Testing the Replicability of the Theory of Planned Behavior: A Large-Scale Multi-Sample Registered Replication Study

Identifying the determinants of social behavior, and the specific processes by which the determinants relate to behavior, are important in the development of theory to predict social behavior. Predicting behavior also has utility for organizations and stakeholders interested in developing effective interventions and strategies to promote behavior change. The theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 1991) is a prominent social psychological theory developed to predict social behavior. The theory derives its assumptions from theories of attitude and social cognition (Albarracín & Johnson, 2019; Eagly & Chaiken, 1993; Fishbein, 1967), and focuses on predicting intentional behavior from sets of beliefs about future behavioral engagement. The theory has been tested in over 2000 studies, and over 30 meta-analytic syntheses. Cumulative findings indicate its efficacy in accounting for variance in behaviors across multiple domains. However, considerable unresolved heterogeneity in effects has been observed, which could be attributable to methodological artifacts or genuine variability across contexts, behaviors, and populations. In addition, some theory predictions, particularly interactions among constructs, have not been tested and replicated consistently. The current project will conduct a large-scale replication of the theory in general population and student samples adopting an identical protocol and measures. The result of the study will be a series of data sets testing theory predictions analyzed by meta-analytic structural equation modeling.