The impact of visual perspective in advertising on tourist misbehavior

Abstract

The challenge of addressing tourist misbehavior has garnered significant attention from both the industry and academia. This research integrates visual perspective literature with normative moral theory to identify persuasive forms of advertisements, with a view to discourage tourist misbehavior. We have conducted four experiments, which consistently demonstrate that deontological reasoning can explain why a third-person (versus first-person) perspective in advertising leads to more actions (in field experiments), and stronger intentions to reduce tourist misbehavior. In addition, we find that egoistic appeals (versus altruistic appeals) weaken the effectiveness of the third-person perspective in reducing tourists’ intention to misbehave. These findings provide valuable insights for tourism site administrators, marketing professionals, and destination management organizations by highlighting the strategic use of morally persuasive advertisements to discourage tourist misbehavior.