Believing is buying: religiosity, advertising skepticism, and corporate trust

Abstract

Prior research has shown that religiosity influences consumer skepticism, but such research has lacked examination of the breadth of this effect and isolation of this effect by manipulating religion. Three studies explore this relationship. Study 1 shows that advertising skepticism mediates the relationship between religiosity and corporate trust. Study 2 finds that highly religious consumers are less skeptical of advertising leading to higher product perceptions and higher company trust. Study 3 primes religion with a writing task to show that the effects from Studies 1 and 2 are magnified after exposure to a religious prime, such that consumers who are primed with religion, in comparison to a control condition, exhibit significantly lower (higher) advertising skepticism, resulting in higher (lower) product evaluations, and higher (lower) brand trust. Corresponding implications for the trust, deception, and persuasion literature are discussed.

Keywords:

• Religion
• skepticism
• trust
• deception
• measured vs. manipulated religion

Acknowledgment

I would like to thank T. Bettina Cornwell for her support and guidance as a mentor and with wisdom on data collection procedures in this project.