Theory of Reasoned Action

Theory of Reasoned Action

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The Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) is a social psychology model that explains behavior prediction based on attitudes, subjective norms, and behavioral intentions. It finds applications in health promotion, consumer behavior, and social marketing. Though powerful in prediction, it faces challenges related to cultural differences and the attitude-behavior gap.

Defining the Theory of Reasoned Action

At its core, the Theory of Reasoned Action posits that individuals make rational decisions based on their intentions to perform a specific behavior. These intentions, in turn, are influenced by two main factors:

  1. Attitudes toward the Behavior: This factor refers to an individual’s positive or negative evaluation of a particular behavior. In essence, it reflects whether a person sees the behavior as favorable or unfavorable.
  2. Subjective Norms: Subjective norms represent the perceived social pressure or influence to perform or not perform a specific behavior. It takes into account the individual’s perception of what others think they should do.

The TRA model assumes that individuals are rational actors who weigh the consequences of their actions and consider the opinions of others before making behavioral decisions. Therefore, it provides a structured framework to predict and understand human behavior by examining the interplay between attitudes, subjective norms, and behavioral intentions.

Key Concepts of the Theory of Reasoned Action

To understand TRA fully, it’s essential to grasp its key concepts:

  1. Behavioral Intention: At the heart of TRA is the concept of behavioral intention. This refers to an individual’s intention to engage in a specific behavior. It serves as a strong predictor of whether the behavior will occur.
  2. Attitude Toward the Behavior: Attitude is a cognitive evaluation of the behavior, encompassing both positive and negative beliefs about it. It is measured by considering the perceived consequences and values associated with the behavior.
  3. Subjective Norms: Subjective norms are shaped by an individual’s perception of what significant others think about the behavior and the importance attached to these opinions. It is assessed through questions related to the influence of others.
  4. Behavioral Beliefs: These are the underlying beliefs about the consequences of engaging in a particular behavior. Behavioral beliefs contribute to the formation of attitudes toward the behavior.
  5. Normative Beliefs: Normative beliefs pertain to the perceived expectations of significant others regarding the behavior. They influence subjective norms.
  6. Behavioral Evaluation: This represents the perceived value or importance of the outcomes associated with the behavior. It contributes to the overall attitude toward the behavior.
  7. Motivation to Comply: Motivation to comply refers to the individual’s willingness to conform to the opinions and expectations of significant others. It influences subjective norms.

Applying the Theory of Reasoned Action

The Theory of Reasoned Action has found applications in various fields, including:

1. Health Promotion:

TRA has been widely used to predict and explain health-related behaviors such as smoking, exercise, and dietary choices. Health campaigns often target attitudes and subjective norms to influence individuals’ intentions to adopt healthier behaviors.

2. Marketing and Consumer Behavior:

In the realm of marketing, TRA helps understand consumers’ attitudes and intentions toward purchasing products or services. Advertisers use this theory to design persuasive messages that align with consumers’ beliefs and values.

3. Environmental Conservation:

TRA has been applied to study pro-environmental behaviors such as recycling, energy conservation, and sustainable consumption. It provides insights into how attitudes and subjective norms can drive environmentally friendly actions.

4. Social Psychology:

In social psychology, TRA helps analyze how social norms and individual attitudes shape behaviors in various social contexts. Researchers use this theory to study topics like prejudice, discrimination, and group dynamics.

5. Education:

TRA is employed in educational settings to understand students’ intentions and behaviors related to academic performance, studying habits, and educational choices. It informs interventions aimed at improving educational outcomes.

Critiques and Limitations of the Theory of Reasoned Action

While the Theory of Reasoned Action offers valuable insights into human behavior, it is not without its critiques and limitations:

  1. Limited Predictive Power: TRA assumes that individuals are rational decision-makers who always act in line with their intentions. However, in reality, various external factors, emotions, and situational constraints can lead to a gap between intentions and behaviors.
  2. Overemphasis on Rationality: Critics argue that TRA places excessive emphasis on rational decision-making, overlooking the role of emotions, habits, and impulsive actions in shaping behavior.
  3. Complexity of Belief Assessment: Assessing an individual’s beliefs, attitudes, and subjective norms can be challenging, as these constructs are often subjective and context-dependent.
  4. Failure to Account for External Constraints: TRA tends to focus on individual-level factors and may not adequately consider external constraints, societal influences, or structural barriers that impact behavior.

Theory of Reasoned Action vs. Theory of Planned Behavior

It’s important to note that TRA laid the foundation for the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), which was also developed by Fishbein and Ajzen. TPB extends TRA by including an additional factor: perceived behavioral control. Perceived behavioral control reflects an individual’s belief about their ability to perform the behavior, considering both internal and external constraints. This addition enhances the predictive power of the model by accounting for situations where individuals may have the intention to perform a behavior but lack the necessary control to do so.

Conclusion

The Theory of Reasoned Action is a foundational framework for understanding and predicting human behavior based on attitudes, subjective norms, and intentions. It has found applications in diverse fields, from health promotion to marketing and social psychology. While TRA provides valuable insights into the cognitive processes underlying behavior, it is essential to recognize its limitations, particularly in accounting for the complexity of real-world decision-making. Researchers and practitioners continue to build upon and refine TRA’s concepts, and it remains a valuable tool for understanding and influencing human behavior in various contexts.

Examples:

1. Healthy Eating Behavior:

  • Health authorities use TRA to predict and promote healthy eating habits.
  • Individuals with positive attitudes toward fruits and vegetables and who perceive social approval for such behaviors are more likely to adopt a healthy diet.

2. Exercise and Physical Activity:

  • TRA is applied to understand and encourage regular exercise.
  • Individuals who have a favorable attitude toward physical activity and perceive social support for it are more likely to engage in regular workouts.

3. Sustainable Transportation Choices:

  • Urban planners and environmental organizations use TRA to promote sustainable transportation options.
  • People with positive attitudes toward biking, carpooling, or using public transit, and who perceive social norms favoring these choices, are more likely to opt for eco-friendly transportation.

4. Voting Behavior:

  • Political campaigns and organizations use TRA to predict voter turnout.
  • Individuals with a positive attitude toward voting and who perceive that voting is socially valued are more likely to participate in elections.

5. Recycling Initiatives:

  • Environmental programs employ TRA to encourage recycling behaviors.
  • Individuals with favorable attitudes toward recycling and who believe that recycling is socially expected are more likely to actively participate in recycling programs.

6. Online Shopping Behavior:

  • E-commerce businesses and marketers use TRA to understand online shopping decisions.
  • Shoppers with positive attitudes toward online shopping and who perceive social approval for it are more likely to make online purchases.

7. Financial Planning and Saving:

  • Financial institutions use TRA to predict saving behaviors.
  • Individuals with a positive attitude toward saving money and who feel that saving is socially encouraged are more likely to save regularly.

8. Educational Choices:

  • Educational institutions and policymakers apply TRA to understand educational choices.
  • Students who have a positive attitude toward pursuing higher education and perceive social norms that support it are more likely to enroll in college or university.

9. Energy Conservation:

  • Energy conservation programs utilize TRA to promote energy-saving behaviors.
  • People with positive attitudes toward energy conservation and who believe that conserving energy is socially responsible are more likely to adopt energy-efficient practices.

10. Charitable Donations: – Non-profit organizations employ TRA to predict and encourage charitable giving. – Individuals with favorable attitudes toward donating to causes and who perceive social approval for charitable contributions are more likely to make donations.

Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) Highlights:

  • Definition: TRA is a social psychology model predicting behavior based on attitudes, subjective norms, and behavioral intentions.
  • Factors:
    • Attitude: Personal evaluation of behavior (positive/negative).
    • Subjective Norm: Perception of social pressure/approval for behavior.
    • Behavioral Intention: Individual’s intention to engage in behavior.
    • Behavior: Actual performance of the behavior.
  • Applications:
    • Health Promotion: Predicting and promoting health-related actions.
    • Consumer Behavior: Understanding purchase decisions and brand choices.
    • Social Marketing: Designing effective campaigns to influence actions.
  • Benefits:
    • Predictive Power: Accurate prediction of intentions and actions.
    • Targeted Interventions: Tailoring strategies based on attitudes and norms.
    • Behavioral Change: Facilitating positive individual behavior changes.
  • Challenges:
    • Cultural Differences: Adapting the theory across diverse cultures.
    • Attitude-Behavior Gap: Discrepancies between attitudes and actions.
    • External Influences: Impact of external factors on behavior choices.
  • Examples:
    • Health Campaigns: Anti-smoking campaigns using attitudes and norms.
    • Green Initiatives: Promoting eco-friendly behaviors with tailored messages.
    • Social Causes: Encouraging support for charities based on social norms.
Related Concepts, Frameworks, or ModelsDescriptionWhen to Apply
Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB)An extension of the Theory of Reasoned Action that incorporates perceived behavioral control as an additional determinant of behavior, focusing on the influence of individuals’ perceived ability to perform a behavior on their intention and action.Useful when examining the influence of perceived control over behavior on behavioral intentions and actions across different contexts and populations.
Attitude-Behavior ConsistencyA phenomenon that examines the relationship between attitudes and behavior, highlighting the alignment or discrepancy between an individual’s attitudes towards a behavior and their actual behavioral actions, revealing insights into the predictive power of attitudes on behavior.Relevant when analyzing the extent to which attitudes towards a specific behavior influence actual behavioral outcomes across individuals, contexts, and time periods.
Subjective NormsPerceived social pressures or normative expectations regarding a behavior, highlighting the role of social influences and peer pressure in shaping individuals’ attitudes and intentions towards the behavior, and thus influencing behavioral intentions and actions.Applicable when exploring the social context of a behavior and the impact of peer influence and social norms on individuals’ attitudes, intentions, and behavior within a given social setting or community.
Behavioral IntentionsIndividuals’ motivations or plans to engage in a behavior, serving as proximal determinants of actual behavior according to the Theory of Reasoned Action, thus playing a crucial role in the prediction and understanding of behavioral outcomes across contexts and populations.Relevant when assessing individuals’ motivations, intentions, and plans towards a behavior in relation to their subsequent behavioral actions and outcomes, providing insights into the drivers of behavioral change and adoption across varied situations.
Perceived Behavioral ControlIndividuals’ beliefs regarding the ease or difficulty of performing a behavior, which influence their behavioral intentions and actions according to the Theory of Planned Behavior, thus highlighting the importance of perceived self-efficacy and control over behavior in behavioral change efforts.Applicable when exploring individuals’ beliefs about their capability to perform a behavior, and how these beliefs shape their intentions and actions towards the behavior, providing insights into barriers and facilitators of behavioral change and adoption.
Normative BeliefsBeliefs regarding the extent to which significant others approve or disapprove of a behavior, playing a crucial role in the formation of individuals’ attitudes, subjective norms, and behavioral intentions, and thus influencing behavioral actions and outcomes within a social context.Relevant when analyzing social pressures and influences on individual behavior, providing insights into the role of social norms and expectations in shaping attitudes, intentions, and behavioral outcomes across different social groups and contexts.
Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM)A framework that distinguishes between two routes to persuasion, the central and peripheral routes, based on the extent to which individuals elaborate on and process the information presented in a persuasive message, providing insights into the conditions under which attitude change occurs.Useful when analyzing the processes of attitude change and persuasion, highlighting the factors that influence the effectiveness of persuasive communications and the routes to attitude change across different audiences and contexts.
Social Cognitive TheoryA framework that emphasizes the role of observational learning, self-efficacy, and reciprocal determinism in shaping human behavior and cognition, providing insights into the interplay between individual factors, environmental factors, and behavior change.Applicable when studying the influence of individual beliefs, motivations, and perceptions on behavior, emphasizing the interconnectedness of individual, social, and environmental factors in behavior change efforts and health promotion interventions across contexts.
Health Belief Model (HBM)A framework that emphasizes the role of perceived susceptibility, severity, benefits, and barriers in shaping individual health behaviors, providing insights into the factors that motivate individuals to adopt or avoid specific health behaviors based on their perceptions of risk and benefits.Useful when analyzing health-related behaviors and decisions, highlighting the importance of individuals’ perceptions of health risks, benefits, and barriers in determining health-related behavior change and adoption across populations and settings.

Connected Thinking Frameworks

Convergent vs. Divergent Thinking

convergent-vs-divergent-thinking
Convergent thinking occurs when the solution to a problem can be found by applying established rules and logical reasoning. Whereas divergent thinking is an unstructured problem-solving method where participants are encouraged to develop many innovative ideas or solutions to a given problem. Where convergent thinking might work for larger, mature organizations where divergent thinking is more suited for startups and innovative companies.

Critical Thinking

critical-thinking
Critical thinking involves analyzing observations, facts, evidence, and arguments to form a judgment about what someone reads, hears, says, or writes.

Biases

biases
The concept of cognitive biases was introduced and popularized by the work of Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman in 1972. Biases are seen as systematic errors and flaws that make humans deviate from the standards of rationality, thus making us inept at making good decisions under uncertainty.

Second-Order Thinking

second-order-thinking
Second-order thinking is a means of assessing the implications of our decisions by considering future consequences. Second-order thinking is a mental model that considers all future possibilities. It encourages individuals to think outside of the box so that they can prepare for every and eventuality. It also discourages the tendency for individuals to default to the most obvious choice.

Lateral Thinking

lateral-thinking
Lateral thinking is a business strategy that involves approaching a problem from a different direction. The strategy attempts to remove traditionally formulaic and routine approaches to problem-solving by advocating creative thinking, therefore finding unconventional ways to solve a known problem. This sort of non-linear approach to problem-solving, can at times, create a big impact.

Bounded Rationality

bounded-rationality
Bounded rationality is a concept attributed to Herbert Simon, an economist and political scientist interested in decision-making and how we make decisions in the real world. In fact, he believed that rather than optimizing (which was the mainstream view in the past decades) humans follow what he called satisficing.

Dunning-Kruger Effect

dunning-kruger-effect
The Dunning-Kruger effect describes a cognitive bias where people with low ability in a task overestimate their ability to perform that task well. Consumers or businesses that do not possess the requisite knowledge make bad decisions. What’s more, knowledge gaps prevent the person or business from seeing their mistakes.

Occam’s Razor

occams-razor
Occam’s Razor states that one should not increase (beyond reason) the number of entities required to explain anything. All things being equal, the simplest solution is often the best one. The principle is attributed to 14th-century English theologian William of Ockham.

Lindy Effect

lindy-effect
The Lindy Effect is a theory about the ageing of non-perishable things, like technology or ideas. Popularized by author Nicholas Nassim Taleb, the Lindy Effect states that non-perishable things like technology age – linearly – in reverse. Therefore, the older an idea or a technology, the same will be its life expectancy.

Antifragility

antifragility
Antifragility was first coined as a term by author, and options trader Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Antifragility is a characteristic of systems that thrive as a result of stressors, volatility, and randomness. Therefore, Antifragile is the opposite of fragile. Where a fragile thing breaks up to volatility; a robust thing resists volatility. An antifragile thing gets stronger from volatility (provided the level of stressors and randomness doesn’t pass a certain threshold).

Systems Thinking

systems-thinking
Systems thinking is a holistic means of investigating the factors and interactions that could contribute to a potential outcome. It is about thinking non-linearly, and understanding the second-order consequences of actions and input into the system.

Vertical Thinking

vertical-thinking
Vertical thinking, on the other hand, is a problem-solving approach that favors a selective, analytical, structured, and sequential mindset. The focus of vertical thinking is to arrive at a reasoned, defined solution.

Maslow’s Hammer

einstellung-effect
Maslow’s Hammer, otherwise known as the law of the instrument or the Einstellung effect, is a cognitive bias causing an over-reliance on a familiar tool. This can be expressed as the tendency to overuse a known tool (perhaps a hammer) to solve issues that might require a different tool. This problem is persistent in the business world where perhaps known tools or frameworks might be used in the wrong context (like business plans used as planning tools instead of only investors’ pitches).

Peter Principle

peter-principle
The Peter Principle was first described by Canadian sociologist Lawrence J. Peter in his 1969 book The Peter Principle. The Peter Principle states that people are continually promoted within an organization until they reach their level of incompetence.

Straw Man Fallacy

straw-man-fallacy
The straw man fallacy describes an argument that misrepresents an opponent’s stance to make rebuttal more convenient. The straw man fallacy is a type of informal logical fallacy, defined as a flaw in the structure of an argument that renders it invalid.

Streisand Effect

streisand-effect
The Streisand Effect is a paradoxical phenomenon where the act of suppressing information to reduce visibility causes it to become more visible. In 2003, Streisand attempted to suppress aerial photographs of her Californian home by suing photographer Kenneth Adelman for an invasion of privacy. Adelman, who Streisand assumed was paparazzi, was instead taking photographs to document and study coastal erosion. In her quest for more privacy, Streisand’s efforts had the opposite effect.

Heuristic

heuristic
As highlighted by German psychologist Gerd Gigerenzer in the paper “Heuristic Decision Making,” the term heuristic is of Greek origin, meaning “serving to find out or discover.” More precisely, a heuristic is a fast and accurate way to make decisions in the real world, which is driven by uncertainty.

Recognition Heuristic

recognition-heuristic
The recognition heuristic is a psychological model of judgment and decision making. It is part of a suite of simple and economical heuristics proposed by psychologists Daniel Goldstein and Gerd Gigerenzer. The recognition heuristic argues that inferences are made about an object based on whether it is recognized or not.

Representativeness Heuristic

representativeness-heuristic
The representativeness heuristic was first described by psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky. The representativeness heuristic judges the probability of an event according to the degree to which that event resembles a broader class. When queried, most will choose the first option because the description of John matches the stereotype we may hold for an archaeologist.

Take-The-Best Heuristic

take-the-best-heuristic
The take-the-best heuristic is a decision-making shortcut that helps an individual choose between several alternatives. The take-the-best (TTB) heuristic decides between two or more alternatives based on a single good attribute, otherwise known as a cue. In the process, less desirable attributes are ignored.

Bundling Bias

bundling-bias
The bundling bias is a cognitive bias in e-commerce where a consumer tends not to use all of the products bought as a group, or bundle. Bundling occurs when individual products or services are sold together as a bundle. Common examples are tickets and experiences. The bundling bias dictates that consumers are less likely to use each item in the bundle. This means that the value of the bundle and indeed the value of each item in the bundle is decreased.

Barnum Effect

barnum-effect
The Barnum Effect is a cognitive bias where individuals believe that generic information – which applies to most people – is specifically tailored for themselves.

First-Principles Thinking

first-principles-thinking
First-principles thinking – sometimes called reasoning from first principles – is used to reverse-engineer complex problems and encourage creativity. It involves breaking down problems into basic elements and reassembling them from the ground up. Elon Musk is among the strongest proponents of this way of thinking.

Ladder Of Inference

ladder-of-inference
The ladder of inference is a conscious or subconscious thinking process where an individual moves from a fact to a decision or action. The ladder of inference was created by academic Chris Argyris to illustrate how people form and then use mental models to make decisions.

Goodhart’s Law

goodharts-law
Goodhart’s Law is named after British monetary policy theorist and economist Charles Goodhart. Speaking at a conference in Sydney in 1975, Goodhart said that “any observed statistical regularity will tend to collapse once pressure is placed upon it for control purposes.” Goodhart’s Law states that when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.

Six Thinking Hats Model

six-thinking-hats-model
The Six Thinking Hats model was created by psychologist Edward de Bono in 1986, who noted that personality type was a key driver of how people approached problem-solving. For example, optimists view situations differently from pessimists. Analytical individuals may generate ideas that a more emotional person would not, and vice versa.

Mandela Effect

mandela-effect
The Mandela effect is a phenomenon where a large group of people remembers an event differently from how it occurred. The Mandela effect was first described in relation to Fiona Broome, who believed that former South African President Nelson Mandela died in prison during the 1980s. While Mandela was released from prison in 1990 and died 23 years later, Broome remembered news coverage of his death in prison and even a speech from his widow. Of course, neither event occurred in reality. But Broome was later to discover that she was not the only one with the same recollection of events.

Crowding-Out Effect

crowding-out-effect
The crowding-out effect occurs when public sector spending reduces spending in the private sector.

Bandwagon Effect

bandwagon-effect
The bandwagon effect tells us that the more a belief or idea has been adopted by more people within a group, the more the individual adoption of that idea might increase within the same group. This is the psychological effect that leads to herd mentality. What in marketing can be associated with social proof.

Moore’s Law

moores-law
Moore’s law states that the number of transistors on a microchip doubles approximately every two years. This observation was made by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore in 1965 and it become a guiding principle for the semiconductor industry and has had far-reaching implications for technology as a whole.

Disruptive Innovation

disruptive-innovation
Disruptive innovation as a term was first described by Clayton M. Christensen, an American academic and business consultant whom The Economist called “the most influential management thinker of his time.” Disruptive innovation describes the process by which a product or service takes hold at the bottom of a market and eventually displaces established competitors, products, firms, or alliances.

Value Migration

value-migration
Value migration was first described by author Adrian Slywotzky in his 1996 book Value Migration – How to Think Several Moves Ahead of the Competition. Value migration is the transferal of value-creating forces from outdated business models to something better able to satisfy consumer demands.

Bye-Now Effect

bye-now-effect
The bye-now effect describes the tendency for consumers to think of the word “buy” when they read the word “bye”. In a study that tracked diners at a name-your-own-price restaurant, each diner was asked to read one of two phrases before ordering their meal. The first phrase, “so long”, resulted in diners paying an average of $32 per meal. But when diners recited the phrase “bye bye” before ordering, the average price per meal rose to $45.

Groupthink

groupthink
Groupthink occurs when well-intentioned individuals make non-optimal or irrational decisions based on a belief that dissent is impossible or on a motivation to conform. Groupthink occurs when members of a group reach a consensus without critical reasoning or evaluation of the alternatives and their consequences.

Stereotyping

stereotyping
A stereotype is a fixed and over-generalized belief about a particular group or class of people. These beliefs are based on the false assumption that certain characteristics are common to every individual residing in that group. Many stereotypes have a long and sometimes controversial history and are a direct consequence of various political, social, or economic events. Stereotyping is the process of making assumptions about a person or group of people based on various attributes, including gender, race, religion, or physical traits.

Murphy’s Law

murphys-law
Murphy’s Law states that if anything can go wrong, it will go wrong. Murphy’s Law was named after aerospace engineer Edward A. Murphy. During his time working at Edwards Air Force Base in 1949, Murphy cursed a technician who had improperly wired an electrical component and said, “If there is any way to do it wrong, he’ll find it.”

Law of Unintended Consequences

law-of-unintended-consequences
The law of unintended consequences was first mentioned by British philosopher John Locke when writing to parliament about the unintended effects of interest rate rises. However, it was popularized in 1936 by American sociologist Robert K. Merton who looked at unexpected, unanticipated, and unintended consequences and their impact on society.

Fundamental Attribution Error

fundamental-attribution-error
Fundamental attribution error is a bias people display when judging the behavior of others. The tendency is to over-emphasize personal characteristics and under-emphasize environmental and situational factors.

Outcome Bias

outcome-bias
Outcome bias describes a tendency to evaluate a decision based on its outcome and not on the process by which the decision was reached. In other words, the quality of a decision is only determined once the outcome is known. Outcome bias occurs when a decision is based on the outcome of previous events without regard for how those events developed.

Hindsight Bias

hindsight-bias
Hindsight bias is the tendency for people to perceive past events as more predictable than they actually were. The result of a presidential election, for example, seems more obvious when the winner is announced. The same can also be said for the avid sports fan who predicted the correct outcome of a match regardless of whether their team won or lost. Hindsight bias, therefore, is the tendency for an individual to convince themselves that they accurately predicted an event before it happened.

Read Next: Biases, Bounded Rationality, Mandela Effect, Dunning-Kruger Effect, Lindy Effect, Crowding Out Effect, Bandwagon Effect.

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