When Tourists are Angry or Fearful: (In)Effectiveness of Emotion Regulation in Changing Behavioral Intention

Abstract

This study investigates the efficacy of emotion regulation (ER) strategies used by tourists to manage negative emotions elicited by their on-site destination experiences. Specifically, suppression and reappraisal ER strategies were examined for their moderating impacts on the relationship between negative emotions (anger and fear) and tourists’ behavioral intention (negative word-of-mouth and revisitation). Through two pre-tests and three experiments involving video and text stimuli, findings are first revealed within a destination crowding context and replicated using tourist harassment. Empirical results in both contexts consistently demonstrate the superiority of reappraisal in down-regulating tourists’ experience of anger and fear and in alleviating negative word-of-mouth intention. In contrast, suppression significantly up-regulates the anger and fear felt and, as such, aggravates negative word-of-mouth intention. Findings also suggest that ER does not significantly moderate the effect of fear on revisit intention. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.