Fishbein's Theory Of Attitude And Behavior

727 Words2 Pages

According to Mowen (1987) and Ramayah (2002), the word "attitude" comes from the Latin term, aptus which means "fitness" or "adaptedness". Fishbein and Ajzen (1975) conceptualized attitude as the amount of affect for or against some object. In recent years, the trend is to link attitude to the concept of feelings rather than beliefs. Mowen (1987) in his book entitled Consumer Behaviour, defined attitudes as consisting of the following: i. Attitudes are likes and dislikes. ii. The "major characteristics that distinguish attitude from other concepts are its evaluative or affective nature". iii. Attitudes are the core of our likes and dislikes for certain people, groups, situation, object and intangible ideas. According to Ajzen’s (1991) Theory of Planned Behaviour, attitude relates to one’s own personal views about a behaviour. Attitude may also be defined as positive or negative views of an “attitude object”; i.e. a person, behaviour or event. In relation to taxation, taxpayers’ attitudes may be defined as positive or negative views of tax compliance behaviour. The outcome of positive views is tax compliance and negative views are tax non compliance. These views may be explained …show more content…

If such attitudes would carry over to actual compliance, enhancing these norms, as through increasing overall trust in government, is a desirable policy instrument to complement the usual enforcement options. The attitude of taxpayers varies considerably. Some comply to the fullest extent required, irrespective of whether the IRS is actively auditing them or their industry. Other taxpayers essentially play the audit lottery and either do not prepare contemporaneous documentation or prepare the absolute minimum with the hope of avoiding the imposition of penalties (Turner, 2003). An individual’s attitude towards tax system may predict his tax compliance

Open Document