Habit and information use in travel mode choices

Abstract

This study focuses on the role of habit in the process of information use underlying daily travel mode choices. Based on the 'policy capturing' paradigm, eighty-two students performed a multi attribute travel mode judgment task, in which they could use information about travel circumstances in order to make a number of judgments. Measures of information use were obtained by performing multiple regression analyses for each subject. It was found that habit reduced the elaborateness of information use in judgments of travel mode use. This effect was independent of effects of manipulated accountability demands. % PsycINFO classification: 3000; 3600

Modeling Individual and Physical Environmental Factors with Adolescent Physical Activity

“…4,42,43 One of the mechanisms that may account for this direct influence is habit strength. 44 Empirical findings 45,46 indicate the additional explanatory value of habit in PA-related behaviors. While TPB-based interventions are generally based on informational strategies (i.e., providing people with information on the health outcomes of being physically active), attitudinal and subsequent behavioral change will occur only if the recipient of the message is likely to pay attention to the new information.…”

“…While TPB-based interventions are generally based on informational strategies (i.e., providing people with information on the health outcomes of being physically active), attitudinal and subsequent behavioral change will occur only if the recipient of the message is likely to pay attention to the new information. 47 Yet, research indicates limited and selective information processing when behavior is guided by strong habits rather than intentions 46 and suggests the necessity of additional strategies be- yond merely providing information. 48 Although using past behavior as a measure of habit strength has been criticized by Ajzen, 49 Verplanken and Orbell 44 have argued that habit is a psychological construct rather than mere past behavioral frequency and have developed a script-based measure of habit to stimulate further development of habit research and theory.…”

Car Use Habits: An Obstacle to the Use of Public Transportation?

“…Studies of the habit-intention-behaviour relationships regarding travel-mode choice have confirmed Triandis's (1977;Landis, Triandis, & Adamopoulos, 1978) theory that behavioural intentions and habits interact in determining behaviour, meaning that the stated intention is a good predictor of behaviour only under conditions of weak habits while intention is a bad predictor of behaviour when habits are strong (e.g., Aarts et al, 1997;Gärling et al, 2001;Verplanken et al, 1994;Verplanken et al, 1998). For instance, Verplanken et al (1994) found that the correlation between the attitude towards a specific travel-mode option and travel-mode choice (for shopping trips to either of two cities lo-cated approximately 5 miles away and where a realistic public transport option existed) was significantly weaker for strong than for weak habit individuals.…”

“…The response frequency (RF) measure developed by Verplanken and his associates (1994) attempts to capture mental representations of habitual activities. It is based on the assumption that habitual responses are guided by mental representations of past behaviour, i.e., scripts or schemas (Aarts et al, 1997). When a habit appears in different contexts (e.g., habitual car use in shopping, recreational and/or work-related contexts), each of the contexts may evoke its own specific scripted sequence of acts (Verplanken & Aarts, 1999).…”

“…Consistent with these findings a recent Danish study found that past behaviour is a stronger predictor of the use of public transportation than the attitude towards using public transportation, public transportation's ability to cover the individual's transport needs, and perceived social pressure to use public transportation (Thøgersen, 2001). If the travel-mode is generally chosen habitually, this has profound influence on the effectiveness of different means of persuasion (e.g., Aarts, Verplanken, & Knippenberg, 1997;Assael, 1987;Ronis et al, 1989;Thøgersen & Ölander, 2002).…”