When open‐mindedness lowers product evaluations: Influencers to consumers’ response to religious cues in advertising

Abstract

Prior research has examined response to Christian religious cues used in secular marketing messages but has inadequately explored the underlying reasons for such response as well as why religious cues may negatively influence product evaluations. These limitations are addressed in this research work through three studies utilizing religious cues. In Studies 1a and 1b, ads with a Christian or Muslim religious cue (no religious cue) were found to produce lower (higher) product evaluations. Studies 2-3 then examined why religious cues in ads can produce lower product evaluations to show that open-mindedness moderated this effect (Study 2), and priming openmindedness also influenced this effect (Study 3). Most interestingly, open-minded consumers were more negative toward religious cues in marketing communications than close-minded consumers, and priming open-mindedness magnified this effect. These novel effects are discussed in relation to the literature on open-mindedness and value-based consumption. Additionally, implications for research and practice are discussed.

The influence of religiosity on consumers' evaluations of brands using artificial intelligence

“…Generally, higher religiosity consumers across religious affiliations follow set traditions of their faith dictated centuries ago (Schmidt et al, 2014). More generally, prior research has shown that religiosity has a variety of influences on consumer behavior (Choudhury, 2014; LaBarbera & Gurhan, 1997; Minton, 2020; Muhamad & Mizerski, 2013; Youn et al, 2000).…”

“…A growing body of prior research has suggested that religiosity serves as an important basis for market segmentation, where social media more easily allows marketers to target individuals that self‐identify as higher in religiosity (see Agarwala et al, 2019; Mathras et al, 2016, for reviews). Other research shows that simple religious‐based cues can be used in marketing communications to prime the broad construct of religion, thereby heightening religiosity (Dotson & Hyatt, 2000; Minton, 2020), which can then be partnered with messages to address specific concerns regarding AI in marketing, such as trust. For example, using the language “creation of flavor” can be enough to prime religion (Minton, 2015), which could then be partnered with messages and in chatbot services/descriptions to communicate how long a company has been in operation, the ethics of their employees that are managing AI use in marketing, or quality control measures in place to handle trust (Morhart et al, 2015).…”

Islamic Symbols in Personal Care Products and Muslim Consumers’ Purchase Intention: Effects of Perceived Religious Symbolic Value, Religiosity, and Attitude towards the Products with Islamic Symbols

“…Furthermore, the association of perceived religious symbolic value, attitude towards the products with Islamic symbols, and Muslim consumer" purchase intention has also been ignored in this arena. Some past research have studied the use of religious cues in advertising (Minton, 2020;Hasan et al, 2016;Butt et al, 2018;Naseri and Tamam, 2012;Mallia, 2009;Henley et al 2009) or food packaging (Akbari et al, 2018;Hussin, Yusoff and Yusof, 2015;Bakar et al, 2013) and its impact on Muslim consumers" responses such as purchase intention, while some other studies focused on halal product purchase intentions (Nurhayati, and Hendar, 2019;Naseri, 2021;Ali et al, 2020;Yunus et al, 2014;Shaari and Arifin, 2009;Mukhtar and Butt, 2012;Varinli et al, 2016;Aziz and Chok, 2013); Islamic branding or Islamic Brand purchase intention (Ya et al, 2017;Kusumawardhini, Hati and Daryanti, 2016;Bukhari and Isa, 2019;Alserhan, 2010). None concerns the role of attitude towards the product with Islamic symbols along with religiosity and perceived religious symbolic value in influencing the consumers" purchase decision.…”

Reducing crimes against wildlife through promoting animal–human continuity beliefs: The role of consumers' religiosity

“…Religious beliefs are particularly relevant to understanding consumer behavior (Mathras et al, 2016; Minton, 2016, 2020) because religions are undergirded by texts that are generally agreed upon by followers of a religion (Schmidt et al, 2014). These generally agreed upon texts provide a foundation for similar beliefs that can inform how groups of consumers adhering to the same religion should respond similarly in consumption situations (Agarwala et al, 2019).…”