Keyword

Willing, suspension, disbelief, impulse, impulse buying

Abstract

Poetry and drama, for a long time now, have been utilizing a celebrated phenomenon of ‘willing suspension of disbelief’ to make a setting for awestruck poetry and rapt drama performances. There is an element of believability in the thread of imagination that runs through fantasy, poetry, drama and the human wish to seek and revel in pleasure. This thread is tied around human ability to suspend disbelief to accept the fancies. This article explores the literature on the phenomenon and further proposes a link of the same with a well known marketing phenomenon - impulse buying. The article is structured in three sections- first section deals with a discussion on origin of the phenomenon. Second section deals with epistemology of the phenomenon and identifies a conceptual convergence of the thoughts on the process of suspended disbelief and third section explores the possibility of ‘willing suspension of disbelief’ as a powerful motivator to the act of impulse buying. The article concludes with implications and future research directions


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