How habits interfere with norm-directed behaviour: A normative decision-making model for travel mode choice

Abstract

This paper deals with the question how habits can be integrated into a model of normative decision-making based on the work of Schwartz and Howard (1981). A field study was conducted in Bochum, Germany, involving 160 participants. After a personal interview the participant had to protocol the travel mode choice on their trips to work in a logbook for the period of 4 weeks. The data illustrates that on the trip to work there is no direct effect of car-choice habits on travel mode choice additional to the personal norm, but a moderating effect of habit strength on the relation between personal norm and travel mode choice. It is argued that different levels of specificity of habit lead either to a moderating effect of habit (strong specific habit) or an additional direct effect (weak specific habit).