Intrinsic Religiosity and Attitude toward Finales as Precursors of Superstitious Beliefs: A Cross-Cultural Investigation?

Leaning on the theoretical tenets of experiential consumption and attitude process literatures, this cross-cultural research uses path analysis to examine antecedents and consequences of superstitious beliefs. For the Korean data, attitude toward finales fully mediates the relationship between intrinsic religiosity and superstitious beliefs. For the U.S. data, intrinsic religiosity has no effect on either attitude toward finales or superstitious beliefs. For both samples, (1) attitude toward finales has a positive effect on suspension of disbelief, and (2) attitude toward zodiac signs and zodiac sign expertise relate positively to superstitious beliefs. This research adds to the religiosity and superstition literatures by exploring carefully selected yet under-researched antecedents and consequences of consumers’ superstitious beliefs. The mediation effect for Korean respondents and model differences between the Korean and U.S. respondent sets provide novel empirical results.