Behavioral Intention
Definition
Behavioral intention (BI) is defined as a person's perceived likelihood or "subjective probability that he or she will engage in a given behavior" (Committee on Communication for Behavior Change in the 21st Century, 2002, p. 31).
BI is behavior-specific and operationalized by direct questions such as "I intend to [behavior]," with Likert scale response choices to measure relative strength of intention. Intention has been represented in measurement by other synonyms (e.g., "I plan to [behavior]") and is distinct from similar concepts such as desire and self-prediction (Armitage & Conner, 2001). Ajzen (1991) argued that BI reflects how hard a person is willing to try, and how motivated he or she is, to perform the behavior