Sheeran, P., & Webb, T. L. (2016). The intention–behavior gap. Social and personality psychology compass, 10(9), 503-518.
Summary
This review deals with the intention-behavior gap, or why people don’t do the things they set out to do. Intentions deal with both the level of the goal (e.g., a quantitative aspect like exercising for 30 minutes) and the level of commitment (e.g., a qualitative aspect like “extremely determined”). Intention is important because it correlates with behavior more strongly than “(explicit and implicit) attitudes, norms, self-efficacy, and perceptions of risk and severity… as well as personality factors.” Goals are more likely to be met if they are framed in terms of autonomy vs control (see self-determination theory), promotion vs prevention, mastery vs performance (see Dweck), and if they are concrete and specific. Goals based on personal beliefs better predict behavior than goals based on social pressure. Intentions based on feelings about performing the behavior are better predictors of behavior than intentions based on thoughts regarding consequences of the behavior (perhaps this is the affective, visceral element increasing availability). One of the best measures of commitment is the temporal stability of the intention.
Certain tasks are especially useful for closing the gap. One powerful tactic for fulfilling intentions involves thinking through future possible obstacles to a goal and forecasting the subsequent desired response. This is called if-then planning. Progress monitoring can also effectively match intention with behavior. Progress monitoring feedback can signal when our progress is insufficient, which allows us to self-correct. The efficacy of this tactic is improved when progress is physically recorded (as in a diary) and/or made public (as in a group setting).
Application
If behavioral prediction is the goal, then intention should absolutely be one of the measured variables. Goal setting will benefit from the tactics espoused in this paper.
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