Abstract

This article examines the influence of religion on word-of-mouth behavior (WOM). Drawing upon religion-self-enhancement paradigm, we theorize and demonstrate the differential effects of religiosity and God salience on WOM and its underlying motives. Specifically, we find that religiosity is associated with higher tendency to engage in WOM underpinned by self-focused motive. However, exposure to God salience reduces self-focused WOM motive due to the activation of modesty. A field study involving 450,274 US-based tweets written on major fashion brands, along with four lab studies, provides support for our theorized effect and its underlying mechanism. Our study sheds light on the relationship between religion and WOM motives, thus contributing to the emerging body of literature on the effects of religion on consumer behavior.

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