What Role Does Religion Have in Shaping Human Consumption?

Abstract

Religious belief, as an informal social institution, has a significant impact on all aspects of human civilization. Previous literature has studied the effects of religious belief on economic growth, income, education, etc. Therefore, using the case of China as an example, this paper aims to investigate the effect of religious belief on human consumption. An empirical review of cross-sectional data from China’s 28 provinces reveals that religious belief has a detrimental impact on human consumption. Meanwhile, two-stage least squares and substituting the dependent variable (hc2) are employed to perform robustness tests. The new results also support the conclusion that religious belief negatively affects human consumption. In addition, this paper also discusses the heterogeneous effect of religious belief on human consumption in terms of geographical location, income level, and marketization degree. The results demonstrate the existence of the heterogeneous effect. Specifically, in the western area, low income level, and low marketization degree, religious belief negatively affects human consumption the most. On the contrary, in the eastern area, high income level, and high marketization degree, religious belief negatively affects human consumption the least.

Reasons for Muslim and Christian white meat consumption: examples of England and Turkey

“…As a special social ideology and cultural phenomenon, religion influences societies in many ways. The United Nations Statistics Division states that approximately 90% of people still adhere to various forms of religion today (He et al , 2021, p. 1). Religion shapes the culture and personality of an individual and is also shaped over time by culture and personality.…”

“…Furthermore, the concept of consumption will be influenced by the philosophy of religion. Religious individuals generally do not pursue grandeur and high levels of material pleasure and are even opposed to a luxurious lifestyle (He et al , 2021, pp. 1–2).…”

“…In recent years, many religious products have entered thousands of households beyond their traditional religious uses, including handicrafts, cultural products and even daily necessities that encompass nonbelievers as well. Furthermore, considering that many religious activity sites have become tourist destinations, these famous mountain landscapes, temples and churches shrouded in religious mystery have been visited not only by devout believers on pilgrimage since ancient times, but also by nonreligious others (He et al , 2021, p. 2). These examples demonstrate that the phenomenon of religion indirectly influences consumer behavior not only for believers but also for the nonbelieving consumer group.…”

Corporate Social Responsibility: Does Religious Community Matter?

“…He et al (2021a), and Wang and Lin (2014) stated that religion had an impact on almost every facet of human civilization due to its unique status as a social ideology and cultural phenomenon. From previous studies (He et al 2021b;Zeng et al 2021), there are a variety of methods available to evaluate religion. Following Li and Cai (2016), and El Ghoul et al (2012), this study defines religion as the number of religious community.…”