Including Moral Dimensions of Choice Within the Structure of the Theory of Planned Behavior1

Including Moral Dimensions of Choice Within the Structure of the Theory of Planned Behavior1

MONIQUE M. RAATS,2 RICHARD SHEPHERD, AND PAUL SPARKS Institute of Food Research. Reading RG6 2EF, England

There have been a number of recommendations for reducing fat in the diet, of which consuming milk of a lower fat content is one of the most popular. In the reported study, the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) was applied to attitudes towards the consumption of milks of differing fat contents. Subjects (N = 257) completed a mail questionnaire in which the basic components of the model were assessed. A measure of perceived moral obligation for family’s health was also included since it was predicted that this would constitute an influence not only on intentions, but also on attitudes. The findings largely support the predictive effect of the inclusion of the measure of perceived moral obligation. Differential attitudes and the use of alternative outcome evaluation scales are also examined. The findings are discussed in relation to possible extensions to the model.

The popularity of expectancy value models in applied social psychology has been described as “unprecedented” (Eagly, 1992, p. 695). Probably the best known and widely used of these models is the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) which essentially posits a causal link between behavioral beliefs/ outcome evaluations, attitudes, intentions, and behavior (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980). This theory has been extensively applied to a wide variety of behavioral domains (e.g., Bagozzi, 1981).

In their 1980 book, Ajzen and Fishbein note that although “future research may demonstrate the need to consider additional factors in our attempts to predict and understand behavior.. . at least at the present time, we see no need to expand our theory of reasoned action” @. 247).

The addition of the “perceived behavioral control” construct in the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) as an extension of the TRA, therefore represents a departure from this earlier position. This extension of the original theory has also been widely applied (Ajzen, 199 1 ) and it is apparent that it often represents a significant improvement over the predictive capabilities of the earlier model.

‘This research was conducted by the first author in partial fulfilment of the degree of Ph.D., under the supervision of the second author. We would like to thank Marguerite Fazey for her assistance with data processing.

*Correspondence concerning this article should be sent to Monique Raats, Institute of Food Research, Reading Laboratory, Earley Gate, Whiteknights Road, Reading RG6 2EF, England.

484

Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 1995, 25, 6, pp. 484-494. Copyright 0 1995 by V. ti. Winston 8 Son, Inc. All rights reserved.

MORAL DIMENSIONS OF CHOICE 485

Recently, Ajzen (1991) has further advocated that “The theory of planned behavior is, in principle, open to the inclusion of additional predictors if it can be shown that they capture a significant proportion of the variance in intention or behavior after the theory’s current variables have been taken into account” (p. 199).

In this paper, we focus on one potential addition to the model: perceived moral obligation. Although this component has received some attention in the literature (Eagly & Chaiken, 1993), we suggest that it will often serve as a causal antecedent, not just of intentions, but also of attitudes. Other subsidiary issues relating to the TPB which are of importance for the further development of the model are also addressed. These are examined in a study of attitudes towards consuming milk of varying fat contents, an issue of importance in relation to the adoption and maintenance of healthier dietary patterns.

Perceived Moral Obligation

Behavioral beliefs (bb) and outcome evaluations (oe) represent subjective probabilities and outcome utilities respectively, and the manner of their combi- nation within the theory (Zbb.oe) mirrors the way in which the expected utility of choice options is derived in economic theories of choice (Baron, 1992). This method of predicting attitudes is based on the respondent’s subjective prob- ability that their (individual) actions will lead to certain consequences (outcomes). Although the outcomes are not necessarily judged as a function of the self-interested concerns of the respondent, such outcomes do usually relate to the personal advantages and disadvantages of a course of action (this tends to be especially the case in applications of the model which focus on, for example, individual health behaviors or individual consumer choices). Moreover, it may be that the methods used to elicit perceived outcomes exacerbate this tendency, in much the same way that Fischhoff (1 99 1) has suggested that survey research may “emphasize hedonic rather than social values by asking respondents for their personal opinions” (p. 843). Of interest, then, is the extent to which, in the case of social behaviors, a concern with others’ interests is likely to influence people’s attitudes and behaviors independently of respondents’ own self-interested concerns.

Although Ajzen and Fishbein (1980) acknowledge the suggestion that the inclusion of a moral norm or perceived moral obligation component might strengthen the TRA, they appear to eschew this opportunity in favor of parsi- mony and an emphasis on careful measurement of existing (at that time) model components (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980, p. 247). However, both before and since that time, empirical research has offered support for the inclusion of a measure reflecting moral/ethical concerns for certain types of behavior (Beck & Ajzen,

486 RAATS, SHEPHERD, AND SPARKS

1991; Gorsuch & Ortberg, 1983; Parker & Manstead, in press; Schwartz & Tessler, 1972; Zuckerman & Reis, 1978).

While it is clear that moral issues are very relevant to the social psychology of food and eating (Rozin, 1990) and are prominent from other social science perspectives on food choice (e.g., Beardsworth & Keil, 1992), neither has the impact of moral considerations on attitudes been extensively explored within the framework of the TPB (Eagly & Chaiken, 1993; Sparks, Shepherd, & Frewer, 1995) nor has the inclusion of measures of moral obligation been tested using that model structure in the domain of food choice.

Attitude Choice Options

Fishbein (1 980) has argued that the difference between intentions to per- form alternative behaviors is a better predictor of behavior than a consideration of each alternative separately. However, as yet there have been few empirical tests of this proposal (but see Sperber, Fishbein, & Ajzen, 1980). Petty and Cacioppo (198 1) have suggested that behavioral intention minus the average of intentions for behavioral alternatives would be the best predictor of behavior, but do not offer empirical evidence to support this. However, when comparing a within-subjects with a between-subjects assessment of different choice behaviors, Davidson and Morrison (1 983) found the within-subjects procedure to give better results (see also Shepherd, Sparks, Bellier, & Raats, 1991/92). Such an approach is also congruent with the rational choice Subjective Expected Utility underpinnings of the model.

Outcome Evaluation Scales

Little attention has been paid to the way in which the outcome evaluation construct has been operationalized. The good-bad scale has been the most commonly used. An important-unimportant scale (Manstead, Profftt, & Smart, 1983; Tuorila & Pangborn, 1988), a desirable-undesirable scale (Anderson & Shepherd, 1989; Tuorila, 1987), a pleasant-unpleasant scale (Ajzen & Driver, 1991), and a beneficial-harmful scale (Ajzen & Driver, 1991) have been used as alternatives, presumably because they have been thought to be more appropriate in particular contexts. In the study reported in this paper two of these scales are compared.

Method

Subjects

Two hundred and fifty-seven (136 women, 121 men) members of a


consumer panel of a UK food research company completed questionnaires, in exchange for a payment equivalent to $3.60.

Materials

Each questionnaire consisted of the following measures for three types of milk (whole, semi-skimmed, and skimmed milk) in order to assess central components of the TPB. The examples of the items provided below represent the common structure for questions for all types of milk. Nine-point scales were used unless otherwise indicated; response options are indicated in parentheses, as are scale values where relevant.

Behavioral beliefs. For example, “Using skimmed milk gives me a milk which ...” (extremely unlikely to extremely likely). Ten belief items (e.g. “ benefits health,” “tastes good”) were selected on the basis of structured interviews carried out with 20 members of the general public (Raats & Shepherd, 1991/92, 1993).

Outcome evaluations. In order to compare different methods of assessing outcome evaluations, subjects reported outcome evaluations in two forms: for example, “Using milk which tastes good is . . . ” (extremely bad to extremely good) and “When I use milk, having milk which tastes good is.. . ” (extremely important to extremely unimportant).

Behavioral belief and good-bad outcome evaluation items were scored from -4 to +4; unimportant-important outcome evaluation items were scored from 1 to 9. Each belief score (bb) was multiplied by the appropriate outcome evaluation score for both the good-bad scale (Oegood-bad) and the unimportant- important scale (Oeimpofiance); the products were summed (Cbb . Oegood-bad and Ebb . oeimportance), in the manner described by Ajzen and Fishbein (1980).

Attitudes. Five semantic differential scales: for example, “Using skimmed milk is . . . ” (unpleasant-pleasant; harmful-beneficial; bad-good; foolish-wise; unenjoyable-enjoyable) were used. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for these items was: 0.86 for whole milk, 0.85 for semi-skimmed milk, and 0.87 for skimmed milk.

Subjective norm. “Most people who are important to me think I should should not use skimmed milk” (cf. Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980).

Perceived behavioral control. “For me to use skimmed milk is ...” (extremely diflcult to extremely easy).

Intention. “ I intend to personally consume.. . pints of skimmed milk during the next week (please write the amount in the space provided).”

Perceived obligation for family’s health). “I feel obliged to use skimmed milk for my family’s health” (disagree very strongly to agree very strongly). This question was only answered by those subjects who lived with their


family. A similar question was also asked in relation to children’s health. Behavior. A self reported consumption measure was used: “Approximately

how much skimmed milk do you personally use on average per day?” (none, less than 1/4pint, between 1/4 and 1/2pint, between 1/2 and 3/4pint, between 3/4 and I pint, and more than I pint [ 1 pint = 0.57 liter]).

The questionnaire also included a number of other questions relating, for example to age, sex, size of household, and number of children in household. Details of these are reported elsewhere (Raats, Shepherd, & Sparks, 1994).

Results

Outcome Evaluation Scales

A comparison between the two outcome evaluation scales, using the Wil- liams’ t2 statistic (Steiger, 1980), showed that for whole milk Cbb . Oegood-bad achieved a significantly higher correlation with attitude than did Ebb oeimportance (rgood-bad = 0.83; rimPodance = 0.77, p < 0.001), for semi-skimmed milk Cbb * Oeimportance achieved a significantly higher correlation with attitude (rgood-bad = 0.77; ‘importance = 0.81; p < 0.05) and for skimmed milk no Significant difference was found (rgood-bad = 0.84; ‘importance = 0.85, ns). Thus neither measure was shown to be consistently superior to the other. The good-bad outcome evaluation scale has been used for all subsequent analyses.

The TPB and Perceived Moral Obligation

For each type of milk, hierarchical regressions of intentions on attitudes, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, and perceived obligation (for family’s health) were computed (Table 1). The addition of perceived control significantly improved the prediction of intention to use skimmed milk (R = 0.24, p < 0.001), marginally improved the prediction of intention to use semi-skimmed milk (B = 0.12, p = 0.06), but did not improve the prediction of intention to use whole milk (I3 = 0.03, ns). The inclusion of perceived obligation (for family’s health) contributed significantly to the prediction of intention to use whole milk (I3 = 0 . 1 5 , ~ < 0.05) and semi-skimmed milk(l3 = 0 . 1 5 , ~ < 0.05), but not skimmed milk (ti = 0.07, ns). Since we had expected that moral obligation might represent an independent causal influence on attitudes, hierarchical regressions of attitudes on Cbb . oe and perceived obligation (for family’s health) were computed. These indicated that the addition of perceived obligation (for family’s health) significantly improved the prediction of attitude for all three milks: I3 = 0 . 2 4 , ~ < 0.001, for whole milk; R = 0 . 2 5 , ~ < 0.001, for semi-skimmed milk; R = 0.19, p < 0.001, for skimmed milk (Table 2).


Table 1

Regressions of Intentions on Attitudes, Subjective Norm, Perceived Control, and Perceived Obligation for Family’s Health

Step Predictor R2 Fchange Final B

Whole milk (N = 222) 1 Attitude 2 Subjective norm 3 Perceived control 4 Obligation for family’s health

Semi-skimmed milk (N = 226) 1 Attitude 2 Subjective norm 3 Perceived control 4 Obligation for family’s health

Skimmed milk (N = 220) 1 Attitude 2 Subjective norm 3 Perceived control 4 Obligation for family’s health

0.28 0.29 0.29 0.3 1

0.28 0.34 0.36 0.37

0.33 0.36 0.39 0.40

86.05 * * * 3.49 0.52 4.06*

87.36*** 21.92***

3.49 4.78*

105.22** * 10.47** 13.49*** 1.15

0.37*** 0.10 0.03 0.15*

0.28*** 0.23***

0.15* 0.12t

0.30*** 0.16* 0.24*** 0.07

Tp < 0.10. *p < 0.05. **p < 0.01. ***p < 0.001.

Similar regressions of intention on attitudes, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, and perceived obligation (for children’s health) were per- formed. The addition of perceived obligation (for children’s health) only marginally improved the prediction of behavioral intention for whole milk (B = 0 . 2 0 , ~ = 0.08), but not for semi-skimmed (fi = 0.12, ns) and skimmed milk (13 = -0.03, ns). However, the inclusion of perceived obligation (for children’s health) contributed significantly to the prediction of attitude B = 0.26, p < 0.001, for whole milk; I3 = 0 . 2 9 , ~ < 0.001, for semi-skimmed milk; B = 0.12, p < 0.05, for skimmed milk.

Attitude Choice Options

Since the three types of milk studied may often be alternatives to each other, an analysis was carried out in which differential attitudes, behavioral intention,


Table 2

Regressions of Intentions on Cb . egood-bad and Perceived Obligation for Family’s Health

Step Predictor R2 Fchange Final

Whole milk ( N = 224) 1 Cb egood-bad 0.69 484.53*** 0.71*** 2 Obligation for family’s health 0.73 34.08*** 0.24***

Semi-skimmed milk ( N = 229) 1 Cb * egood-bad 0.61 359.21** 0.68*** 2 Obligation for family’s health 0.66 34.30*** 0.25***

Skimmed milk ( N = 225) 1 Cb . egood-bad 0.70 515.88*** 0.74*** 2 Obligation for family’s health 0.72 20.1 1*** 0.19***

*p < 0.05. **p < 0.01. ***p < 0.001

perceived behavioral control, perceived obligation (for family’s health), and Cbb . oe were calculated. The method of calculation followed that suggested by Petty and Cacioppo (1 98 l), for measuring differential intention (intentions towards a particular behavior and intentions towards alternative behaviors): I = Itarget- (Claltemativ&); where salient alternative behaviors are numbered.

When correlations based upon differential scores and correlations based on standard scores are compared, the correlation based on the differential scores is higher in 16 out of 18 comparisons (Table 3). This shows a better prediction of behavioral intentions was possible through a consideration of attitudes towards alternative behaviors.

Discussion

There is considerable interest in the TRA in applied research focusing on health-related behaviors (e.g., Ajzen & Timko, 1986; Beale & Manstead, 1991; Doll & Orth, 1993). In the study reported in this paper, we have demonstrated the potential benefits of closer attention to differential attitudes (derived from attitudes to alternative behaviors). However, the use of alternative outcome evaluation scales did not represent an improvement in predictive capabilities. Moreover, the inclusion of perceived behavioral control increased the model’s


Table 3

Correlations (r) For Whole, Semi-Skimmed, and Skimmed Milk Between Differential and “Standard ’’ Components of the Theory of Planned Behaviour and its Extensions

Whole Semi-skimmed Skimmed

r” n r n r n

Cb - EgoOd-bad-attitude Differential 0.88 238 Standard 0.83 247

Attitude-intention Differential 0.63 249 Standard 0.53 253

Subjective norm-intention Differential 0.49 249 Standard 0.40 253

Perceived control-intention Differential 0.52 251 Standard 0.37 255

Perceived obligation for family-intention Differential 0.52 229 Standard 0.41 233

Intention-(current) behavior Differential 0.82 250 Standard 0.74 255

0.80 238 0.77 252

0.63 249 0.54 253

0.53 249 0.49 252

0.52 251 0.38 254

0.55 229 0.46 231

0.86 250 0.80 254

0.87 238 0.84 246

0.63 249 0.57 254

0.51 249 0.47 254

0.53 251 0.51 253

0.40 229 0.40 233

0.85 250 0.88 253

aAll correlations significant at p < 0.001.

predictive power for intention to consume one sort of milk: thus, only in the case of attitudes towards skimmed milk did the TPB represent a significant improvement over the TRA. However, in the study reported here, only one perceived behavioral control item was used to measure the construct, whereas in other studies two or three items have typically been used, although interitem reliability for such items is often not high (Beale & Manstead, 1991; Sparks &


Shepherd, 1992). There is consequently much need for elaboration and improved operationalization of the perceived behavioral control construct.

Most importantly, the present study has indicated a significant role for moral considerations within the structure of the TPB, not for the kinds of behavior that are prototypically associated with moral judgements (e.g., lying, cheating, blood donation, technology acceptance), but a behavior that reflects the interpersonal responsibilities of family relationships. This would appear to suggest that there may be a wide range of interpersonal social behaviors for which the inclusion of such a component may be advisable. Moreover, the role of moral considerations in predicting attitudes is a theme which has yet to be addressed in the literature in any detail (but see Sparks et al., 1995) but which has enormous implications for the expectancy-value basis of some highly influential models of attitude-behavior relationships.

The findings suggest not only that ethical/moral considerations may exert an independent influence on intentions for some food choice issues (as has been demonstrated in other behavioral domains); more important, perhaps, is the finding that they produced an independent predictive effect on attitudes. This latter finding calls into question the precise role of such moral considerations within the basic model structure of the T W T P B . It also casts further doubt on the sufficiency of the notion of a “utility” basis to attitudes insofar as utility is interpreted in terms of purely self-interested “ instrumental” outcomes.

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Including Moral Dimensions of Choice Within the Structure of the Theory of Planned Behavior1

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