Fleshing out the theory of planned of behavior: Meat consumption as an environmentally significant behavior

Abstract

The meat industry is a leading cause of climate change in the Western world, and while reducing meat consumption has often been studied as a health behavior, it is equally important to understand its significance as a pro-environmental behavior. In a national sample of the United Kingdom (N = 737, Time 1, N = 468, Time 2) we sought to evaluate to what extent the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) is an effective model for understanding people's intentions to reduce their meat consumption. Overall, we find that attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived control explain 57% of the variation in intentions to reduce meat consumption. In turn, past behavior and intention explain 31% of the variance in self-reported meat consumption behavior four weeks later. Somewhat surprisingly, habit did not have any predictive utility over and above the TPB constructs. The effectiveness of the TPB and implications for devising pro-environmental interventions are discussed.

Fighting ahead: Adoption of social distancing in COVID-19 outbreak through the lens of theory of planned behavior

“…In line with the findings of TPB, results also displayed that individuals are more likely to behave (maintain social distance) for a recent outbreak if they have the resources and tools of familiarity to maintain SD (Ajzen, 1991(Ajzen, , 2015. Previous research has also supported the substantial impact of perceived behavior control on an individual's intention to foster a culture of SD (Çoker & van der Linden, 2020;Kirk & Haegele, 2019). The collaboration between behavioral control and behavioral intention can only emerge when an individual's perception of control and his or her actual control of the interest matches.…”

“…Subjective norm is shaped through normative beliefs about others' anticipation of the conduct (Çoker & van der Linden, 2020) and refers to the individual's assessment of others' preferences and support for a behavior (Taufique & Vaithianathan, 2018). These "others" consist of friends, relatives, family members, coworkers, and reference groups.…”

“…In TPB, the perceived behavioral control component played a two-fold or dual role. Firstly, it is a co-determinant of intention and secondly, it will also influence the actual behavior along with intention (Ajzen, 1991), which has received tremendous support in various human behavioral studies (e.g., Çoker & van der Linden, 2020;Dewberry & Jackson, 2018;Kirk & Haegele, 2019). The more an individual believes he or she possesses the essential resources, abilities, and opportunities necessary to maintain SD, the more likely he or she will intend to and perform SD.…”

Predicting Behavioral Intention of Rural Inhabitants toward Economic Incentive for Deforestation in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan

“…The theory of planned behavior follows an expectancy-value model to predict the behavior of individual under question [50,51,63,64]. The beliefs-based measures are probably regarded to get a more accurate prediction of cognitive intention than its direct predictors alone.…”

“…Strength of behavioral belief (bs i ) is described as a possibility that can produce a particular outcome by performing a behavior (i) and the outcome evaluation (oe i ) can be termed as the utility obtained if the result (i) occurs [50,51,63,64].…”