Nonconscious effects of peculiar beliefs on consumer psychology and choice

Abstract Irrational or illogical beliefs are referred to variously as magical thinking, peculiar beliefs, superstitious beliefs, and half‐beliefs. We first distinguish the various terms according to their most common and relevant usage for consumer psychologists and define a conceptual structure for the roles of conscious and nonconscious processes associated with peculiar beliefs in decision‐making. We present a study that provides initial evidence of the effect of nonconscious, experiential processing on the impact of peculiar beliefs in a consumer auction‐based sales scenario. We also offer propositions that extend the theory on peculiar beliefs to their nonconscious effects on consumer psychology and choice.