The Influence of Paranormal Belief on House Buying: Implications for Taiwanese Consumer Behavior

Abstract

Despite the large impact of paranormal belief on human behavior, we currently know very little about its implications for consumer behaviors. This study uses house buying as the target consumer behavior, we seek to explore the influence of paranormal belief on the taboos Taiwanese adults encounter in their decision to buy a house. In addition to the seven dimensions of paranormal belief identified by Tobacyk (1988) in the western society, we also included two dimensions commonly observed in the eastern society: qi and feng-shui. Our results support the assertions that paranormal belief has influence on Taiwanese consumer behavior and eastern paranormal belief adds to the predictive power of the traditional construct of the western paranormal belief in relation to predicting consumer behaviors in the eastern context.