Scientists have been successful up to great extent in understanding the impacts of superstitious beliefs on the decision making process of a person. This important aspect has long been understood to affect the market behaviors in addition to the individual’s behavior but almost no attention has been given to it so far.

For the first time the research conducted has brought up certain relevant findings which will also be published in the forthcoming April issue of the “Journal of Consumer Research”.

Researchers found that the “lucky” and “unlucky” are two very important features that are related with products, habits, likings, and so many other aspects of life of an individual. People get highly disappointed when they loose the possession of something that they consider to be “lucky” for them. On the other hand there are some “extremely negative superstitions” which could be more risky to any individual’s health also.

Superstitions and beliefs make certain definite impacts on the consumer behavior and till now we practically lack in understanding this type of behavior and their implications upon the decision making process.
Irrational beliefs and their impacts on an individual’s behavior was also one of the main focuses of this study, according to Thomas Kramer and Lauren Block, the lead researchers.

These beliefs have a huge cost in terms of money. For instance, every Friday the 13th gives a net loss of $800 to $900 million to the United States economy. A Chinese businessperson spent 54,000 Yuan’s to obtain a lucky license plate with number “888”.Continental Airlines’ announced that it will offer an $888 flight to Beijing with the “Lucky You” slogan. Similarly the Beijing Olympics will also be inaugurated on August 8, 2008 at 8 p.m.

Kramer and Block referred to one previous study findings which says that the Taiwanese customers prefer to buy a radio with price tag of $888 instead of the one which had price of $777. There was a 15% increase in these radio sets just because they were sold at with “lucky numbered price tags”.

There are many such reported incidences about the common beliefs and superstitions prevalent in almost all the communities, ethnicities, states, and countries around the world and surprisingly this is very much immaterial of the educational background of an individual, say the researchers.

Researchers were also surprised to observe that when the participants were made aware of these superstitions in a more conscious way regarding the prevalent consumer behavior with the help of a questionnaire, they were equally disturbed and “disappointed with the red and green rice cookers”.

Researchers say that their study successfully demonstrate the risks involved in the complex decision making process if it is based on the superstitions and beliefs rather than the logic and more application of brain. Such a condition becomes more risky not only affecting the consumer behavior but also the health and mental status of an individual.

Scientists are also making further attempts to understand the reasons behind working of these superstitions and the state of mind which permits them to infiltrate the decision making process.

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