Russell H. Weigel

Exploring the limits of self-reports and reasoned action: An investigation of the psychology of tax evasion behavior.

Reflexions sur les problemes theoriques et methodologiques lies au constat de non correlation entre les renseignements donnes par 155 citoyens neerlandais sur une eventuelle fraude fiscale et les indications fournies par des sources officielles

Decision frame and opportunity as determinants of tax cheating: An international experimental study

Abstract The experimental studies described in this article were designed to examine the effects of decision frame and opportunity on tax evasion behavior in the context of a business management task that required subjects to file simulated tax returns. The data analyzed were derived from 674 subjects representing samples drawn for ten separate experiments conducted in six different countries.

Ideological and Demographic Correlates of Proecology Behavior

Summary Previous studies of the ideological and demographic characteristics of environmentalists have used attitude measures to distinguish persons with a pro-ecology orientation. Concerns about attitude-behavior correspondence, however, have provoked criticism that such ideological and demographic profiles may have little meaning for predicting variation in behavioral commitment to protecting and enhancing environmental quality. In order to examine this issue a survey including measures of sociopolitical ideology and a variety of demographic attributes was administered to residents of a medium-sized New England town. Later, a subsample of 44 men and women was given the opportunity to participate in a series of ecology projects carried out over a five month period. Results indicated that Ss exhibiting high participation were more liberal in their social, economic, and religious philosophies, better educated, and higher in occupational status; the same pattern of attributes previously linked to attitudinal...

Egoism: Concept, measurement and implications for deviance

Abstract The conceptualization and development of a measure of egoism - the excessive concern with ones own pleasure or advantage at the expense of community well-being - is described. Results from a series of reliability studies indicated that the Egoism Scale exhibited satisfactory internal consistency in separate samples totalling approximately 2,000 respondents in two countries as well as a test-retest correlation of 0.73 over a 9-month interval for a representative sample of the Dutch population. Studies carried out with Dutch university students found that egoism shared no more than moderate common variance with any of the “Big Five” personality factors, Eysencks Psychoticism factor, the Psychopathic Deviate or the Cynicism scales of the MMPl 2 as well as a nonsignificant correlation with a social desirability measure. In addition, the hypothesized pattern of cross-national and gender differences in egoism scores obtained for comparable samples of Dutch and American university students and, within...

Tax Evasion Research: Measurement Strategies and Theoretical Models

In recent years, policy makers as well as social scientists have begun to recognize that income tax evasion is a behavioral problem that seriously threatens the capacity of government to raise public revenue. It is a problem that transcends cultural and political boundaries. For example, estimates have indicated that the equivalent of 7,5% of Britain’s gross national product escapes legitimate taxation, while 17% of the taxable income in Belgium remains undeclared (Lewis, 1982). In the United States, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS, 1983) has estimated that the tax gap (the difference between taxes owed and taxes filed) was

The Effect of Behavior Relevant Information on Attitude-Behavior Consistency

81,5 billion for 1981; an amount that exceeded the federal deficit for that year. Beyond the prospect of substantial deficit reductions without spending cuts or tax increases, other benefits would be derived from minimizing tax evasion. As Spicer (1975) has noted, tax evasion tends both to undermine the resolve of honest taxpayers and, insofar as it occurs more frequently in some segments of the population than in others, to hinder realization of the distributional and equity goals of taxation.

Race Relations on Children's Television.

Summary This study investigated the effect of behavior relevant information on the appropriateness of the behavioral criterion employed in attitude-behavior research. The attitudes toward dental health of 32 randomly selected male college students were assessed. These attitudes were compared with the quality of dental care behavior exhibited before and after participation in a group instruction session designed to provide information relevant to the realization of high quality dental care behavior. Although attitudes toward dental health were not significantly correlated with the quality of dental care behavior prior to the instructional session, strong attitude-behavior correlations (p < .01) emerged with respect to the postinstruction data. The implications of these findings for research on attitude-behavior consistency are discussed.

Environmental Concern The Development of a Measure

Summary Content analyses of 14 hours of childrens television programming were conducted to determine the mediums messages with respect to cross-racial relationships. In contrast to. the findings of previous research on prime-time broadcasting, the race variable did not affect qualitative aspects of the interpersonal relationships portrayed in this sample of childrens television. However, the low frequency with which cross-racial relationships emerged in the childrens programming suggests that the potential for prosocial modeling is negligible.