Impact of luck perception on consumer's construal level: the mediating role of psychological security and the moderating role of power

Abstract

Regarding luck as a supernatural force, the marketers always apply the perception of luck for marketing activities. Based on the theory of supernatural agency, this paper based on the perspective of psychological security, designed 4 experiments, and validated the effect of luck perception on the construal levels of consumers. Experiment 1 and 2 summarized that consumers with lucky perception tended to represent objects by high-level construal and prefer products with such features, while those with unlucky perception tend to represent objects by low-level construal and prefer products with corresponding features. Experiment 3 verified the mediating role of psychological security in affecting the luck perception on construal level. Experiment 4 examined the moderating role of power among consumers with high-power, finding the perception of luck to exert no significant effect on their construal levels, while for consumers with low-power, the perception of luck cause them to prefer advertisements with high-level construal features.