Explaining the Discrepancy between Intentions and Actions: The Case of Hypothetical Bias in Contingent Valuation

Abstract

An experiment was designed to account for intention-behavior discrepancies by applying the theory of planned behavior to contingent valuation. College students (N = 160) voted in hypothetical and real payment referenda to contribute $8 to a scholarship fund. Overestimates of willingness to pay in the hypothetical referendum could not be attributed to moderately favorable latent dispositions. Instead, this hypothetical bias was explained by activation of more favorable beliefs and attitudes in the context of a hypothetical rather than a real referendum. A corrective entreaty was found to eliminate this bias by bringing beliefs, attitudes, and intentions in line with those in the real payment situation. As a result, the theory of planned behavior produced more accurate prediction of real payment when participants were exposed to the corrective entreaty.

Predictors of Mammography Screening among Iranian Women Attending Outpatient Clinics in Tehran, Iran

“…Similarly, several researchers showed strong relationships between beliefs and health behaviors, such as mammography (Rakowski et al, 1992;McPhee et al, 1997;Poss et al, 2001;Sheeran et al, 2002;Ajzen, 2004).…”

Is WTP an attitudinal measure? Empirical analysis of the psychological explanation for contingent values

“…Subjective norms and perceived behavioural control are defined as being non-attitudinal psychological variables that are posited to independently influence behavioural intentions above and beyond the influence of attitudes. For example, a study by Ajzen, Brown and Carvajal (2004), on a small convenience student sample, found that subjective norms and perceived behavioural control provided additional explanatory variance to attitude scales in explaining offers to donate to a university scholarship fund for needy students. If these non-attitudinal psychological variables are found to have an independent and significant relationship with WTP responses from CVM surveys, then this would suggest such surveys are measuring a broader psychological evaluation than offered by an attitudinal assessment.…”

“…Some researchers then, once again, respond by developing techniques for validating and bounding bids (e.g. Champ et al, 1997;Champ & Bishop, 2001;Ajzen, Brown & Carvajal, 2004), which can lead to segregation of the respondents regarded as offering non-economic values (Spash, 2008a). However, others have concluded that multiple motives imply the need for value pluralism.…”

“…The core component of the contribution model which concerns us here is that in a CVM survey, rather than assessing the worth of public goods provision, participants are offering a donation that simply reflects their psychological attitudes towards the proposed change. Other authors have suggested that while attitudes can be one of the motives that influences CVM responses to proposals concerning public goods there are several other possible influences-including income, economic purchase motives, perceived control, norms and different ethical motives (see for example Schkade and Payne, 1994;Brown et al, 1996;Ajzen et al, 2004;Spash, 2006;Spash et al, 2009). However, Kahneman and Ritov (1994: 28) put forward an exclusive attitudinal hypothesis when they state that "WTP is a measure of attitude on a scale of hypothetical dollars".…”

Influencing Inhalant Intentions by Changing Socio-Personal Expectations

“…This relation is critical, as considerable research has found intentions to be strongly related to subsequent actions (e.g., Abraham and Sheeran 2003;Ajzen et al 2004;Sheeran and Abraham 2003). Across all participants, SPEs were significant predictors of inhalant intentions even after accounting for standard demographic factors, school performance, sensation seeking, peer deviance, parental monitoring, perceived physical harms of inhalant use, and even prior use.…”