Reducing crimes against wildlife through promoting animal–human continuity beliefs: The role of consumers' religiosity

Abstract

Wildlife crime is a worldwide issue, but marketing research has been mostly silent on the topic. In particular, research has yet to understand how a consumer's level of religiosity may help to explain views toward and participation in crimes against wildlife. Thus, through three studies, these challenges are addressed. Study 1 shows that religiosity positively influences acceptability views and participation in crimes against wildlife, and this relationship is mediated by animal–human continuity beliefs (i.e., believing animals and humans are one of the same). Study 2 primes religion to show that religiously primed consumers are more likely to view crimes against wildlife as acceptable, thereby supporting religiosity as a primary mechanism in explaining crimes against wildlife. Additionally, animal–human continuity beliefs again mediate this relationship, with religiously primed consumers reporting lower animal–human continuity beliefs. Lastly, Study 3 provides practical implications through marketing messaging aimed at reducing attitudes toward and participation in crimes against wildlife. Findings reveal that religious‐based messaging is the most effective. Findings build on belief congruence theory and provide implications for marketing practice and the preservation of wildlife.

Loving my local business as my neighbor: Religiosity's influence on local business support during a crisis

“…Situations of crisis heighten the relationship among beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors, where beliefs play a more prominent role in understanding outcome behaviors. Prior research examining how religion influences response to marketing tactics has primarily focused on normal life situations (e.g., Alhouti et al, 2015;Butt et al, 2018;Minton, 2020;, so we extend this theory to show how the relationship between religious values and marketing evaluations are heightened during times of great need, as in a crisis. behaviors, and human nature more generally (e.g., Durkheim, 1912;James, 1902), but consumer researchers have only recently started to study the effects of religion to better understand consumer behavior.…”

“…According to belief congruence theory, people strive to act in alignment with their beliefs, as this produces more cognitive consistency with their actions and beliefs (Rokeach & Rothman, 1965). Prior research examining religion and marketing has utilized belief congruence theory to show just this – that religious beliefs drive value‐consistent behaviors (e.g., Alhouti et al, 2015; Butt et al, 2018; Minton, 2020; Minton et al, 2021; Sharma et al, 2022). We utilize this theoretical background to understand how this desire to act in ways that align with one's beliefs may drive support for local businesses because religious values encourage prosocial behavior (e.g., helping others in times of need) (Schmidt et al, 2014), and we expect the same to occur in the realm of local businesses.…”

How gun control policies influence consumers’ service business evaluations

“…This prediction fits in line with belief congruence theory (Rokeach and Rothman, 1965), which states that individuals seek to behave in ways that align with their beliefs. Prior research in marketing has understood the influence of religious values (Minton, 2020) and cultural values (Minton et al , 2020) on consumption behavior using belief congruence theory, often showing that value systems outperform other demographic or psychographic consumer characteristics in predicting behavior. In our context, consumers that believe in the importance of gun rights should be likely to exhibit lower brand favorability levels of service businesses that adopt a gun control policy that bans customers from bringing guns into their stores.…”

An empirical test of techniques of neutralization regarding polluting behaviors in rural Iran

“…Other previous research confirms that religiosity can have a negative relationship with the valuation of animals and animal-human continuity (the degree to which people view 'animals' and 'humans' as the same or completely different) (Templer 2006). Minton (2020Minton ( :1731, for example, suggests that where the highest priority is accorded to relationships with God and with family, then those with a higher religious orientation may be more likely than those with a lower level to commit or be tolerant of crimes and harms against wildlife: 'this might be the case when pouring chemicals down a drain that flows into wildlife habitats because it is easier and allows more time to be spent with family in comparison to the time it would take to properly dispose of the chemicals. '…”