Contemplation

As Table 16 has shown, in the first factor those activities appear, which individuals may take towards the religious group as an outsider, being interested probably not from religious, but from cultural perspective. These elements are related to the promotion tools discussed in chapter 5.2., most of them are activities related to the actions aiming to raise the attention, attract new audiences and confirm the existing ones. As seen in Table 17, the elements of highest mean in this category were the touristic activities, which are the main focus of the activities of this stage. Visiting Krishna-conscious communities was the activity most often marked with higher frequency (M=2.68; SD=1.56), followed by attending the festivals organized (M=2.66;

SD=1.61), which are core elements of the touristic product.

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Table 17 – Descriptive statistics of the different elements of the factor

‘Contemplation’

N Mean Median Mode SD I visit a Krishna-conscious rural community. 647 2.68 2 1 1.56

I attend festivals organized by Krishna-conscious communities.

642 2.66 2 1 1.61

I read the articles about the Hare Krishna community.

652 2.52 2 1 1.46

I follow the national Hare Krishna site/Facebook page.

643 2.37 2 1 1.60

I follow/check the Facebook page of a Krishna-conscious rural community.

642 2.30 1 1 1.64

I buy books/give donations to Krishna devotees on the streets.

578 2.24 2 1 1.40

I check the news of the Krishna-conscious community on their websites.

645 2.23 1 1 1.52

I follow/check the YouTube channel of a Krishna-conscious rural community.

645 2.11 1 1 1.43

I give the 1% of my income tax to a Krishna-conscious community.

568 1.97 1 1 1.56

I buy products of a Krishna-conscious rural community.

570 1.87 2 1 1.10

I follow/check the Instagram posts of a Krishna-conscious rural community.

635 1.68 1 1 1.27

(Source: own edition)

This factor has also included many of the promotion tools already covered in section 5.2., however, while there exposure was measured, this question focused on deliberate activities, such as following different social media pages and reading articles about the religious community at will. The importance of both offline- and online media and social media – especially Facebook – emphasized by Cristea et a. (2015) and the qualitative research phase, were once more confirmed, as these were the activities of the factor related to promotion tools, which have received the highest means. Reading articles – both online and offline – about Krishna Consciousness (M=2.52;

SD=1.46) was one of the statements with the answers most evenly distributed on the scale. 36.56% of the respondents reading articles about Krishna

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Consciousness were 56 years old or older. However, if we take a closer look at the activities concerning the different media, we can see that in the case of the national Facebook pages (M=2.37; SD=1.60) and those of the communities (M=2.30; SD=1.64) even though the means were lower than for articles; the number of people checking these pages repeatedly is higher, 21.00% and 22.43%, respectively, while only 15.95% for the articles. This further confirms the importance of keeping up with the progress and paying attention to the online presence of the religious communities – even though YouTube (M=2.11; SD=1.44) and Instagram (M=1.68; SD=1.27) can still be strengthened; in their case the ‘Never’ replies were over 50%.

Concerning activities such as buying books from and giving donations to devotees proselytizing on the streets received a lower rate of positive responses than in terms of promotion (M=2.24; SD=1.27), which shows that even though the exposure is relatively higher compared to the other forms of promotion, the activity of the respondents is still low in this case.

In the Contemplation stage there were significant differences concerning the activities of the respondents based on the age group they belong to (p<0.001), their occupation (whole sample: p<0.001; filtering those working for rural and farming communities or the national ISKCON organization: p<0.001) and the religious belonging (whole sample: p=0.013;

filtering devotees of Krishna Consciousness: p=0.101).

As previously observed concerning most of the promotional activities, also in the case of Contemplation, there were significant differences among those between 26 and 55 years and the respondents 66 years old or older, as seen in Table 18. The only exception were the age group between 56 and 65 years, who, even though differed from the factor mean slightly negatively, but still have shown significant difference from those 76 years or older (p=0.002), since the respondents falling into this category deviated greatly from the factor mean to the negative side.

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Table 18 – Significant differences in Contemplation concerning age groups

Negative deviation from factor mean Positive deviation from factor mean

66-75 26-35 (p=0.003)

36-45 (p<0.001) 46-55 (p<0.001) 76+

56-65 (p=0.002)

26-35 (p<0.001) 36-45 (p<0.001) 46-55 (p<0.001)

(Source: own edition)

Also in line with the results concerning the promotion tools and the previous findings regarding age, in terms of occupation pensioners were the least active segment, deviating negatively from the factor mean and showing significant differences compared to blue-collar workers (whole sample: p<0.001; after filtering: p<0.001) and white-collar workers (whole sample: p<0.001; after filtering: p<0.001). However, surprisingly, in Contemplation students have shown negative deviation as well, differing significantly from blue-collar workers (whole sample: p=0.011; after filtering: p=0.008) and white-collar workers (whole sample: p=0.016; after filtering: p=0.011). Respondents living in farming communities devoted to Krishna Consciousness deviated negatively from the factor mean – which is not surprising considering that they have already moved far beyond seeking for information – and their replies differed significantly from blue-collar workers (p=0.017) and white-collar workers (p=0.023). On contrary, when it came to religion, devotees of Krishna Consciousness deviated positively from the factor mean, showing significant differences from Christian (p<0.001) and Atheist (p=0.005) respondents.