Implicit attitudes and digital piracy

Purpose – An argument for the importance of unconscious processes is emerging across social science literatures (Petty et al. ; Uleman). The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of implicit attitudes on the formation of digital piracy desires and behavioral intentions. If implicit attitudes are found to contribute to consumer digital piracy intentions, then marketers face an additional challenge in developing effective strategies and appeals designed to attenuate the practice. Design/methodology/approach – The study captures both indirect and direct measures of implicit attitudes to test the research model. A total of 285 respondents provided data in a controlled lab setting for purposes of structural equation analyses. Findings – The results first contribute to growing evidence generally supporting the importance of attitudinal influences in the formation of digital piracy intentions. The reported study further suggests the necessity of including implicit attitudinal considerations in explanatory models of these behaviors, particularly attitudinal explanatory models. Specifically, marketers attempting to manage DP should consider implicit attitudes in explanatory models of DP intention formation in addition to traditional self‐report measures of attitudes. Originality/value – The study presents the first known empirical evidence supporting the contribution of implicit attitudes to digital piracy desires. Considering implicit influences in this process offers the promise of increasing our understanding of how digital piracy behaviors form, which can offer insights into how to more effectively attenuate the practice.