Social Crowding Research Articles

Tourist Crowding versus Service Quality: Impacting Mechanism of Tourist Satisfaction in World Natural Heritage Sites from the Mountain Sanqingshan National Park, China

World Heritage Sites (WHS) possess outstanding universal value (OUV) centered on science and aesthetics, and the large scale of tourism has a certain influence on sustainable development, which will have some degree influence on the quality of tourist service and experience. Taking the World Natural Heritage Site Mount Sanqingshan National Park in China as a case, we collected 535 samples of tourists and used structural equation modeling as a methodology to construct a theoretical framework from the perspective of tourists’ perception, including tourism crowding (functional crowding, personal crowding, and social crowding), service quality (interpretation, goods, commuting, accommodation, and catering), tourists’ satisfaction, and OUV attractiveness as intermediary variables. The results were: (1) tourist crowding has a substantial negative influence on satisfaction, and the negative influence on OUV attractiveness is not tenable; (2) service quality has a substantial positive impact on OUV attractiveness and satisfaction; (3) the tourists’ perception of OUV attractiveness has a mediating influence on service quality and satisfaction, but there is no mediating impact on tourism crowding and satisfaction; (4) this paper puts forward the SCA-S (service, crowding, attractiveness, and satisfaction) framework of WHS, and explores impact factors and mechanisms of visitor satisfaction of WHS from different aspects. The relevant research conclusions have some theoretical value and practical significance for the interpretation and display of heritage value, improved service quality, and tourism experience, and they are conducive to protecting WHS.

When travel blurs the self: The role of self-diagnosticity in tourist pay-what-you-want

While existing research on pay-what-you-want often focuses on specific factors within the tourism context (e.g., time pressure, social crowding) that impact customers' payment magnitude, little is known about how the tourism context per se may shape customers' responses in pay-what-you-want pricing. Building on the multiple self-aspects framework, self-diagnosticity theory, and escapism characteristics of tourism, this research proposes that, because one's core self-aspects are less available and accessible in the tourism environment, customers in the tourism (vs. daily) context undergo a diminished perception of self-diagnosticity, which motivates them to pay less in pay-what-you-want. Intriguingly, the negative effect of tourism (vs. daily) context on customers' pay-what-you-want payments will be reversed when customers are engaged in eudaimonic (vs. hedonic) experiences. The focal effect is examined in both pure consumption and cause marketing situations and the underlying mechanism is explored using both mediation and moderation approaches. Theoretical and managerial implications are also discussed.

Don’t squeeze me! Exploring the mechanisms and boundary conditions between social crowding and uncivilised tourist behaviour

ABSTRACT Many studies have revealed that social crowding may adversely affect tourists. However, the mechanisms by which social crowding negatively affects the psychology and behaviour of tourists, especially those in natural area destinations, and strategies for mitigating these impacts remain unclear. To address these issues, a mixed method approach was employed, consisting of two studies. Study 1 conducted semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis to identify the critical variables and their potential relations. The results showed that social crowding can stimulate negative tourists’ psychological and behavioural responses. Tourists’ moral identity may also be a boundary factor. To verify the relationship between the variables, study 2 used a survey to explore the formative mechanism and boundary conditions of social crowding on uncivilised tourist behaviour. The empirical findings indicated that: (1) social crowding significantly influences uncivilised tourist behaviour; (2) negative emotions play a partial mediating role in uncivilised tourist behaviour; (3) moral identity negatively moderates the impact of negative emotions towards uncivilised tourist behaviour; (4) the indirect effect of negative emotions was also moderated by moral identity. Theoretically, this paper examines the relationship and boundary conditions between social crowding and uncivilised tourist behaviour. Practically, the research provides suggestions for natural area destination flow management.

Social Crowding, Territoriality and Consumer Behavior: Brand Value's Moderating Role

Social Crowding, Territoriality and Consumer Behavior: Brand Value's Moderating Role

Does multilingual packaging influence purchasing in retail segment? Evidence from multiple experiments

The language on green product packaging shapes consumers' shopping experiences and purchase intentions. This study aims to explore the effects of multilingual packaging on consumers' intention to purchase green products through a series of four experiments with data collected using the survey method. Experimental findings reveal that consumers' familiarity with the language used on green product packaging positively influences their likelihood of purchasing such products. This relationship is strengthened in the presence of higher social crowding. Furthermore, the study uncovers that including bilingual or trilingual packaging enhances consumers' propensity to purchase green products. This research demonstrates the positive impact of multilingual packaging on sales of green products, attracting a more extensive consumer base and increasing consumers' purchase intention for environmentally friendly products. Additionally, the study identifies the role of different levels of social crowding in the relationship between consumer language familiarity and their intention to purchase green products. Besides significantly contributing to the scholarly discourse, it provides practical implications for companies and brands in designing future effective green product packaging language. These findings contribute to promoting green products, offering valuable suggestions to assist companies in better designing and packaging their products to attract a broader consumer base and, thus, increase their market share.

More space needed: Social disconnectedness predicts the aversion to crowdedness

AbstractFeelings of belongingness threat are common nowadays. The lack of social support received from friends and family leads to social disconnection. Our objective is to investigate the effect of unmet need to belong on preference for crowdedness. Expecting the prospects to interact and reconnect with others, socially disconnected consumers may be more receptive to crowdedness. By contrast, social disconnection may sensitize consumers to potential social threat and thus drive them away from the crowds. To find out how socially disconnected consumers react to crowdedness, three quasi‐experiments with more than 1500 participants (Mage = 35.9, 64% female) from an online panel were conducted. Our findings support the latter hypothesis. We manipulate the crowdedness of the service setting, while the natural variation of social disconnectedness was captured by measuring participants' unmet need to belong. Socially disconnected consumers are averse to social crowding (Studies 1 and 2). Specifically, regression analyses reveal that crowdedness has a negative impact on attitude and word‐of‐mouth recommendation. Importantly, the effect of crowdedness is found exaggerated by unmet need to belong. Disconnected consumers avoid social crowding since they may consider getting too close an invasion of personal space. The findings on preference for space are extended to time in Study 3. In particular, busyness interacts with unmet need to belong such that disconnected consumers avoid busy schedules in package tours. Findings from the three studies together suggest a general preference for more psychological space when need to belong is not met.

Too crowded to fall in love? The destination image trident versus social crowding

ABSTRACT Destination image is a well-established concept in tourism literature, given the intangible nature of tourism products, it is an essential asset for destinations as it plays a critical role in attracting and retaining tourists. However, despite growing crowding concerns in tourism marketing, the relationship between Destination image and Social Crowding remains unexplored. The current study models the relationships between Destination Image, Social Crowding and Destination Love in a direct, mediating and moderating manner. These relationships offer a holistic view of the impact of Social Crowding on destination image and consequently, destination love. To avoid bias, we used a simple random sampling method to collect data from tourists who visited Kashmir. The results indicated a negative relationship between the C-A-C framework and social crowding among tourists. However, the crowding and destination love relationship was positive-natured. This study acts as a theoretical glue to provide further explanation towards tourism and crowding literature.

사회적 크라우딩과 전문가 생성 콘텐츠가 소비자 정보 채택에 미치는 영향

Social media marketing has become an integral part of integrated marketing communications, playing a significant role in establishing strong relationships between businesses and consumers. The study focuses on categorizing content generated by professional bloggers into experiential and promotional types, considering that consumers’ levels of product information and risk perception vary, influencing their intent to adopt information.
 Therefore, businesses should select appropriate environments based on the type of product content to enhance consumer’ willingness to adopt information. Consequently, the exploration of how to effectively increase consumers’ intent to adopt information by selecting environments is a relevant issue. In this study, the common social phenomenon of social crowding is explored visually, applying the heuristic-systematic model theory. The study investigates the impact of social crowding and professional blogger content types on consumers’ intent to adopt information. The research hypotheses were validated through three experiments, demonstrating that the interaction effect between professional user-generated content types and social crowding influences consumer information adoption. Furthermore, information processing fluency showed a mediating effect on the impact of professional generated content types and social crowding on consumer information adoption. The study also verified a moderating effect of consume knowledge levels on the interaction effect between professional generated content types and social crowding on consumer information adoption.
 Theoretically, this study enriches research in the fields of social crowding and content marketing, providing insights for businesses in formulating marketing strategies. It emphasizes the importance of selecting appropriate social crowding situations for various types of content marketing activities.

Pheromone of grouped female mice impairs genome stability in male mice through stress-mediated pathways

Population density is known to affect the health and survival of many species, and is especially important for social animals. In mice, living in crowded conditions results in the disruption of social interactions, chronic stress, and immune and reproductive suppression; however, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we investigated the role of chemosignals in the regulation of mouse physiology and behavior in response to social crowding. The pheromone 2,5-dimethylpyrazine (2,5-DMP), which is released by female mice in crowded conditions, induced aversion, glucocorticoid elevation and, when chronic, resulted in reproductive and immune suppression. 2,5-DMP olfaction induced genome destabilization in bone marrow cells in a stress-dependent manner, providing a plausible mechanism for crowding-induced immune dysfunction. Interestingly, the genome-destabilizing effect of 2,5-DMP was comparable to a potent mouse stressor (immobilization), and both stressors led to correlated expression changes in genes regulating cellular stress response. Thus, our findings demonstrate that, in mice, the health effects of crowding may be explained at least in part by chemosignals and also propose a significant role of stress and genome destabilization in the emergence of crowding effects.

Relaxing or challenging? How social crowding influences the effectiveness of activity-based destination advertising

With the return of global travel in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, destination marketers face the major challenge of attracting tourists via advertisements in an environment characterized by fierce competition and comparatively limited budgets after a long hiatus. This research examines the effectiveness of different activity-based destination advertising tactics in crowded environments. Advertisements promoting tourism activities are poised to be particularly effective in the post-COVID-19 landscape, as tourists now prioritize experiential activities after enduring years of restrictions. This research shows that social crowding influences people's reactions to advertisements promoting different activities (relaxing vs. challenging). Specifically, in more (vs. less) crowded places, people are less (more) likely to be attracted by challenging (relaxing) activity-based advertisements because crowding triggers risk aversion. More importantly, promoting challenging (relaxing) activities with a loss (gain) frame triggers positive reactions to advertisements in a crowded environment.

Consumers’ response to CSR statement type in social crowding

PurposeBased on the construal level theory, this research study examines the interactive effect between social crowding and corporate social responsibility (CSR) statement type on consumers' purchase intention.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted two empirical experiments on a total of 508 subjects.FindingsThere is an interactive effect between social crowding and CSR statement type on consumers' purchase intention. Specifically, in high social crowding situations, concrete CSR statements lead to consumers' higher purchase intention, while in low social crowding situations, abstract CSR statements lead to consumers' higher purchase intention. Self-construal and processing fluency play a moderating and mediating role in the mechanism.Originality/valueThis research study contributes to the theoretical understanding of the interaction between social crowding and CSR statements, enriching the field of consumer behavior research on social crowding. Additionally, it offers practical insights for enterprises on how to present CSR information in crowded situations.

Does social crowding promote green products purchasing? Analyzing the role of face consciousness and relative price

Promoting environmental sustainability, green consumption behavior is a crucial approach for individuals. Utilizing the “factor-intention” logic, we constructed a model to examine the relationship between social crowding, face consciousness, relative price level, and consumers' intentions to purchase green products. We conducted three experiments to assess the influence of social crowding on green product purchasing, along with examining the mediating effect of face consciousness and the moderating effect of relative price level. The results demonstrated a positive impact of social crowding on consumers’ intentions to purchase green products, with the relationship being moderated by the relative price level. Additionally, the desire to gain face and the fear of losing face partially mediated the interaction between social crowding and green product purchasing.

Social- or task-oriented: how does social crowding shape consumers' preferences for chatbot conversational styles?

PurposeDriven by artificial intelligence technology, chatbots have begun to play an important customer service role in the online retail environment. This study aims to explore how conversational styles improve the interaction experience between consumers and chatbots in different social crowding environments, and the moderating role of product categories is considered.Design/methodology/approachThree studies are conducted to understand the influences of conversational styles, social crowding and product categories on consumer acceptance, assessed using situational experiments and questions.FindingsIn a low social crowding environment, consumers prefer chatbots with a social-oriented (vs. task-oriented) conversational style, while in a high social crowding environment, consumers prefer a task-oriented (vs. social-oriented) conversational style, and warmth and competence mediate these effects. The moderating effect of product categories is supported.Originality/valueThis study expands the application of the stereotype content model to improve the interaction experience level between consumers and chatbots in online retail. The findings can provide managerial suggestions for retailers to select a chatbot's conversational style and promote a more continuous interaction between consumers and chatbots.

The role of social crowding in pay-what-you-want pricing

Despite the pervasiveness of pay-what-you-want pricing in the travel and hospitality industry, tourism scholars have devoted little effort to investigating the effectiveness of this pricing scheme. The current research examines the joint effect of social crowding (crowded vs. non-crowded) and self-construal (interdependent vs. independent) on tourists' pay-what-you-want payments. The results indicate that crowding lowers payment amounts among individuals high in interdependent self-construal, but such an effect is not observed among people high in independent self-construal. Furthermore, the mediation analysis shows that self-dehumanization is the psychological mechanism underlying the negative crowding effect. The research findings help tourism operators to realize when and why social crowding lowers people's pay-what-you-want payments, thus enhancing the effectiveness of pay-what-you-want pricing.

Move in a crowd

Abstract When spatializing time, individuals can either say that they walk towards the future as though time is a stationary landscape (called ego-moving perspective), or that the future time moves towards them (called time-moving perspective). A substantial body of experimental research has shown that people’s adoption of these two temporal perspectives may be malleable, influenced by a broad set of factors. In the current research, we examined the novel possibility that the mere crowdedness of the environment can influence people’s abstract thinking about time. We contended that exposure to the crowd may be linked to increased anxiety, which can in turn lead to a greater preference for the time-moving perspective in the resolution of temporal ambiguity. Two experiments found that social crowding, whether induced via a visualization task or through an assignment to a crowded workstation, was sufficient to alter participants’ perspectives on the movement of events in time. Further, we found that anxiety mediated the relationship between crowdedness and temporal reasoning. Taken together, these results offer unique insights into the cognitive consequences of social crowding and provide a more complete understanding of how people adduce temporal relationship.

Maintaining the order: How social crowding promotes minimalistic consumption practice

Although minimalism has come to the forefront of contemporary consumer culture, neither its antecedents nor the psychological process that drives minimalistic consumption have been systematically established in the literature. This study documents a novel effect of social crowding, one common environmental cue, on minimalistic consumption practice. Across five experimental studies, we explore how exposure to social crowding motivates consumers to engage in minimalistic consumption as a means of coping with their experience of chaos and maintaining their psychological need for order. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the uncovered effects do not occur when a crowded environment is composed of familiar in-group members or when consumers have an interdependent self-construal. The findings therefore not only provide novel insights that extend the literature but also have certain implications for corporations seeking to promote minimalistic consumption practice.

The effect of social crowding on self‐perceived health risks in healthcare services

AbstractOvercrowding in healthcare environments (e.g., hospitals) has become a widely identified problem in today's healthcare. This research documents whether and how social crowding affects consumers' self‐perceived health risks in healthcare environments and its downstream effect. One pilot study (secondary data analysis), seven laboratory experiments, and a field survey (Study 6) demonstrated that social crowding increased individuals' self‐perceived health risks through a lack of control (Studies 1–6), thereby leading to overspending on the healthcare products (Study 5). Furthermore, the mediating process was moderated by choice and disease symptom severity (Studies 3 and 4). The findings of this research theoretically enrich our understanding of how social crowding interacts with individual disease symptoms and the services provided in the healthcare environment, and practically provide important implications for healthcare practitioners in managing consumers' health risks and consumption behavior.

Affective experience in a virtual crowd regulates perceived travel time.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10055-022-00713-8.

No one is an island: The influence of social crowding on prosocial intentions

AbstractCharitable activities emphasizing distant recipients or places often struggle to attract contributions because consumers tend to be more willing to help others who are spatially closer to them. Therefore, identifying methods to promote prosocial intentions toward distant recipients is critical, and the present study considers the implications of social crowding, as a common environmental factor, for evoking such prosocial intentions. Four studies conducted online and in the laboratory demonstrate that consumers are more likely to feel a stronger social connection to recipients of help in uncrowded (vs. crowded) environments, which, in turn, increases their helping intentions. This influence of social crowding on prosocial intentions is also moderated by spatial distance such that the effect is more significant when the charitable project targets distant (vs. closer) recipients.

A Conceptual Framework for Perceived Crowding in the Service Sector from the Lens of Psychological Reactance Theory

This study explores how perceived crowding affects customers in the service sector. A Semi-structured interview guideline was developed to assemble data from forty customers of banks and telecom franchises. Analysis of the research was carried out by using qualitative research software Atlas. The findings suggest that perceived crowding, including social and spatial crowding, impacts customers behaviour emotionally and psychologically. They demonstrate altered behaviour when present in a crowded environment. Further, it was also found that certain elements helped customers tolerate the effects of spatial and social crowding; either types of customers, environment/infrastructure, or Frontline Service Employees behaviour during service attainment. Additionally, following the assumptions of the theory of psychological reactance, this study proposed a research model for future empirical studies. Findings also suggest that top management must consider the impact that perceived crowding produces on customers. Limitations and future research directions and theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.