‘Jesus, take the wheel’: the appeal of spiritual products in satiating concerns about randomness

ABSTRACT

Why are consumers drawn to spiritual products? Leveraging theorising regarding the psychological need to perceive the world as orderly and non-random, we posit that products imbued with religious/spiritual significance help manage concerns about randomness and uncontrollability (e.g. when a product is unreliable or exposes the consumer to random uncontrollable processes). When randomness concerns were salient, religious consumers showed increased desire to attach religious significance to secular objects (e.g. having item blessed, physically attaching a religious symbol). For spiritual consumers, spiritual products (vs. non-spiritual physically equivalent products) were seen as having (i) non-material efficacy (i.e. efficacy not bound to the purely material world) and (ii) unfalsifiable efficacy (i.e. efficacy that is immune to contrary evidence). Evidence is found across a variety of religious and spiritual contexts.

KEYWORDS:

• Control
• threat
• rituals
• religion
• religious symbols

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. We treat religiosity and spirituality as distinct constructs in our studies but predict that their effects on consumer beliefs and preferences will be similar depending on context. We measure and refer to religiosity when stimuli in the studies are religious in nature, and measure and refer to a broader form of spirituality when the stimuli are broadly spiritual in nature and not associated with any one particular religion.

2. Income was not measured in this study and therefore it was not possible to include it as a control variable as in other studies.

3. Himalayan Salt Factory (https://www.himalayansaltfactory.com.au/about-himalayan-salt/metaphysical-properties/) claims that Himalayan salt has ‘many metaphysical properties and benefit,’ and has been used for centuries ‘for purification, cleansing and dispelling negativity in many magical and traditional rituals.’ Similar claims are made on a variety of retail websites and blogs.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Steven Shepherd

Steven Shepherd is an Assistant professor of Marketing and International Studies at Oklahoma State University.

Aaron C. Kay

Aaron C. Kay is a Professor of Management and Professor of Psychology & Neuroscience at Duke University.