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CALL FOR PAPERS: THE SCIENCE OF EXTRAORDINARY BELIEFS

Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, Volume 3 Issue 4

Issue Editors: Pankaj Aggarwal, Lauren Block, Thomas Kramer, Ann L. McGill

Consumers’ thoughts and behaviors are often guided by a combination of beliefs that conform to the principles of science, and those beliefs that might transcend the natural laws of science and that stand apart from, or are even at odds with science–i.e., “extraordinary beliefs.” For example, consumers anthropomorphize brands, products, and concepts, seeing them as possessing at least some human traits; they allow superstitions and magical thinking to guide their choices; they follow rituals often blindly and without much thought, and they spend, sometimes heavily, on products and services in the hopes of curing their ills and improving their lives based on nonscientific evidence. These extraordinary beliefs may sometimes result in maladaptive behaviors and lead to consumer harm, as when people fall prey to fortune-telling fraudsters and take important financial and other decisions based on such ‘predictions.’ Other times, adherence to extraordinary beliefs results in adaptive, beneficial outcomes, as when magical thinking improves performance through increased confidence and self-efficacy. Consumers may apply these beliefs on their own without any encouragement or support from marketers; or, marketers may actively embolden and facilitate observance of nonscientific rituals and beliefs.

The present publication is intended to explore these nonscientific, extraordinary consumer beliefs in-depth. We welcome work on both the antecedents and consequences of these beliefs from multiple paradigms and are particularly open to research that integrates cognitive psychological and cultural influences. Submissions may explore the origins of these beliefs and why they are so pervasive in our everyday lives. Submissions may address the extent to which consumers might consider these beliefs that are disparaged within one viewpoint to be “legitimate” within a different perspective. Within research on the consequences of these beliefs, we encourage researchers to address implications for consumer welfare around the reliance of such beliefs with particular interest in financial and medical outcomes. We also welcome research that explores cross cultural, cross national, or cross demographic differences. Consistent with the mission of JACR, we are particularly interested in work that uses field or archival data to explore patterns over time or to describe emerging phenomena; we also invite research that falls under more traditional methodological domains such as ethnographic studies and experiments. Commentaries by industry or regulatory experts and noted scholars from other disciplines with expertise in these areas are also welcome.

Deadline for initial manuscript submission: November 1, 2017

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Authors who are concerned about the appropriateness of a topic for this issue are encouraged to send a 300-word abstract or an outline to paggarwal@rotman.utoronto.ca, lauren.block@baruch.cuny.edu, thomas.kramer@ucr.edu, or ann.mcgill@chicagobooth.edu. We would be happy to provide feedback.

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