content in a setting of chronic social conflict: Understanding intergroup relations in Northern Ireland

Two studies (N=117, 112) were conducted with school students in Northern Ireland to investigate the neglected relationship between social identity content and intergroup relations. Study 1 tested and found support for two hypotheses. The first was that the association between in-group identification and negative behavioural intentions would be moderated by antagonistic identity content. The second was that the antagonistic identity content mediates the relationship between the experience of intergroup antagonism and negative behavioural intentions. Study 2 replicated these findings at a time of reduced intergroup violence, and supplemented them with a qualitative-quantitative analysis of participants' written responses. In addition, findings demonstrate the importance of appreciating the content and meaning of social identities when theorizing about intergroup relations and developing conflict management interventions.

How Embarrassing! An Exploratory Study of Critical Incidents Including Affective Reactions

Using Critical Incident Technique, data are collected from 166 respondents who related incidents involving embarrassment experienced over a total of 44 different service environments. In applying a functional analysis, a number of embarrassment antecedents in the form of sources (e.g., customer, service provider, others present) and stimuli (e.g., criticism, awkward acts, image appropriateness, forgetfulness/lack of knowledge/error, environment/surroundings, and violations of privacy) are identified. Embarrassment was found to be manifested by emotional, physiological, and behavioral reactions, and its long-term consequences include both positive and negative behavioral intentions and word-of-mouth communications. The Functional Analysis of Consumer Embarrassment provides an informative framework to enhance our understanding of affective reactions in service encounters and provides a solid foundation for future research.

Does Sex Sell in a Chinese Society

Sexual appeal was once was regarded as panacea in advertising. Research findings in western countries regarding sexu- ally explicit advertising generally have divergent views-positive and negative advertising effects. Published findings indicate advertise- ments that employ sex appeals are attention-getting and result in better brand recall, while on the contrary, these advertisements are viewed as offensive and creating negative attitudes and behavioural intentions. The use of sex in advertising is a complex issue. The gender of the model, the gender of the receivers, the product adver- tised, the culture background of the market etc. will have an impact on the effectiveness of advertising. The present study focuses on the relationship between sexually explicit advertisements in Hong Kong and the advertising effectiveness, in the form of recall, attitude and purchase intention.

Comparing the Emotional Reactions and Behavioral Intentions of Violent and Nonviolent Husbands to Aggressive, Distressed, and Other Wife Behaviors

The present study was designed to compare the self-reported emotional reactions and behavioral intentions of violent and nonviolent husbands to a variety of wife behaviors depicted with standardized stimuli. We recruited four subject groups, including 25 men beginning domestic violence treatment programs and three groups from the community-21 maritally violent and maritally distressed men, 23 nonviolent/distressed men, and 28 nonviolent/nondistressed men. Using stimuli and measures derived from Biglan, Rothlind, Hops, and Sherman (1989), along with stimuli designed for this study, subjects read written descriptions and examples of various wife statements (e.g., aggressive, distressed, and facilitative) and viewed videotaped depictions of wife behaviors varying in verbal content and nonverbal affect (i.e., aggressive/irritated, aggressive/dysphoric, distressed/irritated, and distressed/dysphoric). In response to each wife behavior, subjects rated what their emotional reactions (e.g., sympathetic, caring, supportive, sad, anxious, irritated, angry) and their behavioral responses (e.g., try to comfort, say something supportive, discuss the subject, not say anything, say something hostile, argue) would be. As predicted, in response to a wide range of wife behaviors, and relative to nonviolent men, violent men were less likely to report sympathetic/positive emotions and more likely to experience anger and irritation, but not other negative (i.e., sad or anxious) emotions. They were also more likely to report negative behavioral intentions and less likely to report positive behavioral intentions. The theoretical and clinical implications of these findings are discussed.

Word‐of‐mouth Communication in Singapore:With Focus on Effects of Message‐sidedness, Source and User‐type

Word‐of‐mouth is a powerful communication tool which is often beyond the control of the marketer. This study used a 3 x 2 x 2 factorial experiment in a laboratory simulation to examine the main and interaction effects of three independent variables — message, source and user‐type — on credibility and behavior intention. The experiment involved 1,440 respondents from two different demographic sample groupings — secondary school students and undergraduates. ANOVA results for the experiments showed that, generally, source and user‐type were found to be significant factors affecting the credibility of word‐of‐mouth. In terms of source, father was perceived to be more credible than close friend as a word‐of‐mouth source. Likewise, past users were found to be more credible than non‐past users. Message was, however, found to affect significantly the behavioral intention variable. Negative message was found to generate the strongest negative behavioral intention than positive message and two‐sided messages. Two‐sided message was also found to have a stronger effect than positive message in behavioral intention. In addition, t‐tests results also revealed significant differences in perceptions between the two samples.