The Influence of Social Control and Feelings of Guilt in a Religious Context on Consumer Boycotts

Abstract

This article aims to investigate the impact of religious social control and guilt on the boycott against companies accused of supporting Israel in Turkey. By considering the influence of religion on social control and feelings of guilt, we explore how religious social control and guilt affect consumer boycotts, as well as the mediating role of religious guilt in the relationship between religious social control and consumer boycotts. A total of 200 valid questionnaires were collected from Turkish consumers who self-identified as religious and participated in boycotting relevant companies. Correlation, regression, and bootstrap analyses were performed using SPSS and AMOS to assess the relationships between variables. Empirical findings based on participants’ responses reveal that both religious social control and guilt significantly impact consumer boycotts. Consumer boycotts can profoundly affect a company’s profitability. Previous research on consumer boycotts has not examined the impact of self-enhancement factors, such as social control and guilt, on consumer boycotts. This study explores the effects of religious social control and guilt on consumer boycotts, as well as the mediating effect of religious guilt.

Keywords:

• Consumer boycotts
• religious social control
• religious guilt

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.