It Is All in the Mind(set)! Matching Mindsets and Luxury Tourism

Abstract

Informed by the psychological theory of mindsets, we establish how “fixed” and “growth” mindsets divergently influence luxury travel behaviors. Across three experiments, we found that the relative preference for luxury travel is higher when consumers adopt a fixed rather than growth mindset (studies 1a and 1b). The effect of mindsets is also evident within consumer evaluations of luxury hotel advertisements. Specifically, providing detailed information about the luxury hotel’s facilities via advertising improves evaluations when travelers adopt a growth mindset, but such information has no effect when they adopt a fixed mindset (study 2). Moreover, while fixed mindsets show more positive evaluations of luxury hotels when an advertisement employs affective language, employing cognitive language results in more positive evaluations among growth mindsets (study 3). Taken together, these results illustrate that fixed mindsets value luxury travel for self-enhancement benefits, while growth mindsets – for superior quality.