Rgm. Pieters et B. Verplanken, INTENTION BEHAVIOR CONSISTENCY - EFFECTS OF CONSIDERATION SET SIZE, INVOLVEMENT AND NEED FOR COGNITION, European journal of social psychology, 25(5), 1995, pp. 531-543
This study focuses on the strength of the relationship between behavio
ural intentions and actual behaviour in a multi-alternative choice con
text. Two separate moderating processes of intention-behaviour consist
ency were hypothesized, i.e. the amount of reasoning during intention
formation, and the degree of confidence in the intention. Involvement
(as an issue-specific factor), and need for cognition (as an individua
l difference factor) were investigated as antecedents of amount of rea
soning. Confidence in the intention was predicted from the size of the
consideration set (i.e. the number of alternatives that one considers
for choice), and involvement. The study comprised a longitudinal two-
wave survey conducted before and after national elections in The Nethe
rlands, in which pre-election voting intentions were compared with act
ual voting behaviour. A high degree of intention-behaviour consistency
was found, which was significantly related to both amount of reasonin
g and confidence. The expected relations were found. The results exten
d current process models of attitude-behaviour relations. Furthermore,
the results indicate that processes related to the consideration set
size and content account for variance in intention-behaviour consisten
cy in choice contexts that cannot be accounted for by traditional atti
tude-behaviour perspectives.