Impacts of the built environment and travel behaviour on attitudes

Impacts of the built environment and travel behaviour on attitudes: Theories underpinning the reverse causality hypothesis

van Wee, G.P. (TU Delft Transport and Logistics)
De Vos, Jonas (University College London (UCL); Universiteit Gent)
Maat, C. (TU Delft Transport and Planning)

2019

The importance of attitudes in the relationship between travel behaviour (TB) and the built environment (BE) has been the subject of debate in the literature for about two decades. In line with the Theory of Planned Behaviour, attitudes – which affect behaviour – are generally assumed to be constant. However, it is plausible that attitudes can change, both directly, or indirectly, through the impact of the built environment on travel behaviour, a process which is referred to as reverse causality (RC). Based on literature from social psychology, this paper provides a conceptual model for the explanation of attitude changes. It also reviews the literature in the area of BE and TB concluding that two explanations dominate: a change in attitudes due to new experiences which can be underpinned by learning theories, and a change in attitudes due to mismatches between attitudes and behaviour which can be explained by cognitive dissonance theories. The literature also suggests a few additional explanations, while we also suggest explanations not provided in travel behaviour literature. Finally, we present an agenda for future research.

Attitudes
Built environment
Cognitive dissonance theory
Learning theories
Research agenda
Travel behaviour

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:67abc1d0-c1e3-4bb2-af9d-aa303e8b8aba

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2019.102540

2020-03-14

0966-6923

Journal of Transport Geography, 80

Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.

Institutional Repository

journal article

© 2019 G.P. van Wee, Jonas De Vos, C. Maat