Belief in karma impacts consumers’ responses to misbehaving brands

Studies conducted by Kylie Vo, Teaching Assistant Professor at the university, demonstrate that when a consumer thinks the universe will right a corporate wrong, that person tends not to harbour negative feelings toward the corporation and probably will refrain from consumer activism like boycotts. 

“As consumers grow more informed and socially conscious, digital media and social networks are increasingly motivating moral outrage about brand transgressions,” Vo says. 

“Whether the transgressions are ‘moral,’ as in the case of labour malpractice, or ‘non-moral’, as with shoddy manufacturing, they can escalate and severely damage consumer-brand relationships and brand value.” 

But Vo found that people who believe in karma aren’t as concerned about brands’ moral transgressions as they are about non-moral ones. 

“The phrase ‘You reap what you sow’ encapsulates the cause-and-effect essence of the karmic belief system, in which actions yield corresponding outcomes,” she explains. 

When consumers believe karma will punish a bad deed, they’re not motivated to penalise the wrongdoing themselves, Vo notes.  

In several studies, she demonstrated that people with stronger karmic beliefs were more forgiving, with fewer negative attitudes toward morally transgressing brands, and were less likely to boycott them. 

The study, titled ‘Fate, Forgiveness, and Brands: How Karmic Beliefs Impact Consumer Responses toward Transgressing Brands’, appear in the Journal of the Association for Consumer Research. 

You can find out more here.