Attitudes and action: The effects of behavioral intent and perceived effectiveness of acts

S ummary Based on the assumption that an individual's behavioral intentions mediate the relationship between his attitudes and behaviors, an attempt was made to obtain a direct assessment of ( a ) subjects' intentions with regard to a series of acts varying in behavioral thresholds and ( b ) the perceived instrumentality of these acts for achieving one's goals After the reliability of the Intentions Scale was established, it was combined multiplicatively with ratings of perceived effectiveness to form a combined Action Potential Index (AP) The index resulted in significantly greater predictive validity than a conventional attitude assessment instrument. A second study was undertaken to determine the consistency of the AP‐index across issues. The high correlations obtained for the AP‐index across three issues suggested the operation of an “activism” personality dimension