Predicting land use voting behavior: expanding our understanding of the influence of attitudes and social norms |
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Authors: | Erin K. Maloney Maria K. Lapinski Lindsay Neuberger |
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Affiliation: | 1. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Memorial Sloan‐Kettering Cancer Center;2. College of Communication Arts and Sciences, Michigan State University |
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Abstract: | Voting to tax oneself in the current economic climate seems improbable. Framed in theories of normative influence and behavior change, this study tests the factors that predict voting for a county‐level millage (i.e., tax) to fund land preservation. Behavioral beliefs that contribute to people's attitudes toward the millage are identified and a model is tested with an expanded normative component. Results indicate that attitudes and subjective norms significantly predict voting intentions, and injunctive norms (i.e., people's perceptions of others' approval of taking an action) add significantly to the model's predictive power. Findings are reinforced by election results in which the millage proposal passed and can contribute to the applied literature by identifying social‐psychological factors that can be targeted with campaign messages. |
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