Like Status Sells: A Field Study of Belief Congruence

Abstract

A test of Rokeach's (1960) theory of belief congruence with 53 life insurance salesmen strongly supports the validity of the theory. The theory was generalized beyond the pencil and paper test situations to behaviour representative of real life settings. Afield study technique was used and the experiment investigated the effect that the principle of belief congruence would have on life assurance salesmen and clients of similar background, attitudes and values, as compared with salesmen and clients of differing backgrounds, when selling life assurance. The results revealed that salesmen sold significantly more life assurance to clients of similar background or occupational groups to themselves than to dissimilar occupational groups. Also, the results revealed that salesmen holding a particular occupational rank would sell significantly more life assurance below their occupational rank than above it.