Citation

Chen S, Wei H, Meng L, Ran Y. Front. Psychol. 2019; 10: e1519.

Affiliation

School of Business Administration, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Wuhan, China.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Frontiers Research Foundation)

DOI

10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01519

PMID

31338047

PMCID

PMC6628939

Abstract

This research proposes that mortality salience leads individuals to engage in differentiation of excessive consumption based on their appraisal of the karmic system. Study 1 demonstrated that mortality salience interacts with belief in karma to jointly determine excessive consumption, such that consumers faced with mortality salience tend to increase overconsumption likelihood when they have a weak (vs. strong) belief in karma. Study 2 revealed the underlying mechanism - temporal perspective - that drives our main effect. Replicating the findings of the two previous studies, study 3 further delineated benefit appeal as a theoretically derived boundary condition for the proposed interaction effect on excessiveness. Theoretical and, practical implications, as well as avenues for future research are discussed.

Language: en

Keywords

belief in karma; excessive consumption; mortality salience; temporal perspective; terror management