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The role of intention as mediator between latent effects and behavior: application of a hybrid choice model to study departure time choices

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Abstract

An increasing number of papers are focusing on integrating psychological aspects into the typical discrete choice models. The majority of these studies account for several latent effects, but they mainly focused on the direct effect of attitudes, perception, and norms in the discrete choice. None of them consider the effect of intention and its role as mediator between those psychological effects and the choice, as implied in the Theory of Planned Behavior. In this paper we contribute to the literature in this field by specifically studying the direct effect of the intention on the actual behavior, while attitude, social norms, and perceived behavioral control affect the intention to behave in a given way. We apply a hybrid choice model to study the departure time choice. For this, we use data from Danish commuters in the morning rush hours in the Greater Copenhagen area. We find a significant effect of the intention to arrive at work on time on the departing time choice, and also a significant effect of the lower level mediators on intention. Furthermore, the attitude toward short travel time is also significant in explaining the departure time choice. Finally, in terms of forecasting, we find that individuals who have a strong intention to be at work on time will be less likely to reschedule their departure time. This suggests that campaigns targeting the working culture could affect the subject norms among colleagues, which in turn influence individuals’ intention to be on time or to reschedule to a less congested time slot.

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Notes

  1. There are several interesting studies in other fields than transport, but we chose to focus only on the transport literature as it provides sufficient evidence for the objective of this paper.

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Acknowledgements

The first author wishes to thank several transportation students at UC Berkeley for their help and useful discussions throughout the development of the HCM during his visit at UC Berkeley. A particular thank to Akshay Vij for his comments on the use of the latent constructs in prediction. In addition, we would like to thank Sonja Haustein for her help on designing the psychological components. Furthermore, early versions of this paper were presented at the 3rd Symposium of the European Association for Research in Transportation (hEART2014) and the Transportation Research Board (TRB 2016) 95th annual meeting.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Management Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Bygningstorvet 116B, 2800, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark

    Mikkel Thorhauge & Jeppe Rich

  2. School of Civil Engineering and Geoscience, Newcastle University, Cassie Building, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK

    Elisabetta Cherchi

  3. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California at Berkeley, 111 McLaughlin Hall, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA

    Joan L. Walker

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  1. Mikkel Thorhauge
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  2. Elisabetta Cherchi
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  3. Joan L. Walker
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  4. Jeppe Rich
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Correspondence to Mikkel Thorhauge.

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Thorhauge, M., Cherchi, E., Walker, J.L. et al. The role of intention as mediator between latent effects and behavior: application of a hybrid choice model to study departure time choices. Transportation 46, 1421–1445 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11116-017-9839-2

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