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The Effect of Choice on Intention‐behavior Consistency
Author(s) -
Gillholm Robert,
Erdeus Johan,
Gärling Tommy
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
scandinavian journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.743
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1467-9450
pISSN - 0036-5564
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9450.00164
Subject(s) - chose , psychology , consistency (knowledge bases) , social psychology , interpretation (philosophy) , preference , statistics , geometry , mathematics , political science , computer science , law , programming language
Three studies were conducted with the aim of investigating whether choice of behavioral alternative increases intention‐behavior consistency. In Study 1 undergraduates were asked to write and mail back an essay on a topic they either chose or were assigned. Demonstrating an effect of choice, significantly more subjects who chose an essay topic mailed back the essays. These subjects also rated their intention to write the essay as stronger, thus suggesting that the difference between choice and no choice is that the intention is self‐generated. Supporting this interpretation, no differences in mail‐back rates were observed in Studies 2 and 3 between a difficult and easy choice condition. Furthermore, an alternative hypothesis that choice induces implementation intentions did not receive support since independent effects were in Study 2 found of deciding when and where to write the essay and in Study 3 of making an outline of the essay.