FACTORS UNDERLYING BEHAVIORAL CHOICE - TESTING A NEW REASONS THEORY APPROACH

Many applied studies ask people to rate reasons why they perform a beh avior. The assumption is that strongly endorsed reasons are motives un derlying behavior. However, this assumption rarely is examined empiric ally. Moreover, the self-reported reasons literature has lacked theore tical attention. In this study, we presented a formal model of self-re ported reasons, entitled reasons theory (RT). RT formally conditions r eason type (i.e., reasons for and reasons against) on behavioral frequ ency/intention. RT was compared to a standard reasons approach that do es not present formal reason postulates. Results showed that RT explai ned variance in behavior over and above that explained by standard rea sons, and that correlational coefficients from RT better matched mean reason results than did standard reasons. RT results were also more su bstantively interpretable than were standard reasons. Lastly, several boundary conditions were discussed, including the relationship between reasons and emotions.