The Theory of Planned Behaviour in Simple Terms + Examples

Have you ever sat with a person and just wondered why they act the way they act? Or perhaps after nearly closing a deal with a client, they decide to back out last minute?

This is the entire premise of the theory of planned behaviour. It seeks to understand what factors influence certain behaviours and possibly change those behaviours in the future. It has been applied in education, research, sciences and of course business.

This post will share everything you need to know to properly apply this concept in the real world.

What Exactly is the Theory of Planned Behaviour?

The theory of planned behaviour is a psychological framework developed by Icek Ajzen to understand why people behave the way they do. A key element in this theory is ‘intent’.

People’s behaviours are entirely dependent on their intention to do it. For example, am I running a marathon solely because of my fitness goals or because it’ll be cool when I say I’ve completed one at social events?

Another element in this theory is how strong this intent is. The stronger the intention to engage in a given behaviour, the more likely it is to perform that behaviour. Put simply, the stronger the intent is to run this marathon, the more likely I am to sign up for it and participate.

But why am I even considering a marathon in the first place? Now, according to the theory of planned behaviour, the intent to behave in a certain way stems from three major factors;

• Attitudes: This is what people believe will happen as a result of performing a specific behaviour. So it’s evaluating the outcomes and whether this will be a positive or negative impact.
• Subjective norms: A fancy way of saying peer pressure. It’s whether there’s a social pressure to perform or not perform this behaviour.
• Perceived behavioural control: This is evaluating whether the person or people perceive that they can perform this behaviour. For example, running a marathon might not be as easy as running for 10 minutes every day.

Combining these three factors is what determines the intent, how strong it is and what can help predict people’s behaviour.

Examples to Help You Understand the Theory of Planned Behaviour

The theory of planned behaviour can be applied to several sectors. But before we go into that, here are some examples to help you better understand this concept;

Running a Marathon: Let’s start with the example of a marathon. If I know that completing a 10k run will help me achieve my fitness goals (attitudes), it’ll be a great way to bond with my other friends who are also running the 10k (subjective norms) and it’s something I can do with little training (control), you can predict that I’d most likely be making that run.

Recycling: People who recycle or intend to start by thinking about the difference it can make in the world (attitudes). When the neighbours are recycling, or your home has separate trash bags this creates a social pressure to recycle (subjective norms). The final bit is believing that they can recycle if they put minimal effort into it (behavioural control).

Smoking: Let’s say you realise a friend doesn’t want to stop smoking. The intent to not stop might be because they don’t believe it causes any long-term damage (attitudes). They enjoy the smoking breaks they can take at work with colleagues, so there’s a social pressure to keep smoking (subjective norms). They also don’t think it’ll be easy to stop so why bother? (behavioural control).

How to Apply the Theory of Planned Behaviour in Business

The bedrock of business lies in human psychology. This is why the theory of planned behaviour is an excellent way to understand your customer/client’s behaviour. Once you understand the intent behind why they act the way they do, you can influence their behaviour towards your product or service.

For example, when you understand customer’s attitudes towards a new product (either positive or negative), what they think about whether they can easily use it and any external social pressure, you have a blueprint. You can then use the answers to create specific features or even marketing campaigns to increase product adoption across your markets.

This also applies to retaining your current users or customers. With this knowledge, you can create stronger customer relationships.

Let’s apply this theory to a food chain business looking to improve sales of its healthy food range. For starters, we’d need to analyse customer behaviour using the theory of planned behaviour. From a hypothetical analysis, we discover that;

• Customers have mixed attitudes towards healthy food. While they have a positive attitude towards healthy eating, there’s a negative attitude because healthy meals might not be delicious. They are also often expensive.
• There is societal pressure to eat healthy due to social trends like Matcha Latte. There’s also an increasing awareness of the benefits of healthy living.
• The behavioural control is low as customers think that eating healthy is much more difficult compared to regular meals.

Using these insights, the food chain business can then choose to create strategies like the following to help them reach their goal;

• Offering discounts on fruits and veggies to make healthy options affordable
• Creating communities online to encourage customers to share their experiences and stay on trend
• Offering pre-packed healthy options to make choosing healthy options easier
• Creating delicious healthy recipe ideas or sharing nutritional values to help customers choose better

This theory doesn’t just stop at customers. Human resource teams can use it to better understand employee engagement to improve productivity and employee satisfaction.

Applying the Theory of Planned Behaviour to Other Fields

To use the theory of planned behaviour, you need to figure out what you want people to do, understand why they might or might not do it, and then come up with ways to encourage them. So tweak the main three components by;

• Changing attitudes by providing benefits of engaging in a specific behaviour
• Influencing the subjective norms by creating public campaigns, social media challenges and more
• Providing resources to make it easier to perform that behaviour

Limitations and Conclusion

Like all theories, the theory of planned behaviour has its shortcomings. For example, it only focuses on intention and subjective norms while dismissing any potential economic or environmental factors that may affect their decision.

However, it’s still a valuable theory for businesses looking to understand and influence customer behaviour.