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

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dc.contributor.advisorSasaki, Joni
dc.contributor.authorWeitz, Elizabeth
dc.contributor.departmentPsychology
dc.date.accessioned2024-07-02T23:43:49Z
dc.date.available2024-07-02T23:43:49Z
dc.date.issued2024
dc.description.degreeM.A.
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10125/108475
dc.subjectSocial psychology
dc.subjectaffect valuation
dc.subjectcognitive load
dc.subjectmental effort
dc.subjectself perception
dc.subjectsocial perception
dc.subjecttourism
dc.titleInvestigating the Role of Mental Effort in Social and Self Perceptions of Visitors in Hawaiʻi
dc.typeThesis
dcterms.abstractIn 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.
dcterms.extent73 pages
dcterms.languageen
dcterms.publisherUniversity of Hawai'i at Manoa
dcterms.rightsAll UHM dissertations and theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission from the copyright owner.
dcterms.typeText
local.identifier.alturihttp://dissertations.umi.com/hawii:12043

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