Believing in Karma: The Effect of Mortality Salience on Excessive Consumption
Open accessAbstract
This research proposes that mortality salience leads individuals to engage in differentiation of excessive consumption based on their appraisal of the karmic system. Study 1 demonstrated that mortality salience interacts with belief in karma to jointly determine excessive consumption, such that consumers faced with mortality salience tend to increase overconsumption likelihood when they have a weak (vs. strong) belief in karma. Study 2 revealed the underlying mechanism - temporal perspective - that drives our main effect. Replicating the findings of the two previous studies, study 3 further delineated benefit appeal as a theoretically derived boundary condition for the proposed interaction effect on excessiveness. Theoretical and, practical implications, as well as avenues for future research are discussed.
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When karma presence was primed, there was no difference between MS and control.
“When karma presence was primed, there was no difference between MS and control.”
From Terror Management Theory in the Consumer Domain: A Systematic Review and Meta‐Analysis on Mortality Salience Driven Consumer Responses (2025) · cites this paper as Chen et al. (2019, Study 1)
The Study 3 Results report a significant difference under the other-benefit frame: with karma present, the mortality-salience group was less likely to engage in excessive consumption than the dental-pain control group (M = 3.41 vs. 4.37, p < 0.05). Study 1 also reports a difference in the same direction, though only at p < 0.10. The unqualified claim of no difference is therefore contrary to the paper’s reported results. (LLM, conf=0.86)
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Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredWhen exposed to MS and a karma-absent prime, participants had a higher desirability for excessive consumption.
“when exposed to an MS and a karma- absent prime, participants had a higher desirability for excessive consumption.”
From Terror Management Theory in the Consumer Domain: A Systematic Review and Meta‐Analysis on Mortality Salience Driven Consumer Responses (2025) · cites this paper as Chen et al. (2019, Study 1)
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- Authors
- Chen, S., Wei, H., Meng, L., & Ran, Y.
- Affiliations
- Jinan University (CN)
- Renmin University of China (CN)
- Zhongnan University of Economics and Law (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Wei, Haiying
- Venue
- Frontiers in Psychology
- Publisher
- Frontiers Media SA
- Published
- 2019-07-08
- Volume
- 10
- Pages
- 1519-1519
- ISSN
- 1664-1078 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC6628939
- OpenAlex
- W2958418737
- Cited by
- 35
- References
- 50
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 11 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 3
- FWCI
- 5.65
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Frontiers in Psychology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China (71372169, 71772077, 71802192)
- Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (15JNLH005)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Marketing › Consumer Behavior in Brand Consumption and Identification
- Social Sciences › Anthropology › Death, Funerary Practices, and Mourning
- Keywords
- mortality salience, overconsumption, time perspective, benefit appeals, consumer behavior
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