Localization or globalization? A psychophysiological approach to understanding tourists’ emotional experiences toward symbolic linguistic landscape

Abstract

ABSTRACT The local dialect and English in the linguistic landscape (LL) help to create an atmosphere of localization and globalization, which impacts tourists’ perceptions. This study collected skin electrophysiological and self-report data (n = 54) and jointly revealed the emotional experience. The results show that, according to construal level theory, local and global LL stimulates higher arousal and pleasure respectively, furthermore, tourists' perception consistency and understanding of LL play a mediating and moderating effect in the process of emotional experience. Therefore, the design of local and global LL should consider the balance of familiarity and novelty based on psychological distance.