Journal of Marketing Behavior > Vol 3 > Issue 3

Are Conservatives Always Conservative? Political Ideology and Consumer Decision-Making

Melissa Cinelli, University of Mississippi, USA, mcinelli@bus.olemiss.edu , Allyn Cascio, University of Mississippi, USA, Jennifer A. Locander, University of Mississippi, USA
 
Suggested Citation
Melissa Cinelli, Allyn Cascio and Jennifer A. Locander (2018), "Are Conservatives Always Conservative? Political Ideology and Consumer Decision-Making", Journal of Marketing Behavior: Vol. 3: No. 3, pp 251-261. http://dx.doi.org/10.1561/107.00000053

Publication Date: 11 Dec 2018
© 2018 M. Cinelli, A. Cascio and J. A. Locander
 
Subjects
Individual decision making,  Consumer Behavior,  Political psychology
 

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In this article:
Introduction 
Study 1a 
Study 1b 
Study 1c 
Study 2a 
Study 2b 
General Discussion 
References 

Abstract

Political conservatism, predicted by dispositional traits including risk aversion and intolerance of uncertainty (Jost et al. 2003), is known to affect arguably low-level decisions, such as the choice between a name brand and generic product (Khan et al. 2013). We directly and conceptually replicate the effect of political conservatism on consumption decisions with inherent risk, finding that conservatives play it safe when choices carry functional risk. However, conservatives are more risk-seeking in financial decision-making, consistent with wealth's ability to buffer against mortality salience, another trait that predicts conservative ideology.

DOI:10.1561/107.00000053