981141

research-article2020
JTRXXX10.1177/0047287520981141Journal of Travel ResearchHadinejad et al.

Empirical Research Article

Journal of Travel Research

Tourism Marketing Stimulus

1­–17
© The Author(s) 2020
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DOI: 10.1177/0047287520981141
https://doi.org/10.1177/0047287520981141

Analysis of Iran journals.sagepub.com/home/jtr

Arghavan Hadinejad1 , Anna Kralj2, Noel Scott3,

Brent D. Moyle4, and Sarah Gardiner5

Abstract
Prior self-validation hypothesis studies suggest that an individual’s attitude toward advertising is affected by the cognitive
processing of the message and the valence of emotion. Yet, the effect of emotional arousal and stimulus credibility on
attitudes toward a destination has not been discerned. This study employs the self-validation hypothesis to investigate the
effect of the three dimensions of thinking on attitudes toward Iran. Participants (N = 416) were randomly assigned to a
two (high vs. low arousal) × two (high vs. low source credibility) experiment. The partial least squares multigroup analysis
results indicated that the emotionally arousing stimulus led to a greater influence of the amount and confidence of thought
on attitudes. The effect of the amount of thought on attitude was greater in response to a credible stimulus. This research
advances knowledge by revealing that emotional arousal has a significant positive impact on three dimensions of thinking and
positive attitudes.

Keywords
emotion, source credibility, attitude, self-validation analysis, partial least squares (PLS), destination marketing

Introduction an object (such as a tourism destination) (Briñol, Petty, and

Advertising is critical to destination marketing and aims to
promote a positive destination image that results in a desire to
visit (MacKay and Smith 2006). Tourism advertising contains
messages about a destination, which provides visitors with
information about the place and simplifies the purchase deci-
sion (Sharifpour et al. 2014). For marketers, the primary goal
of tourism advertisement is to generate awareness among a
target market and positively influence their attitudes and
intention to visit by promoting the competitive advantages of
the destination (McWilliams and Crompton 1997). The con-
tent of advertisement should also aim to reduce the uncer-
tainty and risk associated with destination selection as
advertising messages construct images in the minds of con-
sumers of what they can expect from a destination experience
(Fuchs and Reichel 2011). This is especially true for destina-
tions that are perceived as risky and reduce a tourist’s desire
to travel to the destination (Reisinger and Mavondo 2005);
one such example is Iran. In this regard, the design or charac-
teristics of tourism advertising exert a significant impact on
potential tourists’ attitudes toward, and associations with, the
destination (Amar, Droulers, and Legohérel 2017).
Social psychologists argue that the characteristics of a
message affect three dimensions of thinking, that is, the
amount of thought, valence of thinking, and thought confi-
dence. These dimensions shape a consumer’s attitude toward
Barden 2007; Tormala, Briñol, and Petty 2006). The first two
primary aspects of thinking—the amount of thinking and the
valence of thought—are described in contemporary theories
of attitude, notably the elaboration likelihood model and heu-
ristic-systematic model (Petty, Briñol and Tormala 2002).
Prior tourism research in the domain of visitor attitude has
applied the first two dimensions of thinking, amount and
valence of thinking (as described in the elaboration likelihood
and heuristic systematic models) (e.g., Tang, Jang, and
Morrison 2012; Sparks, Perkins, and Buckley 2013).
Researchers added a third dimension of thought, thought con-
fidence, to the two primary aspects of thinking in a theoretical
framework known as the self-validation hypothesis (Briñol,
1
Business Unit, University of South Australia, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
2
Department of Tourism Sport and Hotel Management, Griffith
University, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia
3
Sustainability Research Centre, University of the Sunshine Coast, Sippy
Downs Drive, Queensland, Australia
4
Department of Tourism Sport and Hotel Management, Griffith
University, Nathan, Queensland, Australia
5
Griffith Institute for Tourism, Griffith University, Gold Coast,
Queensland, Australia
Corresponding Author:
Arghavan Hadinejad, Business Unit, University of South Australia,
Adelaide, SA 5001, Australia.
Email: hana.hadinejad@unisa.edu.au
2 Journal of Travel Research 00(0)
Emotional arousal
Amount of thought
Valence of thought Attitude
Thought confidence
Source credibility
Figure 1.  The conceptual framework for this study.
Petty, and Rucker 2006). Yet, thought confidence (i.e., your
confidence in your thoughts when thinking about a destina-
tion) is understudied in tourism but could have a significant
influence on attitude formation and, ultimately, the decision
to visit the destination. This research applies the self-valida-
tion hypothesis as its theoretical foundation.
Prior studies of the self-validation hypothesis have
explored the effect of the cognitive features of a message on
thinking and attitude. These cognitive message features
include factors such as source majority/minority status and
group entitativity (Horcajo, Petty, and Briñol 2010; Clark
and Thiem 2015). However, the role of the affective charac-
teristics of stimuli, and specifically emotional arousal, in
explaining three dimensions of thoughts and attitudes are not
well discussed in the self-validation hypothesis literature.
Further, the impact of source credibility on all dimensions of
thinking and attitude is yet to be discerned in tourism desti-
nation marketing research. Accordingly, this research
employs experimental design, manipulating the emotional
arousal and source credibility of Iranian tourism videos, to
explore the effect of thought confidence, valence, and
amount of thought on attitudes toward the destination (Iran).
The current research presents theoretical advancement of the
self-validation hypothesis, as the impact of emotional arousal
on the interaction between the three dimensions of thinking
and attitude has not been explored previously. In addition,
this research contributes to tourism literature by confirming
the impact of source credibility on the relationship between
the three dimensions of thinking and attitude. The findings
will assist the managers of risk-related destinations (includ-
ing those with political instability) to design effective mar-
keting stimuli. A conceptual framework of this research is
presented in Figure 1.
Theoretical Approaches to Attitudes
Attitude is defined as an individual’s favorable or unfavor-
able evaluation of an object (Newhouse 1990). Researchers
often study attitude because it is thought to play a critical
role in influencing decision making (Ayeh, Au, and Law
2013). There is a long history of attitudinal research in tour-
ism. One of the most prominent attitudinal theories employed
in tourism is the theory of planned behavior. This theory
proposes that attitude, social norms, and perceived control
are the main factors that influence intention to visit a desti-
nation (Chao 2012; Guan et al. 2016; J. Wang and Ritchie
2012). Thus, the theory of planned behavior concentrates on
conditions that can activate or modify attitude (Hsu, Cai,
and Li 2010). However, this theory has been criticized for
assuming human decision making is a rational and cognitive
procedure (Bagozzi, Gurhan-Canli, and Priester 2002;
Smallman and Moore 2010) and neglects the affective and
metacognitive aspects involved in the tourist decision-mak-
ing process (McCabe, Li, and Chen 2016). Scholars (e.g.,
Wang 2016; Gao, Mattila, and Lee 2016) have therefore
called for the evaluation of alternative theories of attitude
and suggested that employing theories in the foundation dis-
ciplines, such as social psychology, is needed to enhance the
body of knowledge on attitudinal research in tourism
(Hadinejad et al. 2019).
Research on attitude in social psychology has evolved
over the years. Previous research in the domain of attitude
has described thinking that impacts on attitude formation
(Petty, Briñol, and Tormala 2002). An individual is required
to think about an object (generate thoughts) prior to forming
an attitude toward it. Thus, influencing thoughts is believed
to affect attitude (Petty and Briñol 2008). One dimension of
thinking is the valence of thought, which can be positively or
negatively orientated. Therefore, influencing the valence of
thought is a key component in the process of persuasion, as
presented in cognitive response theory (Greenwald 1968).
Central to this theory is that persuasion occurs when a person
generates favorable thoughts in response to a persuasive
message.
The amount of thought is another dimension of thinking
with the potential to influence attitude, as highlighted in the
elaboration likelihood model and heuristic-systematic model
(Dillard et al. 2002). In other words, the extent to which an
individual cognitively responds to a message or elaborates
on that information has a positive impact on attitude. Social
psychology researchers have further developed these theo-
ries and proposed the self-validation hypothesis. The self-
validation hypothesis adds a metacognitive dimension to
thinking, namely, thought confidence, which can affect atti-
tude (Briñol, Petty, and Tormala 2004). The self-validation
hypothesis combines three dimensions of thinking as drivers
of attitude with an emphasis on the role of thought confi-
dence, which can range from extreme confidence to extreme
doubt (Briñol and Petty 2009). Thought confidence refers to
“a sense of conviction or validity regarding one’s thoughts”
(Petty, Briñol, and Tormala 2002, p. 724). The key notion of
the self-validation hypothesis is that generating thoughts is
not enough to influence attitudes, rather people also consider
confidence in their thoughts when developing an attitude
toward an object (Tormala, Petty, and Briñol 2002). The
Hadinejad et al. 3
amount and valence of thinking are regarded as the cognitive
aspects of thinking in the self-validation hypothesis, while
thought confidence is considered as the metacognitive
dimension. The self-validation hypothesis is called a meta-
cognitive process or perspective in the prior social psychol-
ogy literature (e.g., Petty and Briñol 2008).
While a number of variables have been examined in the
self-validation hypothesis literature, scholars have called for
the investigation of other possible factors affecting attitude
(Briñol and Petty 2015; Clark et al. 2013). In addition, the
role of emotion, and specifically emotional arousal, the
level of activation of an emotion (Hadinejad et al. 2019), on
attitude is underresearched in the self-validation hypothesis
literature. Furthermore, there is insufficient evidence of a
self-validation analysis of the effect of source credibility on
the three dimensions of thinking and attitude in fields other
than psychology (Clark and Evans 2014) and is yet to be
addressed in tourism. Accordingly, this research investi-
gates the impact of all dimensions of thinking on attitude
when emotional arousal and source credibility of the stimu-
lus are manipulated.
The Effect of Emotion and Source Credibility
on Cognition, Metacognition, and Subsequent
Attitude
Emotion as an evaluative construct can affect individuals’
attitudinal judgments (Hosany and Prayag 2013). Emotional
responses evoked by an advertisement are predictors of posi-
tive attitudes and intention to purchase (Niazi, Ghani, and
Aziz 2012). In a tourism context, emotions in response to
advertisements have been shown to induce positive attitudes
toward marketing content and influence the intention to visit
a destination (Li et al. 2018; Wang, Kirillova, and Lehto
2017). Drawing upon dimensional approaches to emotion
such as pleasure-arousal-dominance, researchers have shown
that stimuli induced emotions have a tendency to impact on
attitudes toward and engagement with advertisements (Li
et al. 2018; Teixeira, Wedel, and Pieters 2012). Tourism
scholars have also found that emotions evoked by marketing
stimuli influence vacation choice and mental images of a
destination (Kim, Kim, and Bolls 2014; Walters, Sparks, and
Herington 2012). Similarly, the valence of emotions has been
indicated to affect attitude formation (Goossens 2000). Prior
research on the effect of emotion on attitude provided useful
findings; however, most of the studies explored this relation-
ship from a cognitive perspective.
Emotions affect attitudes by affecting an individual’s
thoughts and beliefs (Edell and Burke 1987). Emotional
responses influence the amount of thought individuals gener-
ate and, subsequently, impact on their attitudes toward a
message (Moore and Harris 1996; Wyland and Forgas 2007).
Emotional states interfere with cognitive capacity and, there-
fore, have an impact on an individual’s attitude (Mackie and
Worth 1989). Connected to this, the self-validation hypothe-
sis researchers have articulated that message characteristics
tend to influence individuals’ need for cognition (i.e., one’s
effortful thinking) and subsequent attitudes (Briñol, Petty,
and Tormala 2004). The emotive characteristics of a message
can influence the amount of thought generated in response to
a stimulus and the following attitudes. In this regard, the
feeling-as-information framework (Chartrand, van Baaren,
and Bargh 2006) suggests that emotional stimuli have a
stronger effect on attitude by influencing cognitive effort
compared to a nonemotional message.
According to the hedonic contingency view, emotions
elicited in response to a message also tend to influence atti-
tudes by affecting the valence of thought (Hirt, Devers, and
McCrea 2008). In other words, individuals in a happy mood
are sensitive to the hedonic implications of messages they
encounter, and the valence of their thoughts influences their
attitudes toward the source. Psychology studies of emotion
have found that emotion can bias the direction of thinking
(Petty, Fabrigar, and Wegener 2003). The influence of emo-
tion on an individual’s thoughts about an object is especially
affected when emotion manipulation happens before or dur-
ing the message delivery. Thus, the individual’s emotional
state has been shown to bias the thoughts that come to mind
(Petty et al. 1993) and the positive or negative direction of
thoughts, which subsequently influences their attitudes
toward the object (Tiedens and Linton 2001; Wegener, Petty,
and Smith 1995). To study the influence of emotion on think-
ing, the self-validation hypothesis researchers manipulated
emotional responses after a thought listing task and found
that the effect of the valence of thought on attitude might not
be influenced by the emotional manipulation of message
sources (Briñol, Petty, and Barden 2007).
Social psychologists have also argued that thought con-
fidence is influenced by message characteristics, akin to
the amount and valence of thinking (Tormala et al. 2006).
Briñol, Petty, and Barden (2007) argued that the emotive
features of a message have an impact on thought confi-
dence. Emotional messages lead to higher confidence in
thoughts and favorable attitudes compared with a non-
emotional stimulus. Prior self-validation hypothesis litera-
ture has investigated the effect of the amount of thought,
the valence of thinking, and thought confidence on attitude
when the valence of emotions elicited by a message was
manipulated. However, tourism scholars have noted that
both dimensions of emotion, valence, and arousal, are pos-
itively related with attitudes toward a tourism marketing
stimulus (Li et al. 2018). Accordingly, this research pro-
poses the following hypotheses:
Hypothesis 1a: The effect of an individuals’ amount of
thought on attitude is greater when participants watch a
highly emotionally arousing video in comparison with a
less emotionally arousing version of the video.
4 Journal of Travel Research 00(0)
Hypothesis 1b: The impact of the valence of thought on
attitude is greater when participants watch a highly emo-
tionally arousing video compared to a less emotionally
arousing video.
Hypothesis 1c: The influence of thought confidence on
attitude is greater when participants watch a highly emo-
tionally arousing video compared to a less emotionally
arousing video.
The effect of source credibility, the perceived expertise,
and trustworthiness of a message (Kelman and Hovland
1953) on attitude is widely established in the psychology and
tourism literature. Credibility is a critical component of per-
suasive communication. Travel-related products involve risk
due to the intangibility of tourism services (Loda, Teichmann,
and Zins 2009). Therefore, tourists seek information as a risk
reduction strategy, and the higher the credibility of sources,
the lower the perceived risk. High credibility sources typi-
cally impact attitude more than low credible messages
(Pornpitakpan 2004). Source credibility is a strong predictor
of the type of information source used in the context of a
travel information search, which can affect tourists’ overall
attitudes and behavioral intentions toward a specific destina-
tion (Kerstetter and Cho 2004). The credibility of travel-
related user-generated content also influences attitudes and
travel planning process (Ayeh, Au, and Law 2013).
Destination source credibility along with destination image
affects perceptions of destination satisfaction (Veasna, Wu,
and Huang 2013).
Gunn (1972), one of the first to discuss the credibility of
persuasive communications, used the concept of induced
and organic agents. While organic agents such as online
reviews, word of mouth, and reports are based on general
life experiences and are perceived to be highly credible,
induced agents including promotional advertisements are
provided by destination marketers and tend to convey low
credibility (Moyle and Croy 2006; Dickinger 2011). Organic
agents as highly credible sources have a stronger impact on
the amount of thought an individual generates in response to
a stimulus and subsequent attitudes as compared to informa-
tion from a less credible source (Tormala, Briñol, and Petty
2006). Source credibility may also affect the valence of an
individual’s thoughts and attitudes (Tormala, Briñol, and
Petty 2007). Performing as a peripheral or heuristic cue,
high credibility sources influence the effect of the valence of
thought on attitude stronger than less credible messages
(Briñol and Petty 2009). Source credibility impacts on atti-
tude through its influence on thought confidence, leading
individuals to rely on their thoughts generated in response to
a message (Clark et al. 2013). Although prior self-validation
hypothesis literature has explored the effect of source cred-
ibility on thinking and attitude, this relationship is under-
researched in a tourism context. Hence, the following
hypotheses are presented:
Hypothesis 2a: The impact of the amount of thought on
attitude is stronger when participants watch a highly cred-
ible video compared to a less credible video.
Hypothesis 2b: The effect of the valence of thought on
attitude is greater when participants watch a highly cred-
ible video in comparison with a video of less credibility.
Hypothesis 2c: The influence of thought confidence on
attitude is greater when participants watch a highly cred-
ible video compared to a less credible video.
The following section explains how the stimuli for this
study was developed. Message characteristics, that is, emo-
tional arousal and source credibility manipulation, are also
explained. In addition, data collection and analysis are detailed.
Methodology
Stimuli Development
To develop the required manipulation, the authors created a
video of Iran as an advertising stimulus. This mock adver-
tisement aimed to encourage travel to Iran. Developing a
new stimulus would ensure that none of the participants had
seen the video previously, and thus their prior knowledge
about the destination advertisement did not influence their
responses. The video presents the perspective of a female
traveler in Iran and includes images of tourist attractions,
nature, food, and the daily life of Iranians. The video starts
with an aerial view as a plane lands in Iran and then the
female tourist travels to different places and takes photos.
The video, which is ninety seconds in length, ends with a
blink of a Persian cat’s eye.
Manipulation
A two-group posttest-only randomized experiment was
adopted (Hopp et al. 2005). Participants were assigned ran-
domly to high versus low emotional arousal and source cred-
ibility conditions to avoid the effect of priming, where
reactions are affected by experiencing an item more than
once (Hauptmann and Karni 2002). In order to manipulate
the emotionally arousing features of the video, the color and
music within the videos for each condition were changed
(Bonnardel, Piolat, and Le Bigot 2011; Gorn 1982; Aslam
2006; Zander 2006). Prior research has revealed that colorful
imagery exerts a significant impact on consumer information
processing (Lee et al. 2014). Connected to this, researchers
have reported higher levels of pleasure and emotional arousal
in response to color advertisements in comparison with
monochrome versions (Detenber, Simons, and Reiss 2000).
In the high emotional arousal condition, participants watched
the color video with a light rhythmic music overlay. For the
low emotional arousal condition, participants watched the
same video in monochrome without sound. The authors
Hadinejad et al. 5

manipulated the credibility of the video of the study and led Table 1.  Participants’ Demographic Information.
the participants to believe that the stimulus was made by a
Frequency (% of
“solo female traveler who visited Iran in 2017” as an organic Characteristics the Sample)
agent (as per Moyle and Croy 2006) in the high source cred-
ibility. In the low source credibility condition, participants Gender  
were told that the video was made by a “travel agency in Iran  Male 203 (49.0)
for promotional purposes” as an induced agent (as per Croy  Female 213 (51.0)
and Wheeler 2007). A pilot study was conducted to assess the Age (in years)  
manipulation.  18-27 60 (14.4)
 28-37 79 (19.0)
 38-47 74 (17.8)
Pilot Study  48-57 80 (19.2)
 58+ 121 (29.1)
There were 43 Australian participants (26 females and 17
  I don’t want to respond 2 (0.5)
males) in the pilot study. The emotive features of the videos Education level  
were pilot tested using FaceReader and skin conductance   Primary education 7 (1.7)
physiological measurement technologies. A self-report ques-   Secondary education 116 (27.9)
tionnaire and interviews were also conducted after partici-   Vocational (e.g. certificate/diploma) 124 (29.8)
pants watched the video to establish that the video with and   University undergraduate 117 (28.2)
without music did indeed discriminate between the emotional   University postgraduate (master 51 (12.2)
responses of viewers. The pilot study also included four ques- and doctorate)
tions on credibility, trustworthiness, honesty, and expertise to   I don’t want to respond 1 (0.2)
test the source credibility manipulation. Participants’ emo- States  
tional responses were captured by FaceReader and skin con-   Australian Capital Territory 5 (1.2)
ductance while watching the videos. After viewing the videos,   New South Wales 144 (34.6)
participants completed the questionnaire and post hoc inter-  Queensland 86 (20.7)
views to report their emotional arousal and perceived credi-   South Australia 27 (6.5)
bility of the sources. The total data collection procedure took  Tasmania 8 (2)
20–30 minutes per participant.  Victoria 110 (26.4)
The findings from skin conductance (p < 0.05),   Western Australia 36 (8.6)
FaceReader (p < 0.001), self-report surveys (p < 0.05), and Previous travel to the Middle East  
interviews confirmed that the light rhythmic music evoked   Never visited 344 (83)
  Visited at least once 72 (17)
higher levels of emotional arousal compared to the video
Previous travel to Iran  
without music. The pilot study also indicated that partici-
  Never visited 406 (97.5)
pants rated the credibility of a “solo female traveler who vis-
  Visited at least once 10 (2.5)
ited Iran in 2017” as a creator of organic content significantly
Number of countries visited  
higher than a “travel agency in Iran for promotional pur-  0 61 (14.6)
poses” as a creator of induced content, t(41) = −2.50, p <  1-5 180 (43.3)
0.05. Therefore, the results of the pilot test confirmed that the  6-10 86 (20.6)
videos (i.e., the experimental stimulus material) for emo-  10+ 64 (15.4)
tional arousal and perceived credibility were valid and   I don’t want to respond 25 (6.1)
appropriate for testing the hypotheses in the full study.

Data Collection
Four versions of the questionnaire were designed to cover the
experimental conditions and participants were randomly
assigned to each group. Data were collected from Australians,
using the services of an online panel provider, and applying a
national representative spread sampling approach (see Moyle
et al. 2017). A total of 518 surveys were commenced, of
which 74 surveys were incomplete and thus excluded from
the analysis. The authors then checked if participants selected
one response for all questions that led to the elimination of an
additional 28 responses, resulting in 416 completed question-
naires. During data collection, screening questions were used
to filter out those who did not hear the audio in the high emo-
tional arousal condition. The questionnaire also included a
question “Are you Australian by birth? If not, have you lived
in Australia for at least 18 years?” as a screening question to
exclude the non-Australian participants and those below 18
years old. Table 1 presents the demographic characteristics of
the 416 participants.
Measurements
Amount of thought. Following the video, participants were
provided with 10 blank boxes to list their thoughts about Iran
based on the video. Participants were asked to write down a
6 Journal of Travel Research 00(0)
maximum of 10 thoughts (word phrases/sentences) that went
through their mind in response to the advertising stimulus
(number of thoughts ranging from zero to ten) (Briñol and
Petty 2003; Tormala, Petty, and Briñol 2002; Briñol, Petty,
and Barden 2007). Participants were advised not to worry
about grammar or spelling (Clark and Thiem 2015).
Valence of thought. In order to measure the valence of
thought, two judges unaware of the experimental designs
coded the thoughts as favorable, unfavorable, and neutral
(Briñol et al. 2007). Irrelevant thoughts were excluded from
analysis. Judges agreed on 94% of the favorability of
thoughts and any disagreement between the judges was
resolved by discussion. To form an index of favorability, the
number of unfavorable thoughts was subtracted from the
number of favorable thoughts, and the difference was divided
by the total number of thoughts (Petty, Briñol, and Tormala
2002). Therefore, the valence of thought ranged between −1
and +1. This approach has been frequently applied to mea-
sure the amount and valence of thinking (e.g., Petty, Briñol,
and Tormala 2002; Briñol and Petty 2003; Horcajo, Petty,
and Briñol 2010; Tormala, Briñol, and Petty 2007).
Thought confidence.  Participants were asked to think back to
the listed thoughts and report the confidence they had in their
thoughts on a five-point scale (anchored at “not at all” and
“extremely”) (Horcajo, Petty, and Briñol 2010). Five seman-
tically worded items were used to measure thought confi-
dence. Example items were “Overall, how much ‘confidence’
do you have in the thoughts you listed (about Iran based on
the video)?” and “Overall, how ‘valid’ would you say your
thoughts are?.” The reliability of thought confidence scale
has been confirmed in previous studies (Briñol, Petty, and
Tormala 2004). In the current study, α = 0.84 which was
above 0.7 (Pallant 2016) and confirmed the reliability of the
thought confidence measurement.
Attitude.  Participants were advised to rate attitude on a series
of five-point semantic differential scales (unfavorable–
favorable, negative–positive, bad–good, boring–interesting,
nonattractive–attractive, unpleasant–pleasant, undesirable–
desirable, and nonuseful–useful) (Briñol, Petty, and Tormala
2004). The items in the attitude scale demonstrated high
internal consistency and reliability in prior research (Briñol,
Petty, and Wagner 2009). The attitude scale in this study had
good internal consistency with α = 0.95.
Data Analysis
Partial least squares–structural equation modeling (PLS-
SEM) was used to assess the structural model in the concep-
tual framework and partial least squares multigroup analysis
(PLS-MGA) was applied for emotional arousal and source
credibility group comparison (Sarstedt, Henseler, and Ringle
2011). While analysis of variance / multivariate analysis of
variance allows a comparison in the variance of mean scores
among different groups (Pallant 2016), multigroup analysis
using PLS-SEM enables scholars to assess and compare
moderation across multiple relationships simultaneously
(Matthews 2017). Therefore, SmartPLS 3.0 software was
used to evaluate the structural model and conduct the PLS-
MGA (Ringle, Wende, and Becker 2015). For this study,
PLS-SEM as a variance-based SEM method was more
appropriate than common covariance-based approaches to
SEM. Variance-based SEM is apt as it accommodates small
samples inherent in experimental design, as well as single-
item variables (Astrachan, Patel, and Wanzenried 2014; Li
et al. 2018; Henseler, Ringle, and Sarstedt 2016).
This study employed a three-stage approach to evaluate
the model across the high versus low emotional arousal and
source credibility conditions: assessment of the measure-
ment model; evaluation of the structural models; and finally,
a multigroup analysis to test the study hypotheses. To assess
the measurement model, convergent validity and collinearity
were checked. Convergent validity was conducted to assess
that each indicator contributed to the formative index
(Rasoolimanesh et al. 2017). Collinearity of the latent vari-
ables with multiple indicators (thought confidence and atti-
tude) was then checked to assess the correlation between
measures of the same constructs (Westlund, Källström, and
Parmler 2008). To evaluate the structural models in each of
the emotional arousal and source credibility conditions, the
path coefficients, R2, and the values of standardized root
mean square residual (SRMR), which represents the good-
ness of fit index for PLS-SEM were assessed (Henseler,
Ringle, and Sarstedt 2016; Henseler, Hubona, and Ray
2016). In the final stage, PLS-MGA was employed to com-
pare the structural models across the four conditions
(Sarstedt, Henseler, and Ringle 2011).
Results
A manipulation check was also conducted in the main exper-
iment. After watching the video, participants were asked to
indicate their level of emotional arousal using the self-
assessment manikin (Lang 1980). Participants showed that
the video with the light rhythmic music elicited higher levels
of emotional arousal compared to the video without music,
t(414) = 3.93, p < 0.05. In addition, participants were
required to rate the credibility, trustworthiness, honesty, and
expertise of the source of the video. Ratings of the four scales
were averaged to form an index of perceived credibility, con-
sistent with the approach proposed by Clark and Evans
(2014). The credibility of a “solo female traveler who visited
Iran in 2017” was rated higher compared to a “travel agency
in Iran for promotional purposes,” t(414) = 4.28, p < 0.05.
Data were checked for normality by inspecting skewness
and kurtosis (Hair et al. 2010). As presented in Table 2,
amount of thought in the low emotional arousal and valence
of thought in the high source credibility condition were not
Hadinejad et al. 7

Table 2.  Data Normality Check.

Measures N Skewness Statistics (SD) Kurtosis Statistics (SD) Normal

High emotional arousal group  
  Amount of thought 188 −0.34 (0.18) −1.58 (0.35) 
  Valence of thought 188 −0.79 (0.18) 13.54 (0.36) 
  Thought confidence 188 −0.04 (0.18) −0.54 (0.35) 
 Attitude 188 −0.23 (0.18) 0.01 (0.35) 
Low emotional arousal group
  Amount of thought 228 1.44 (0.16) 2.04 (0.32) 
  Valence of thought 228 −0.56 (0.16) −0.46 (0.32) 
  Thought confidence 228 −0.28 (0.16) −0.13 (0.32) 
 Attitude 228 −0.15 (0.16) −0.61 (0.32) 
High source credibility group  
  Amount of thought 203 −0.07 (0.17) −1.71 (0.34) 
  Valence of thought 203 −1.32 (0.17) 1.01 (0.34) 
  Thought confidence 203 −0.17 (0.17) −0.30 (0.34) 
 Attitude 203 −0.23 (0.17) 0.28 (0.34) 
Low source credibility group  
  Amount of thought 213 −0.71 (0.17) 0.07 (0.33) 
  Valence of thought 213 −0.80 (0.17) −0.23 (0.33) 
  Thought confidence 213 −0.11 (0.17) −0.29 (0.33) 
 Attitude 213 −0.20 (0.17) −0.42 (0.33) 

Table 3.  Descriptive Statistics.

High Emotional Low Emotional High Source Low Source

Arousal Group, Arousal Group, Credibility Group, Credibility Group,
Mean Score (SD) Mean Score (SD) Mean Score (SD) Mean Score (SD)
Amount of thought 6.86 (3.07) 3.50 (2.19) 5.96 (3.52) 4.11 (2.33)
Valence of thought 0.76 (0.39) 0.21 (0.61) 0.52 (0.57) 0.39 (0.61)
Thought confidence 3.41 (0.88) 3.29 (0.91) 3.38 (0.86) 3.30 (0.93)
Attitude 3.31 (0.89) 2.98 (1.01) 3.18 (0.94) 3.07 (0.99)

Note: SD = Standard deviation.

normally distributed. However, PLS-SEM does not require Table 4.  Variance Inflation Factor (VIF) Results.
data to be normally distributed (Hair et al. 2014), allowing
Attitude Thought Confidence  
data analysis to proceed with the raw data.
Table 3 shows the descriptive statistics of the amount of Indicators VIF Indicators VIF
thought, valence of thinking, thought confidence, and atti- ATT1 4.110 Certain 2.832
tude in the four experimental conditions. The mean score and ATT3 4.653 Confidence 1.926
standard deviation of the constructs in each experimental ATT4 2.023 Similar 1.452
design are presented below. ATT5 2.870 Valid 2.845
ATT6 4.532  
ATT7 4.527  
Assessment of Measurement Model ATT8 2.415  
According to Hair et al.’s (2014) guideline and previous
research (e.g., Briñol, Petty, and Barden 2007; Clark and
Thiem 2015), thought confidence and attitude are consid- results of collinearity revealed that the variance inflation
ered formative measurement models. Results indicated that factor (VIF) of the second indicator of attitude was higher
the path coefficient of the two formative measurement than 5, and thus was removed from the model (Westlund,
models (thoughts confidence and attitude) were above the Källström, and Parmler 2008). After removing the second
threshold of 0.8, thus providing support for the formative indicator of attitude, the VIF was below 5 for all indicators
construct’s convergent validity (Hair et al. 2014). The as presented in Table 4.
8 Journal of Travel Research 00(0)

Table 5.  Significance Testing Results of the Structural Model Path Coefficient.

Path Coefficient t Value p Value

High emotional arousal group Amount of thought → Attitude 0.262 4.550 0.000**
(n =188) Valence of thought → Attitude 0.546 10.121 0.000**
SRMR = 0.027 Thought confidence → Attitude 0.356 3.989 0.000**
Low emotional arousal group Amount of thought → Attitude 0.089 1.308 0.192
(n=228) Valence of thought → Attitude 0.495 5.607 0.000**
SRMR = 0.023 Thought confidence → Attitude 0.166 2.831 0.005**
High source credibility group Amount of thought → Attitude 0.201 3.317 0.001**
(n=203) Valence of thought → Attitude 0.540 9.386 0.000**
SRMR = 0.026 Thought confidence → Attitude 0.244 3.398 0.001**
Low source credibility group Amount of thought → Attitude 0.033 0.423 0.673
(n=213) Valence of thought → Attitude 0.515 6.590 0.000**
SRMR = 0.023 Thought confidence → Attitude 0.226 3.405 0.001**

Note: SRMR < 0.08.

**Significant at p < 0.05.

The outer weights of formative constructs (thought confi-
dence and attitude) were also analyzed for their significance
and relevance by performing a bootstrapping analysis (5,000
subsamples) (Henseler, Ringle, and Sarstedt 2016).
According to Hair et al. (2014), if the outer weights are not
significant, outer loadings should be assessed. Although the
outer weight of six indicators, ATT3, ATT7, ATT8, Certain,
Similar, and Valid, were found to be insignificant, the outer
loading for all these formative indicators was above 0.6 and
the p value was less than 0.05. Thus, the formative indicators
were retained even though their outer weights were not sig-
nificant (Hair et al. 2014). Further, prior research provides
support for the relevance of these indicators for capturing
attitude and thought confidence (Petty, Briñol, and Tormala
2002; Clark and Evans 2014).
Evaluation of the Structural Model
In the second stage of analysis, the structural models for the
four experimental conditions were assessed based on the
path coefficients, g and SRMR. A nonparametric bootstrap-
ping analysis (5,000 subsamples) was conducted to analyze
the significance of relationships in the structural model in
each experimental condition (see Ringle, Wende, and Becker
2015). This is the standard approach to test the significance
of PLS path modeling results (Henseler, Ringle, and
Sinkovics 2009). The path coefficient results of each experi-
mental condition are displayed in Table 5.
In the high emotional arousal condition, the results indi-
cated that thought confidence, valence, and amount of
thought that participants generated significantly explained
their attitude toward Iran (p = 0.00). In contrast, in the low
emotional arousal condition, thought confidence and
valence of thought are the key drivers for attitude (p =
0.00); however, the effect of the amount of thought on atti-
tude was not significant (p = 0.19). In the high source
credibility condition, participants’ attitude was significantly
influenced by the amount and valence of thinking generated
in response to the stimulus and their thought confidence (p
= 0.00). The effect of thought confidence and valence of
thought on attitude in the low source credibility condition
was significant (p = 0.00), while the amount of thought did
not significantly explain attitude (p = 0.67). Figure 2 dis-
plays the outcome of the structural model for each experi-
mental condition and demonstrates the R2 values.
The R2 value, which range from 0 to 1 with higher values
indicating higher levels of predictive accuracy, was calcu-
lated to indicate the model’s explanatory power
(Rasoolimanesh et al. 2017; Hair et al. 2014). The R2 values
above 0.2 were relatively high and were acceptable by
behavioral research standards. Therefore, the R2 values for
high emotional arousal condition (0.449), low emotional
arousal group (0.359), high source credibility design (0.462),
and low source credibility cluster (0.356) were acceptable.
Around 45% of the variance in attitude was explained by the
amount of thought, valence of thought, and thought confi-
dence in the high emotional arousal condition. Further, 36%
of the variance in attitude results from the combined effect
caused by the amount of thought, valence of thought, and
thought confidence in the low emotional arousal condition.
The results also show that 46% and 36% of the variance in
attitude were explained by the amount of thought, valence
of thought, and thought confidence in the high and low
source credibility conditions, respectively.
The SRMR values explain how well the model structure
fits the data (Henseler et al. 2016) and the study indicated
that the SRMR values were 0.027, 0.023, 0.026, and 0.023
for high and low emotional arousal and high and low source
credibility conditions, respectively. Therefore, all the SRMR
values were lower than 0.08, which is an acceptable value of
the model fit for PLS-SEM and confirms that the models
were well specified.
Hadinejad et al. 9

High emotional arousal group Low emotional arousal group

Amount of Amount of
thought thought
0.262** 0.089

0.546** Attitude 0.495** Attitude

Valence of Valence of
R2 =0.449 R2 =0.359
thought thought
0.356** 0.166**

Thought Thought
confidence confidence

High source credibility group Low source credibility group

Amount of Amount of
thought thought
0.201** 0.03
3
0.540** 0.515* Attitude
Attitude Valence of
Valence of *
R =0.462
2 R2 =0.363
thought thought
0.244** 0.226**

Thought Thought

confidence confidence

Figure 2.  The path coefficient and R2 results of the structural model in each experimental condition. **p < 0.05.

PLS-MGA Results Results from the source credibility manipulation revealed

In the third stage of analysis, the research hypotheses were
tested. PLS-MGA was conducted to assess the differential
effect of the amount of thought, valence of thought, and
thought confidence on attitude across the four experimental
conditions. This analysis was achieved by comparing the
structural model path coefficients between research experi-
mental conditions (Rwehumbiza 2017). The results for all of
the relationships in the model (high vs. low emotional arousal
and source credibility design) are presented in Table 6. A
result is significant at the 5% probability of error level, if the
p value is smaller than 0.05 or larger than 0.95 for a certain
difference of group-specific path coefficients (Mugion et al.
2018; Rasoolimanesh et al. 2017).
Table 6 shows the results of PLS-MGA. Hypotheses 1a and
1c were supported, which show the effect of the amount of
thought and thought confidence on attitude differ significantly
across the emotional arousal experimental design. In other
words, the amount of thought explains attitude greater when
participants watch a highly emotionally arousing video com-
pared to a less emotionally arousing stimulus (p = 0.97).
However, hypothesis 1b was not supported, indicating the
effect of the valence of thought on attitude in the high emo-
tional arousal condition did not significantly differ from the
less emotionally arousing design (p = 0.68). Further, the effect
of thought confidence on attitude was significantly greater
when participants were exposed to a highly emotionally arous-
ing tourism stimulus in comparison with a less arousing video
(p = 0.04).
that only hypothesis 2a was supported, which indicates one
relationship differs significantly across the two groups. In
the high credibility source condition, the effect of the amount
of thought on attitude was significantly stronger compared to
the experimental design when participants watched the less
credible video (p = 0.95). However, hypothesis 2b was not
supported, showing that the effect of the valence of thought
on attitude was quite similar across the high and low source
credibility condition (p = 0.59). In addition, hypothesis 2c
was not supported, revealing that the effect of thought confi-
dence on attitude in a high source credibility design did not
differ significantly from when participants were exposed to a
less credible source (p = 0.43).
Discussion
Social psychologists assert that emotional responses to mes-
sages along with credible sources lead to cognitive and meta-
cognitive engagement with the message and thus influences
subsequent attitudes (Briñol, Petty, and Barden 2007;
Tormala, Briñol, and Petty 2006). Because of a lack of
research on stimuli design in tourism and call for further
investigation of the self-validation hypothesis (Decrop 2007;
Briñol and Petty 2015), the current study explored the effect
of the three dimensions of thinking on attitude when emo-
tional arousal and the source credibility of tourism advertis-
ing stimulus were manipulated. In doing so, this research
revealed that the emotionally arousing tourism video had a
10
Table 6.  PLS-MGA Results for High and Low Emotional Arousal and Source Credibility Conditions.

High Emotional Arousal Low Emotional Arousal High vs. Low Emotional
Group (n=188) Group (n=228) Arousal (PLS-MGA)

Path Path Path Hypotheses

Coefficients t Value p Value Coefficients t Value p Value Difference p Value Supported
Hypothesis 1a Amount of thought → 0.262 4.550 0.000 0.089 1.308 0.192 0.082 0.974** Yes
Attitude
Hypothesis 1b Valence of thought → 0.546 10.121 0.000 0.495 5.607 0.000 0.072 0.680 No
Attitude
Hypothesis 1c Thought confidence → 0.356 3.989 0.000 0.166 2.831 0.005 0.171 0.045** Yes
Attitude

  High Source Credibility Low Source Credibility High vs. Low Source
Group (n=203) Group (n=213) Credibility (PLS-MGA)

  Path Path Path Hypotheses

Coefficients t Value p Value Coefficients t Value p Value Difference p Value Supported
Hypothesis 2a Amount of thought → 0.201 3.317 0.001 0.033 0.423 0.673 0.168 0.955** Yes
Attitude
Hypothesis 2b Valence of thought → 0.540 9.386 0.000 0.515 6.590 0.000 0.025 0.599 No
Attitude
Hypothesis 2c Thought confidence → 0.244 3.398 0.001 0.226 3.405 0.001 0.017 0.432 No
Attitude

**p < 0.05 or p > 0.95.

Hadinejad et al. 11
greater influence on positive attitudes toward a destination
than a credible stimulus.
Emotional Arousal and Attitude
This research showed that emotional arousal affects individ-
uals’ attitudes and revealed that when the tourism advertising
stimulus of Iran evoked high levels of emotional arousal, the
effect of the amount of thought on attitude was significantly
greater compared to a less emotionally arousing video. This
result supports previous findings that emotional responses to
tourism stimuli can influence the participants’ amount of
thought and subsequent attitude (Moore and Harris 1996;
Wyland and Forgas 2007; Li et al. 2018; Yüksel and Akgül
2007). When individuals were exposed to the emotionally
arousing tourism marketing content, their emotional states
interfered with their cognitive efforts and subsequently had a
positive impact on their attitude toward the stimulus (Mackie
and Worth 1989). Further, the feeling-as-information frame-
work and self-validation hypothesis studies highlight the
importance of the emotive features of stimuli as emotional
responses affect individuals’ cognitive engagement with the
message and their attitude (Chartrand, van Baaren, and
Bargh 2006; Briñol, Petty, and Tormala 2004). The finding of
this research are in line with the associative network theories
of memory, which asserts that emotions facilitate the retrieval
of information (Blaney 1986; Bower 1981) as non-emotional
messages do not exert a strong influence on attitude through
determining information processing (Chartrand, van Baaren,
and Bargh 2006; Moons and Mackie 2007). As a result, this
study extends previous self-validation hypothesis studies by
indicating that emotional arousal is also an important deter-
minant of thought generation in response to a message and
attitude formation. In both high and low emotional arousal
experimental conditions, the effect of the valence of thought
on attitude was similar. This finding extends the self-valida-
tion hypothesis literature through application to a tourism
context, which suggests that the impact of the valence of
thought on attitudes is not influenced by emotional arousal
manipulation. This contrasts with other scholarly inquiry,
such as the hedonic contingency framework, that asserts
emotions evoked by marketing stimuli influence the valence
of individuals’ thoughts and attitudinal judgments (Hirt,
Devers, and McCrea 2008; Neelamegham and Jain 1999).
One potential reason could be the limited explanatory power
of the self-validation hypothesis in relation to perception
bias and stereotypical images (Tasci, Gartner, and Cavusgil
2007). That is, if individuals have already formed percep-
tions about a country, their perception bias does not allow
them to generate favorable thoughts in response to the new
information they receive. In this case, Iran’s brand image
could be biased or distorted given individuals’ perceptions.
However, perception bias potentially caused participants to
generate similar thoughts in response to both high and low
emotionally arousing videos.
The results also highlight significant differences between
the effects of thought confidence on attitude across emotional
arousal groups. In other words, participants’ thought confi-
dence influenced their attitudes toward Iran more when they
watched a highly emotionally arousing tourism video. This
finding was consistent with prior attitudinal research on the
role of emotions in shaping an individual’s attitude (Yoo and
MacInnis 2005; Niazi, Ghani, and Aziz 2012; S. Wang,
Kirillova, and Lehto 2017; Walters, Sparks, and Herington
2012; Hosany and Prayag 2013). The current research extends
previous tourism attitudinal studies by indicating that Australian
visitors’ attitudes to Iran are predicted by both cognitive and
metacognitive thinking. While only the role of valence of emo-
tion has been explored in prior self-validation hypothesis stud-
ies (Briñol, Petty, and Barden 2007), the current research
sought to advance understanding of the role emotion by inves-
tigating the influence of emotional arousal on the interaction
between thought confidence and attitude. Accordingly, tourism
marketing stimuli need to evoke greater levels of emotional
arousal for the amount of thought and thought confidence to
have a stronger effect on attitude toward a destination. This is
especially true for countries such as Iran as visitors may not
have sufficient information about this destination (Jalilvand
et al. 2012) and are doubtful of what their experiences would be
like prior to visiting this tourism destination.
Source Credibility and Attitude
The results of the source credibility manipulation revealed
that the effect of the amount of thought on attitude was sig-
nificantly greater when participants perceived the video to be
of high credibility. When participants were led to believe that
the tourism video of Iran was made by a solo female traveler,
the effect of the amount of thought on attitude was signifi-
cantly greater than when they were told the video was made
by a tourism agency. Tourism stimuli from highly credible
sources have a positive impact on potential visitors’ attitudes
(Pornpitakpan 2004; Kerstetter and Cho 2004; Shu and Scott
2014; Xie et al. 2011), confirming the results of this research.
Further, consistent with the predictions of the elaboration
likelihood model and heuristic-systematic model, high
source credibility is perceived to be valid information that
determines attitude through accelerating information when
exposed to an advertisement or a message (Tormala, Briñol,
and Petty 2006; Briñol, Petty, and Tormala 2004; Chaiken
and Maheswaran 1994; Briñol et al. 2009; Tormala, Briñol,
and Petty 2007). Tourism research has tended to focus on the
use of traditional forms of advertising stimuli such as celeb-
rity endorsement (Van der Veen and Song 2014), narratives
(Ryu et al. 2019), destination postcards (Yüksel and Akgül
2007), or destination websites (Tang, Jang, and Morrison
2012) to investigate tourists’ attitudes toward destinations
and subsequent behavioral intentions. In contrast, the current
study used an organic agent (a solo female traveler) to assess
the impact on potential visitors’ attitudinal judgments. The
12 Journal of Travel Research 00(0)
use of an organic agent aimed to highlight its role in the shar-
ing of videos or stories on different social media platforms
and shaping positive attitudes toward tourism destinations
(Ayeh, Au, and Law 2013).
The findings did not support that there was a difference in
the effect of the valence of thought on attitude between the high
and low credibility conditions. Organic agents as highly credi-
ble sources have a stronger impact on attitudes and perception
of destinations by affecting the valence of thought (Moyle and
Croy 2006; Veasna, Wu, and Huang 2013; Tormala, Briñol, and
Petty 2007), which was not confirmed in the current research.
Previous attitudinal research has indicated that high source
credibility, serving as a peripheral cue, affects an individual’s
attitude by influencing the valence of thought (Tormala, Briñol,
and Petty 2007; Briñol and Petty 2009). It could be concluded
that irrespective of emotional arousal or source credibility
level, the effect of the valence of thought on attitude was simi-
lar across the four experimental conditions. One potential rea-
son could be the political instability and the risk associated with
the Middle Eastern countries such as Iran (Sharifpour et al.
2014). Another possible explanation could be participants’
unfamiliarity with this tourism destination as about 98% of par-
ticipants had never visited Iran and around 83% of respondents
had never traveled to the Middle East. Therefore, potential visi-
tors’ knowledge about tourism destination (Lankford and
Howard 1994) could possibly make a difference in the effect of
the valence of thought on attitude across the experimental con-
ditions. The measurement of the valence of thought and
research design is another possible reason for this finding and
requires further investigation.
The effect of thought confidence on attitude across the
two source credibility conditions was similar. The tourism
literature suggests that organic agents have a greater impact
on individuals’ attitudes toward tourism destinations com-
pared to low credibility stimuli (Pornpitakpan 2004; Croy
2010) which was not confirmed in this study. Unlike the
findings of this research, the self-validation hypothesis
scholars demonstrated that the effect of thought confidence
on attitude was greater when individuals were exposed to a
highly credible message (Clark and Evans 2014; Clark et al.
2013; Tormala, Briñol, and Petty 2007). These findings may
be explained as source credibility can affect attitudes by
influencing the motivation for a specific outcome (Briñol,
Petty, and Tormala 2004). It may be that the participants in
this study were not motivated enough to visit Iran as a tour-
ism destination, and thus the source credibility manipulation
did not affect the confidence they held in their thoughts.
Alternatively, visiting Iran may not be congruent with par-
ticipants’ goals as discussed in the cognitive appraisal theory
(Skavronskaya et al. 2017; Ma et al. 2013).
Conclusion
This research provides theoretical, methodological, and prac-
tical contributions. The current study advances knowledge on
attitudinal research by investigating the role of emotional
arousal in cognition and metacognition. The application of
experimental design and PLS-MGA to compare the condi-
tions contribute to tourism research methodologically. In
addition, this research provides practical implications for
marketing managers for the design of tourism stimuli to affect
potential visitors’ thoughts and attitude toward destinations.
Theoretically, this research contributes to the tourism lit-
erature by responding to the call for the application of new
theories (Wang 2016; Gao, Mattila, and Lee 2016; Sharpley
2014; Hadinejad et al. 2019) and by adopting a new frame-
work, the self-validation hypothesis, from social psychology.
Tourism literature has tended to focus on only two dimen-
sions of thinking, the valence and amount of thought. This
research advances tourism knowledge by combining three
dimensions of thinking, valence, amount, and confidence of
thought to investigate the effect of source characteristic
manipulation on potential visitors’ attitudinal judgments.
This research also adds value to the social psychology litera-
ture by examining the role of emotional arousal in explaining
attitudes (Briñol and Petty 2015; Clark et al. 2013).
Contributions are also made to tourism attitudinal research
by investigating metacognition, which has received consid-
erable attention in social psychology, but not in tourism
studies.
Methodologically, this research contributes to the self-
validation hypothesis literature as it is one of the first studies
to apply PLS-MGA in social psychology to compare the
structural model in experimental conditions. Previous stud-
ies have applied descriptive analysis, analysis of variance, t
test, or regression analysis to analyze the effect of the experi-
mental manipulation on thought confidence and attitude
(e.g., Clarkson et al. 2013; Clarkson, Tormala, and Leone
2011; Clark and Thiem 2015). Furthermore, by employing
an experimental design, this study expands the tourism liter-
ature (Fong et al. 2016). This research also benefited from a
larger sample size for the experimental condition than previ-
ous studies (e.g., Briñol and Petty 2003; Briñol, Petty, and
Barden 2007; Wang and Sparks 2016).
From a practical perspective, the study provides valuable
knowledge for destination marketers on how to optimize the
design of marketing stimuli to induce positive attitudes
toward a destination. It was evidenced that emotionally arous-
ing advertising has the potential to make potential visitors
cognitively engaged with the stimuli and exert a positive
impact on attitudes toward the destination. Emotionally
arousing stimuli may enhance confidence in the thoughts and
positive attitudes of potential visitors and subsequently influ-
ence their decision to travel. The findings are of particular
relevance for destinations with risk-related issues and politi-
cal instability, such as Iran. For these destinations in particu-
lar, affective features (i.e., emotional messages), compared to
the rational characteristics of stimuli (i.e., source credibility),
have a stronger effect on the thinking and thought confidence
of potential visitors. Iranian destination marketers could
Hadinejad et al. 13
potentially capitalize on local communities and their daily life
along with historical monuments, nature, and food to provide
advertising stimuli. These stimuli may allow potential visitors
to cognitively engage with the advertisement and develop
favorable thoughts and attitudes toward Iran as a destination.
The findings also suggest that the use of organic agents as
credible sources can influence potential visitors’ attitudes
positively. The use of organic agents would support the sto-
ries and content shared by tourists on social media.
This study presents a number of potential avenues for
future research. Future studies could be enhanced by assess-
ing other nationalities’ thoughts and attitudes toward tourism
in Iran by applying the self-validation hypothesis. Scholarly
inquiry could focus on potential visitors who are geographi-
cally closer or have more knowledge and information about
Iran as a tourism destination. Scholars could advance the
self-validation hypothesis studies by incorporating other
variables such as motivation to visit a destination, personal-
ity of participants, and the emotional and cultural intelli-
gence to predict Australian attitudes toward Iran or expanding
the research to other tourism destinations to better under-
stand outbound tourism.
There are limitations within the study, for example, a lack
of generalizability, as the work focused only on the Australian
market. Although it was beneficial to investigate Australians’
attitudes toward Iran as a potential market, other nationalities
might have different attitudes toward this destination. Data
collection posed another limitation as the use of an online
panel provider reduced the capacity to oversee participants’
attention during the study. Future studies would be advised
to establish protocols to reduce this potential issue. Another
limitation is related to the measurement of thought confi-
dence using existing scales. It was not investigated if thought
confidence arose from participants’ gut feelings, or if there
was logical analysis associated with the level of confidence.
Thought confidence may have dimensions that are yet to be
analyzed in the tourism and social psychology research.
Identifying the affective or cognitive nature of thought con-
fidence might better explain the results. Personal differences
were also not addressed; for example, differences in express-
ing emotions between genders has been noted in the litera-
ture (Kashdan et al. 2009). Future studies may be able to
extend the findings of this research by considering personal
differences and exploring how gender influences attitude
formation. A final limitation stems from the manipulation of
the source credibility. This limitation might be due to the
application of tourism advertising of Iran as this country
does not generate a positive image and is associated with
political instability and risk-related issues (Morakabati 2011;
Sharifpour et al. 2014). Therefore, measuring Australians’
attitude toward a country with strong brand image might lead
to different results.
The study demonstrates that potential visitors not only
need to be cognitively engaged with a tourism stimulus to
generate positive thoughts, they also need to be confident in
their thoughts to develop a favorable attitude toward a desti-
nation. The characteristics of tourism stimuli such as emo-
tional arousal and perceived credibility can play an important
role in creating these positive thoughts. Tourism stimuli
characteristics affect cognition, metacognition, and attitude
toward destinations, and highly emotionally arousing videos
facilitate the amount of thought and thought confidence that
have an impact on attitude. However, the image of different
countries and destinations can affect the credibility of the
message. Countries and destinations with a negative brand
image may benefit from creating content from highly credi-
ble sources to positively influence potential visitors’ thoughts
and attitudes toward the destination.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect
to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, author-
ship, and/or publication of this article.
ORCID iD
Arghavan Hadinejad https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3036-8899
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Author Biographies
Arghavan Hadinejad is a Lecturer at the University of South
Australia, Australia. She has both industry and academic experi-
ence in tourism and destination marketing. Arghavan’s research
focus is on cognitive psychology, social psychology, emotion, atti-
tude, advertisement and destination marketing.
Anna Kralj is the Undergraduate Program Director at Griffith
University, Australia. Anna’s research interests focus on human
resource management, service management and attitudinal studies.
Noel Scott is an Adjunct Professor at the Sustainability Research
Centre, University of the Sunshine Coast, Sunshine Coast,
Australia. He has extensive international tourism experience as a
trainer, consultant, guest speaker, advisor and mentor. His
research interests lie in tourism marketing; emotion studies and
cognitive psychology.
Brent D. Moyle is an Associate Professor whose research primarily
focuses on the sustainable management of tourism destinations, appli-
cation of tourism in health studies, emotion and destination
marketing.
Sarah Gardiner is a Deputy Director of Griffith Institute for
Tourism at Griffith University, Australia. Her research interests
include destination marketing and development, tourism, economic
and event development strategies, and consumer behaviour and
market analysis.