Effect of Personality and Situational Factors on Intentions to Obey Rules in Outdoor Recreation Areas

Abstract

A laboratory experiment compared the effects of social responsibility (a personality trait) and two situational factors on intentions to obey regulations in outdoor recreation areas. The situational factors were the presence or absence of “awareness-of-consequences” information explaining the reasons for regulations and the presence or absence of probable and significant sanctions for violating regulations. Subjects projected themselves into six dilemmas, each of which involved a compelling reason to disregard a regulation. Subjects who received a message informing them of probable sanctions for rule violations were more likely to intend to obey regulations than those who did not receive this message. Awareness-of-consequences information also promoted rule obedience, especially among high social-responsibility subjects. The effect of sanctions was somewhat greater than the effect of awareness-of-consequences information. In two dilemmas that appeared to pose significant threats to the safety of the actors if rules were obeyed, none of the experimental factors affected rule-obedience intentions.

KEYWORDS:

• Prosocial behavior theory
• protection motivation theory
• social responsibility
• indirect management