I am religious, therefore I am good: the influence of consumer religiosity on purchase intentions of unethical brands

Unethical actions by brands are ubiquitous in the marketplace. However, it is unknown how religiosity influences consumers’ purchase intentions of unethical brands, which is an important point to consider given that religiosity serves as one of the main core consumer value systems that can serve as a target market and psychological motivator to behavior. Across four studies, and contrary to what some prior theory and commonly held beliefs may suggest, this research documents several major findings. First, we find that religiosity increases consumers’ purchase intentions of unethical brands due to heightened moral licensing perceptions. In addition, we document a boundary condition to these effects, such that religiosity only leads to higher purchase intentions of unethical brands for consumers low (vs. high) in the importance of brand ethicality (i.e., the extent to which a consumer believes that it is important to consider the ethics of a brand when making purchase decisions).