Groot, Iris (2024) Travel light, leave your cognitive dissonance behindd? A new framework for understanding cognitive dissonance in the context of polar tourism. Master thesis, Psychology.
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Abstract
More and more people are travelling to the polar regions (i.e., the (Ant)Arctic). Studies show many of these people highly care for nature and are motivated to visit the regions to be close to nature, but in doing so, they paradoxically harm this very same environment. It is therefore important to gain insights in why people increasingly engage in these harmful travels despite their pro-environmental beliefs. We examined if this paradox can be explained on a cognitive level, by dissecting people’s biospheric values into an anthropocentric attitude (i.e., nature has instrumental value) and an ecocentric attitude (i.e., nature has intrinsic value). Ecocentric attitudes were expected to make people experience cognitive dissonance about their travel behaviour, whereas anthropocentric attitudes would act as a buffer. In turn, this arising dissonance was expected to be related to the debated concept of engaging in ambassadorship behaviours. A questionnaire among customers of a Dutch travel agency (N = 325) revealed that people engaging in polar tourism strongly endorse biospheric values, and hold both, anthropocentric attitudes and ecocentric attitudes. In explaining the pathway to experiencing cognitive dissonance, ecocentric attitudes appeared to have a significant relation with feeling dissonant emotions, whereas anthropocentric attitudes did not buffer the dissonance. In turn, the experience of cognitive dissonance was found to be related to travellers engaging in ambassadorship behaviours upon arrival back home. This suggests that cognitive dissonance can play an important role in explaining people’s harmful travel behaviour to the polar regions and consequent ambassadorship behaviours.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Master) |
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| Supervisor name: | Valkengoed, A.M. van |
| Degree programme: | Psychology |
| Differentiation route: | Environmental Psychology (EP) [Master Psychology] |
| Date Deposited: | 26 Jul 2024 14:03 |
| Last Modified: | 26 Jul 2024 14:03 |
| URI: | http://gmwpublic.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/4168 |
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