The Importance of Subjective Norms on Intentions to Perform Health Behaviors

Trafimow & Finlay (1996) employed between‐ and within‐subjects analyses to show that people, as well as behaviors, can be under attitudinal or normative control. Using both types of analyses, Finlay, Trafimow & Jones (1997) provided evidence that subjective norms are particularly important in the health domain. The current research compares health and domain general behaviors to show that people intend to perform health behaviors that have relatively large subjective norm beta weights more than those with smaller normative beta weights. Also, people whose behaviors are generally under normative control intend to perform more healthful behaviors than do people whose behaviors are generally under attitudinal control. These results were not found using domain‐general behaviors.