Abstract:

Consumers often make decisions relying on lucky superstitions when facing with uncontrolled marketing situations. Basing on the illusion of control theory, this paper examines consumers’ superstitious decision making. The results indicate that lucky belief and motivation level influence consumer’s superstitious decision making. When motivation level is high, compared to consumers with low lucky belief, consumers with high lucky belief have a higher likelihood making a superstitious decision. When motivation level is low, there is no significant difference between consumers with high lucky belief and those with low lucky belief. This paper not only makes valuable contributions to limited extant research in consumer superstition, but also has great implications for marketing practice.

Key words: Illusion of control, Lucky belief, Motivation level, Consumer’s superstitious decision making