Predicting Dental Flossing Behavior: The Role of Implicit and Explicit Responses and Beliefs

The study examined the ability of implicit responses to predict dental flossing behavior. It was hypothesized that adding implicit responses would increase the predictive power of models containing variables suggested by social cognitive theories. To test the hypothesis, 125 participants completed measures of social cognitive variables (e.g., self-efficacy, task-efficacy, planning intention, behavior intention) and performed a procedure designed to measure their implicit responses to flossing. Flossing behavior was measured with retrospective self-reports and a follow-up measure of flossing. As predicted, the addition of implicit responses to models containing the social cognitive variables increased the predictive power of the models for both the self-report and follow-up measures.