The Moderating Role of the Attitude-Subjective Norms Conflict on the Link Between Moral Norms and Intention

Within a traditional planned-behavior framework, the conditions remain ambiguous under which moral norms add to the overall intention to act. In this paper, we aim to provide insights into the circumstances that foster the impact of moral norms. Based on a minimal effort strategy, we predict that moral information is considered more strongly and, thus, is relatively more significant for people's motivation if a person's attitude is at odds with his or her subjective norms. To test our beliefs-conflict hypothesis, we conducted two surveys, one concerning organ donation (N = 639) and another concerning conservation behavior (N = 328). Structural equation analyses confirm that moral considerations have a stronger effect on a person's behavioral intention in cases of attitude-subjective norms conflicts compared to cases of harmonic attitudes and subjective norms.