Superstition influences decision making: Study

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

Washington, Feb 13 : Despite the huge impact that superstition has on the market place, it also significantly influences decision-making in consumers.

While assessing the role of lucky and unlucky convictions Thomas Kramer and Lauren Block from Baruch College have found that the consumers are more disappointed when a product that they consider "lucky" breaks.

"Despite the large impact that superstitious beliefs have on the marketplace, we currently know very little about their implications for consumer judgment and decision making," said researchers

"This research is one of the first to investigate the impact of irrational beliefs on consumer behaviour in the marketplace," they added.

During the analysis, the researchers found that on every Friday the 13th business in US suffers between 800 and 900 million dollars of loss.

A businessman in Guangzhou, China, recently bid 54,000 yuan (almost seven times the country's per capita annual income) for a lucky license plate containing the sequence 888.

Moreover, Continental Airlines recently advertised an 888 dollars flight to Beijing with the slogan "Lucky You," and the Beijing Olympics are scheduled to open on August 8, 2008 at 8 p.m.

Previous study by Kramer and Block also showed that Taiwanese consumers were more likely to purchase a radio priced at 888 dollars than one priced at 777 dollars, a 15 percent increase in price.

The researchers further expanded their prior research by studying a rice cooker that burnt the rice. They found that Taiwanese consumers were more likely to be disappointed if the cooker's colour was red or green.

"In particular, we show that superstitious beliefs have a robust influence on product satisfaction and decision making under risk," said the researchers.

The study appears in April issue of the Journal of Consumer.

ANI

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