Can attending farmers’ markets lead to unplanned deviant visitor behavior?

Abstract

Farmers’ markets can enhance local food tourism experiences, as well as benefit regions and businesses that operate within these markets. With the impact of COVID-19 reducing international travel, domestic and local tourism is predicted to increase due to a desire to support local economies. While it has been established that visitors who shop at farmers’ markets do so for pro-social reasons, the current study examines the unintended consequences of these pro-social behaviors. We apply ‘moral licensing’ and regulatory focus theory to explain how a person’s pro-social behavior gives a temporary boost to their positive self-image which subsequently gives them a ‘licence’ to act in a deviant manner. We examine the effect of licensing and consider individual differences in promotion focus to test whether some visitors are more prone to deviant behavior than others. This research assists in identifying the unintended outcomes for the local food tourism sector through licensing and provides suggestions on how to diminish this behavior.