A comparative study of the functional attitudes of residents in high-end and low-end areas

Abstract

This study presents the findings of functional attitudes of 150 residents in areas considered to be high-end and low-end. In this research the Theory of Planned Behaviour was used to establish the strongest belief-concerned predictors of residents intention to recommend residing in a high-end area. This theory postulates that only certain attitudes towards behaviour can be expected to foretell that specific behaviour. The three functions of attitudes analysed were: value-expressive, utilitarian and hedonic. The same scales were used for both the target groups of residents. Results indicated that residents' intention was predicted by their beliefs and preferences regarding whether the lifestyle of an individual would correlate with the area. A majority of participants had a neutral attitude, however, a considerable percentage of respondents had strong positive feeling towards the intention to recommend. Results suggest that majority of participants from the lower-end areas chose the neutral option, and hence, location had an effect on their intention.