Individual differences in the relationship between attitudinal and normative determinants of behavioral intent

Abstract

The Fishbein‐Ajzen behavioral‐intentions model separates attitudinal and normative influences on behavioral intent. However, some investigations employing this model have obtained strong correlations between the attitudinal and normative components of that model, whereas others have reported no such result. The issue of the relatedness of attitudinal and normative determinants of intent is important to theorists of social behavior and the many researchers who employ the Fishbein‐Ajzen model, as well as to scholars of persuasion. Relying on constructivist theory and research, this investigation hypothesized that an individual difference variable, construct differentiation, mediates the degree of association persons are likely to exhibit between attitudinal and normative beliefs. Investigating the domain of politics and voting behavior, this study found support for that general hypothesis: persons with relatively undifferentiated political construct systems exhibited substantial collinearity between attitudinal and normative components of the Fishbein‐Ajzen behavioral‐intentions model; persons with relatively developed political construct systems did not.