THE IMPORTANCE OF RISK IN DETERMINING THE EXTENT TO WHICH ATTITUDES AFFECT INTENTIONS TO WEAR SEAT BELTS

Stasson and Fishbein (1990) reported findings indicating that college students' intentions to wear seat belts in low-risk situations were at titudinally controlled, while their intentions to wear seat belts in h igh-risk situations wear normatively controlled. If these findings are valid, manipulations of attitude (toward wearing a seat belt) should have a greater impact on intentions to wear a seat belt in a safe situ ation than on intentions to wear a seat belt in a risky situation. Thr ee experiments provided strong support for this hypothesis. The implic ations of these findings for defining behavior and for designing inter ventions to increase seat-belt use are discussed.