The counteractive effect of taboo: how taboo associations can fuel rather than suppress indulgence in desirable activities

Update Item Information
Title The counteractive effect of taboo: how taboo associations can fuel rather than suppress indulgence in desirable activities
Publication Type dissertation
School or College David Eccles School of Business
Department Business
Author Khetani, Salil Sanjay
Date 2018
Description The authors challenge the traditional notion of taboo that it restricts people's behavior. They show that taboo experienced by individuals can actually facilitate behavior that is considered socially unacceptable like the purchase of taboo products. In the first essay, the authors have shown that the process through which such taboobreaking behavior occurs is through reactance. This research also acknowledges the heterogeneity in social identification among individuals in a society. The authors show that the positive affect of taboo on purchase of taboo products attenuates for individuals who score highly on collective self-esteem, which is a measure of the extent to which individuals define themselves in terms of their society. The second essay also studies the taboo construct but specifically focuses on the taboo nature of mating products. The authors contribute to previous research on the influence of affect on purchase of desirable products and risk-taking by analyzing the influence of affect on taboo and purchase of taboo products. The authors draw from previous research on the influence of positive affect on risks and heuristics to show a strong influence of a positive affective condition and taboo. They justify how taboo is a heuristic, and breaking taboo is akin to taking a moral and social risk and hence it will be more salient under a positive affective condition. Further, taboo acts as a mediating link between positive affect and purchase as individuals are motivated to compete against their own ingrained inhibitions to achieve iv the object they desire. The motivation to compete is established by the amplifying moderating effect of competitiveness on the link between positive affect and taboo and purchase. The research for both essays has been conducted in the context of sexual mating products in a South Asian country where such products are considered taboo with the help of six laboratory studies and two field studies with an online retailer of sexual mating products from that country.
Type Text
Publisher University of Utah
Dissertation Name Doctor of Philosophy
Language eng
Rights Management (c) Salil Sanjay Khetani
Format application/pdf
Format Medium application/pdf
ARK ark:/87278/s6qfrpze
Setname ir_etd
ID 1744205
Reference URL https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6qfrpze
Back to Search Results