Spirituality bestowing self-transcendence amid COVID-19 through slow fashion

ABSTRACT

We proposed and tested a conceptual model exploring how (i) COVID-stress evokes spirituality; (ii) COVID-stress and spirituality engender positive attitude toward the different dimensions of slow fashion (i.e. equity, authenticity, functionality, localism, and exclusivity) as a symbol of self-transcendence and (iii) spirituality mediates the relationships between COVID-stress and the different dimensions of slow fashion. We conducted an online survey in Amazon Mechanical Turk (n = 317) and analyzed the data through structural equation modeling. (i) COVID-stress positively influences spirituality; (ii) both COVID-stress and spirituality positively influence attitude toward slow fashion in terms of equity, authenticity, localism, and exclusivity; (iii) spirituality mediates the relationships between COVID-stress and all the dimensions of slow fashion except for functionality. Due to the fast-changing situations amid the pandemic and the uneven severity of the pandemic globally, a cross-sectional study may have limited the scope for capturing nuances of retail consumer behavior. In summary, we suggest that the consumption of slow fashion apparel as a symbol of self-transcendence may help consumers cope with COVID-stress in the hope of building spiritual ties with a higher power through the process of ethical consumption amid the pandemic.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-stress
• spirituality
• self-transcendence
• slow fashion
• equity

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the editor and reviewers of the journal for their constructive feedback on the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Research involving human participants and/or animals (if applicable)

The sample of this study included the U.S. national population who were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk). Therefore, the survey administered in MTurk was approved by the Institutional Review Board at the Auburn University.

Informed consent (if applicable)

We had used an Institutional Review Board-approved information letter in the Qualtrics survey. The respondents of Amazon Mechanical Turk read and electronically consented to the letter before starting the survey.

Additional information

Funding

No funding was received for this research.