Understanding Public Reaction to Energy Proposals: An Application of the Fishbein Model1

The Fishbein attitude model was applied to voter decision-making on an energy ballot proposal. Questionnaires were sent to a random sample of potential voters in Oregon's 1976 general election and dealt with the Nuclear Safeguards Initiative, a measure that would place restrictions on future nuclear power plants. Questionnaire items probed the attitude toward the act of voting “Yes” on the measure (A_act), perceived likelihood of various consequences of voting “Yes” (B_i), evaluations of these consequences (e_i), the subjective norm (SN), normative beliefs (NB_i), motivation to comply with several referents (Mc_i), and voting intention (VI). A follow-up interview determined the actual voting behavior (VB) of persons responding to the questionnaire. The following model predictions were tested and strongly supported by the data: (a) VB=VI; and (e) external variables have a nonsignificant relation to VB once VI is partialled out. It was concluded that the Fishbein model should be extremely useful in understanding public reaction to future energy proposals.