Animal ethics and tourism: deepening a stimulus–organism–response (S-O-R) framework

Abstract

Animal ethics has been recognized as an emerging issue in tourism, but limited research has concentrated on tourists’ behaviors toward animal ethics and its fundamental mechanisms. This study develops a research framework to address this gap, including media coverage and organizational strategies on reducing animal abuse, cognitive and affective states toward animal ethics, norm activation model variables, and behavioral intentions using stimulus–organism–response (S-O-R) theory. Findings indicate that media coverage and organizational strategies can be construed as underlying external stimulus constructs within the S-O-R model in the background of animal-related tourism. This study additionally shows the mediating nature of cognitive and affective states. Findings particularly indicate that personal norm is the focal influencing factor of tourists’ behavioral/word-of-mouth intentions toward animal ethics. This research contributes to reducing animal abuse and understanding the underlying theoretical mechanism linked to tourist behaviors and animal ethics.