Project title
Application of the affect valuation theory to Japanese tourist behavior
Research Unit
Primary investigator
Project period
2019/5/16 ～ 2020/3/31
Project summary
This study will examine relationships among ideal affect and actual affect during tourism and paid work. According to affect valuation theory developed in social psychology, ideal affect (i.e., how people want to feel) and actual affect (i.e., how people really feel) should be distinguished, and the former refers to a goal in general whereas the latter refers to a response which differs across contexts (e.g., work). Affect valuation theory also proposes that if people’s actual affect is significantly discrepant from their ideal affect, they will participate in certain mood producing behaviors – including tourism – to minimize this discrepancy. Thus, this study will investigate an applicability of affect valuation theory to promote understandings of Japanese tourist behavior.
Activity reports
To address the research purposes, a pre-test for questionnaire development was conducted in November 2019 and an online survey (pre vs. post travel) was conducted in February and March 2020. Based on a discussion with research collaborators in Canada, the surveys asked about ideal affect for vacations, not actual affect during work, in order to distinguish it from ideal affect for everyday life. For the online survey, 500 Japanese travelers (340 males and 160 females; their mean age was 47.5 years old) provided usable data. The results of the dependent t-test that compared the two types of ideal affect (everyday life vs. vacations) indicated that high-arousal positive affect (HAP) was significantly different (t = -9.82, p < .01), whereas low-arousal positive affect (LAP) was not significantly different (t = 0.94, p > .05). This suggests that the participants sought for different affective states in everyday life and vacations regarding HAP, but not LAP. Given Japanese cultural emphasis on ideal affect, although Japanese people prefer LAP for everyday life, they do the oppositely directed affective state, HAP, for vacations. Furthermore, another dependent t-test that compared ideal affect for everyday life and actual affect during vacations indicated that HAP was not significantly different (t = -1.22, p > .05), whereas LAP was significantly different (t = -4.38, p < .01). The results of the dependent t-test that compared ideal affect for vacations and actual affect during vacations indicated that both HAP (t = 5.83, p < .01) and LAP (t = 4.08, p < .01) were significantly different. More specifically, the level of HAP during vacations achieved the level of ideal affect for everyday life, but not the level for vacations. Additionally, the level of LAP during vacations neither achieved the levels of ideal affect for everyday life nor for vacations. As expected, the results of the correlation analyses indicated that there were positive correlations between the corresponding ideal and actual affect during vacations. However, in terms of their effect sizes, HAP’s coefficients were unexpectedly larger than LAP’s coefficients. This research project suggests that (a) ideal affect for everyday life and for vacations are different, and (b) the affect valuation theory follows the compensation theory in tourism contexts.
