Does Religion, and Culture Shapes Personal Moral Philosophies (Idealism and Relativism): A mediatory Model Explaining Emotional Intelligence, and Consumer Ethics Nexus in Pakistan

Abstract

Research in moral psychology indicates that moral emotions have a significant role in ethical decision-making. Thus, the ability to experience, perceive, and regulate emotions should influence consumers’ ethical decision-making. However, the bigger challenge is to find out how Religion and Culture shape their moral judgment, and how this may influence consumer ethics. To answer this, we propose a theoretical framework hypothesizing emotionally intelligent people would more religious and spiritually awake. They are also not culturally influenced having an individualistic attitude. These factors would shape their moral philosophy, this in turn helps consumers make ethical decisions. For this, we modified the Chowdhury (2017) model by adding cultural, religious, and spiritual factors. Emotional Intelligence was measured by (Wong and Law2002) scale has three dimensions namely: 1. Self-Emotions Appraisal (SEA), 2.Others’ Emotions Appraisal (OEA), and 3.Regulation of Emotions (ROE). Religiosity was measured by Extrinsic and Intrinsic factors. Personal Moral Philosophies was measured by (Forsyth1980) Scale consisting of Idealism, and Relativism. And lastly, consumer Ethics consists of four dimensions namely, 1. Actively benefiting from illegal activities (ACTIVE), 2. Passively benefiting at the expense of the seller (PASSIVE), 3. Actively benefiting from legal but questionable practices (DECEPTIVE), and 4. Doing good actions (NOHARM). Empirical validity was established by conducting a survey using a close-ended questionnaire. Data was collected from 270 Pakistani consumers and analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis and structured equation modeling. Results suggested SEA and ROE directly and positively affect the PASSIVE dimension. SEA also seems to positively and significantly affect both forms of religiosity, spirituality, Idealism, and Relativism. Relativism is also affected positively by both OEA and ROE. Similarly, OEA has a significant and positive impact on intrinsic religiosity, spirituality, and individualism. ROE affects extrinsic religiosity negatively and individualism positively. Some other interesting findings suggested intrinsic religiosity and Spirituality leads to Relativism, whereas extrinsic religiosity leads to Idealism. Individualism having a significant and positive effect on both Idealism and Relativism. Surprisingly, ACTIVE is positively affected by Idealism whereas negatively affected by Relativism. Idealism seems to positively affect both DECEPTIVE, and NOHARM. Lastly, Relativism seems to positively affect the PASSIVE dimension of consumer ethics.