Conscious and Nonconscious Components of Superstitious Beliefs in Judgment and Decision Making

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. We document the existence of the influence of superstitious beliefs on consumer behavior and specify their conscious and nonconscious underlying properties. In particular, we show that superstitious beliefs have a robust influence on product satisfaction and decision making under risk. However, these effects are only observed when superstitious beliefs are allowed to work nonconsciously. Using a process-dissociation task, we further demonstrate the distinct conscious versus nonconscious components of the effect of superstition on decision making under risk.