Saying What’s Desirable and Doing What’s Favorable

Think about a time when you wanted to start exercising or eating healthier. Were you able to sustain this new behavior over time? If not, you are not alone. This discrepancy between an individual’s intended behavior and their actual behavior is known as the Say-Do Gap or the Intention-Behavior Gap.

In a review of past research, Sherran (2002) demonstrated that there is a gap between people’s intentions (what they say) and their behavior (what they do). Although both those who say they will act but don’t and those who say they won’t act but do could be responsible, Sheeran discovered it was the former group primarily driving the Say-Do Gap. For example, whereas 54% of people who intended to exercise did not follow through with their intention, only 3% exercised regularly despite having no such intention of doing so originally. Through this study, Sheeran demonstrated that even though intentions can predict many human behaviors and customer decisions, their relationship is not as strong as one would normally imagine. So, what makes individuals say they will do something and then not follow through?

When intentions and behaviors don’t line up

First, there is a wide body of literature that proposes that the Say-Do Gap exists because of various situational factors that prevent the intention from being translated into action. Blake (1999) asked respondents to identify the reasons or barriers that prevented them from taking part in environmentally sustainable activities, even though they had a general concern about the environment. The study revealed three main barriers to changes in recycling behavior – individuality (i.e., competing attitudes and motivations), responsibility (i.e., low perceived impact of individual action), and practicality (i.e., lack of time, money, resources). Individuals take these situational and practical factors into consideration at a much later stage and thus they influence their actions but not their intentions.

Second, there are also biases that come into play at the time of intention formation. This usually happens when people are asked questions about their engagement in socially desirable behaviors. Since exercising and recycling are considered socially desirable activities, people often construct their responses to portray themselves as someone who cares about personal health and the environment. This human tendency of constructing responses in a way that creates a more flattering image of themselves rather than answering truthfully and accurately is known as the Social Desirability Bias. Due to this bias, they overreport their socially desirable behaviors and under-report socially undesirable behaviors, creating a conflated image of themselves.

A great example of the Say-Do Gap and Social Desirability Bias put together is consumers’ perception towards electric cars. Studies suggest that even though 20% of people intend to purchase a battery electric vehicle, sales are just 7.5% in the entire UK car market. This highlights one situation where consumers may overreport their purchase intention to be considered “socially responsible”. However, their intention is not followed up because of certain situational factors which may arise at the moment of purchase, such as cost and time constraints, presence of better options in the market, affect, and so on.

What can brands do?

Brand builders need to understand the existence of Social Desirability Bias and the Say-Do Gap to make more informed decisions. Some of the techniques that brand builders can deploy to better understand their customers’ true motivations and drive behavior are:

1. Emphasize benefits and decrease effort: Brands should emphasize the immediate and personal benefits of their products. For instance, if they are selling sustainable cosmetics, they should emphasize personal benefits for the customer, such as fewer toxins, rather than benefits that appear distant to the customer, like a positive impact on the environment. At the same time, brands should try to reduce the effort required by customers to purchase their product. Some barriers that customers might face in buying a product may be price, accessibility, and trust in the brand. Brands may address these issues to help their customers bridge the Say-Do Gap.
2. Look at the full picture: Brands should evaluate consumer attitudes using a combination of direct measures of stated attitudes and indirect measures such as implicit techniques which assess attitudes that individuals are unwilling or unable to say. Additionally, it is important to go beyond intentions and assess actual behavior to get a full picture of how customers will engage with your product or brand.

Final thoughts

The Say-Do Gap is the discrepancy between individuals’ intended behavior and their actual behavior, while the tendency of people to construct responses to create a socially desirable image of themselves is Social Desirability Bias. The two often work in tandem to influence customers’ intentions and actual behavior. Brand builders need to utilize measures that can uncover and go beyond Social Desirability Bias, examine behavior in context, and emphasize the personal benefits associated with their products while decreasing customer effort.

References

• Blake, J. (1999). Overcoming the ‘value-action gap’ in environmental policy: Tensions between national policy and local experience. Local environment, 4(3), 257-278.
• Klaiman, K., Ortega, D. L., & Garnache, C. (2016). Consumer Preferences and Demand for Packaging Material and Recyclability. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 115, 1-8.
• Norcross, J. C., & Vangarelli, D. J. (1988). The resolution solution: Longitudinal examination of New Year’s change attempts. Journal of substance abuse, 1(2), 127-134.
• Sheeran, P. (2002). Intention—Behavior Relations: A Conceptual and Empirical Review. European review of social psychology, 12(1), 1-36.
• Sheeran, P., & Webb, T. L. (2016). The Intention–Behavior Gap. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 10(9), 503-518.