A meta-analysis of 797 studies and 1,001 effect sizes tested a theoretical hypothesis that situational constraints, such as perceived social pressure and perceived difficulty, weaken the relationship between attitudes and behavior. This hypothesis was confirmed for attitudes toward performing behaviors and for attitudes toward issues and social groups. Meta-analytic estimates of attitude-behavior correlations served to quantify these moderating effects. The present results indicated that the mean attitude-behavior correlation was .41 when people experienced a mean level of social pressure to perform a behavior of mean difficulty. The mean correlation was .30 when people experienced social pressure 1 standard deviation above the mean to perform a behavior that was 1 standard deviation more difficult than the mean. The results suggest a need for increased attention to the “behavior” side of the attitude-behavior equation. Attitudes predict some behaviors better than others.
Groundwater supplies ?20% of global freshwater withdrawals, and accurate information regarding groundwater recharge rates is needed for sustainable groundwater management. Recharge rates are often limited by the rates of drainage from the soil profile, which are influenced by soil moisture conditions. Soil moisture monitoring has expanded dramatically in recent decades with the advent of large-scale networks like the Oklahoma Mesonet, which has monitored soil moisture statewide since 1996. Using those data with site-specific soil hydraulic properties and a unit-gradient assumption, we estimated daily drainage rates at 60 cm for 78 sites for up to 17 yr. Our working hypothesis was that these drainage rates are indicative of potential groundwater recharge rates. Mean annual drainage rates ranged from 6 to 266 mm yr −1 , with a statewide median of 67 mm yr −1 . These rates agreed well with prior recharge estimates for major Oklahoma aquifers. To provide a further independent check on our results, drainage was modeled using HYDRUS-1D for four focus sites across 17 yr. Soil-moisture-based drainage rates and HYDRUS-1D drainage rates agreed to within 10 mm yr −1 at the drier two sites but had discrepancies of > 150 mm yr −1 at two sites with > 1000 mm yr −1 precipitation. Simulations also showed that for a semiarid site the unit-gradient assumption was likely violated at the 60-cm depth, highlighting the need for deeper soil moisture monitoring. Despite these limitations, this simple method for estimating drainage through long-term soil moisture monitoring shows unique potential to provide valuable information for hydrology and groundwater management.Abbreviations: NSE, Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency; RSR, root mean square error observations standard deviation ratio.
When general attitudes do not predict behaviour towards specific members of a social category, the reason may be that the specific members belong to a subtype that is not spontaneously associated with the superordinate social category. In Study 1, university students reported their general attitudes towards former mental patients and described the ‘typical’ former mental patient. The descriptions were rated on how well they matched each of eight subtypes (e.g. depressed, paranoid). One month later, the same students expressed their willingness to engage in various activities with a ‘former mental patient’ visitor who was depicted as a member of a subtype that either matched or mismatched the student's description. General attitudes predicted behavioural intentions better when the visitor was from a matching subtype than from a mismatching subtype. In Study 2, students who had negative attitudes towards substance abusers agreed to engage in fewer and less intimate activities with, and sat farther from, a visitor from a matching than from a mismatching subtype. Implications for theories of attitude‐behaviour consistency and stereotyping are discussed.
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