Investigating the Role of Mental Effort in Social and Self Perceptions of Visitors in Hawaiʻi

Abstract

In Hawaiʻi, residents have a need for local culture, ʻāina (environment), and traditions to be respected by visitors; this represents one component of sustainable tourism as the relationship between visitors’ behavior and residents’ feelings. The Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority plans to educate visitors to increase respectful behavior, however this may be difficult if visitors would also like to mentally “check out” during vacation. Across two studies, I investigate the amount visitors ideally vs. actually think on an average day as “Mental Effort”. In Study 1 (N = 298), I find that students in Hawaiʻi hold more negative perceptions of visitors than fellow residents, and that decreases in perceived mental effort mediate more negative evaluations (such as extent of perceived respect) of both visitors and residents in Hawaiʻi. In Study 2 (N = 111), I sample visitors and find that friction between ideal vs. actual mental effort predicts reported time and financial investment towards sustainable tourism activities. I also find evidence that feeling attached to the culture in Hawaiʻi positively correlates with reported time and financial investment towards sustainable tourism activities.