Consumer, Product and Situational Effects on Willingness to Help Churches: The Role of Emotion and Reason

Abstract

We investigate changes among Catholic subjects in willingness to help churches (catholic and noncatholic) over time (Lent and Easter). We use a repeated measures (mixed model between-within subjects) design to collect the data during the early period of Lent and, later, during Easter. We find that highly religious Catholic subjects significantly change their willingness to help a non-catholic (but not a catholic church) church from Lent to Easter. However less religious Catholic subjects significantly change their willingness to help a Catholic (but not a non-catholic) church during the same period. We also find evidence that changes in feelings (emotion) dominates over changes in thoughts about selfinterest (rationality) for both less religious and highly religious Catholics.