Conditioned Superstition: Desire for Control and Consumer Brand Preferences.

There are many opportunities in everyday life to associate consumer products with success or failure. For example, when a basketball fan drinks a particular brand of soda while watching her favorite team win a game, she may perceive that this consumption facilitated the victory. Subsequently, the fan may continue to purchase and consume this same item during future games, in an attempt to help the team. This behavior is known as "conditioned superstition." Data from five experiments indicate that preference for lucky products (i.e., those associated with positive outcomes) increases with higher levels of desire for control combined with lower levels of perceived ability to control outcomes (e.g., low generalized self-efficacy). People who express a preference for these lucky products form an illusion of control over future outcomes, so that they perceive superstitious behavior to be an effective strategy to achieve the desired result.
       
     

If individuals buy a Snickers bar and subsequently see their favorite basketball team begin to play better, they might attribute this improved performance to their purchase decision. Even as consumers acknowledge that this type of control is irrational, we demonstrate that they are willing to superstitiously alter their purchase behavior (by choosing a less-preferred option) in hopes of helping their favorite team. Existing psychology literature suggests that illusions of control—such as the idea that buying a Snickers bar will impact the score of a college basketball game—are most likely to occur when at least one of the following prerequisites—priority, consistency, or exclusivity—is met. Our prediction is that individuals are most likely to use superstitious strategies to respond to such illusions of control when they are sufficiently motivated to do so. In this paper, three experiments manipulate individuals' perception of control over outside events—as well as their motivation—in the domain of consumer choice. Study 1 finds that lay theories are consistent with the widespread use of superstition in response to an illusion of control, while Study 2 and Study 3 demonstrate that as the perceived level of illusory control over an outside situation increases, superstition is more likely to influence purchase behavior.


Works Cited


 Journal of Customer Behaviour. Spring2013, Vol. 12 Issue 1, p73-79. 7p. 1 Chart.