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Designing Persuasive Destination Web Sites: A Mental Imagery Processing Perspective
1. Introduction
Persuasive Web sites are those that can influence the attitudes of Web site users
(Morosan & Fesenmaier, 2007). Web sites’ influence on product attitudes has been confirmed by
empirical research (Macias, 2003; Lee, Gretzel & Law, 2010). Strong attitudes that are resistant
to change are especially important in the context of tourism destinations, for which online
information is abundant (Xiang, Wöber & Fesenmaier, 2008), competition for the attention of
consumers is fierce (Gretzel, Fesenmaier, Formica & O’Leary, 2006), and expectation formation
is difficult due to the complexity and experiential nature of the destination product (Nelson,
1970). Consumers planning a vacation are also likely to encounter traveler reviews and other
forms of social media (Xiang & Gretzel, 2010) that can challenge the brand image portrayed by
the official destination Web site. Further, research has found that users typically make very quick
judgments about destination Web sites (Kim & Fesenmaier, 2008); therefore, there is a great
practical need from the destination marketing point of view to identify those features of
destination Web sites that can effectively persuade and encourage users to elaborate on the
portrayed advertising messages so they can form resistant attitudes.
Recent studies have especially addressed the importance of virtually transporting the
consumers of travel information to the destination to support the formation of concrete
expectations (Rozier-Rich & Santos, 2010; Lee et al., 2010). It is indeed a major concern of
providers of tourism products to encourage quasi-trial experiences to support travel decision-
making processes (Stamboulis & Skayannis, 2003). Since actual product trial is impossible,
being able to vividly imagine what a destination is like is the next best alternative if the goal is to
form concrete expectations (Goossens, 1995). Oh, Fiore and Jeong (2007) emphasize that
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destination choice is influenced by the mental images the tourist forms based on the expected
experience at the destination. Further, Miller and Stoica (2003) have demonstrated that
consumers' choices of vacations may be significantly influenced by mental imagery processing.
Mental imagery processing refers to high elaboration processing and involves the
representation of nonverbal information in working memory (MacInnis & Price, 1987). When
travelers engage in mental imagery processing, they experience the destination in their mind’s
eye. Such processing is believed to help in learning about a product (Elliott, 1973). Research has
also found that it helps in the persuasion process. For instance, MacInnis and Price (1990) have
pointed out that mental imagery has a positive influence on consumer attitudes and leads to
greater confidence that events will unfold as expected. Past research has revealed that imagery
can be stimulated by various external advertising elements such as pictures, concrete words,
sound effects, and instructions to imagine (Babin & Burns, 1997; Bone & Ellen, 1992; Lutz &
Lutz, 1977; MacInnis & Price, 1987; Miller & Marks, 1997). Recently, Lee et al. (2010)
identified sensory descriptions on destination Web sites as textual elements that encourage
mental imagery processing. Building on this existing research, the study presented in this paper
tests the ability of textual, auditory, and pictorial features on destination Web sites to foster
strong and resistant attitudes by eliciting mental imagery processing.
2. Theoretical Background 2.1 Mental Imagery Processing and Persuasion
Mental imagery processing can be conceptualized as “a mode of information processing
which includes sensory representations (images) in working memory that are used in the same
way as perceptions of external stimuli” (Goossens, 2000, p. 306). Similarly, it is identified by
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Lutz and Lutz (1978) as “a mental event involving visualization of a concept or relationship”
(p.611). Mental imagery theory assumes that we mentally re-present in our minds something
that was presented to us before by experience or that we imagine based on information available.
According to Burns, Biswas and Babin (1993), this mental imagery can be experienced in
different sensory modalities and can vary in terms of vividness and quantity. Research on
imagery has provided strong evidence that elaborate imagery processing may positively
influence decision outcomes (Babin & Burns, 1997; Bone & Ellen, 1990).
From the perspective of consumer research, a consumer’s mental image of a tourism
product can be the main source of information available to enhance expectations and facilitate
purchasing decisions (Walters, Sparks, & Herington, 2007). When imagery is encouraged
through vivid product information, it strongly influences consumers’ attitudinal judgments
(McGill & Anand, 1989). Most importantly, several researchers have found that attitudes
formed based on mental imagery processing tend to be stronger, more stable over time, and more
resistant to persuasion because of its high elaboration quality (Haugtvedt & Petty, 1992; Petty,
Haugtvedt, & Smith, 1995). Considering these findings, it is critically important for tourism
marketers to understand what types of stimuli on a destination Web site efficiently induce mental
imagery so that they can design persuasive sites that can successfully compete in the tourism
information space.
2.2 Narrative Information Processing
While the impact of pictures on imagery processing has been studied extensively in
consumer research (e.g. Paivio, 1971; Rossiter, 1978; Babin, Burns & Biswas, 1992; Burns,
Biswas & Babin, 1993; Babin & Burns, 1997), little empirical research exists that deals with the
effects of text formats on mental imagery processing. Brewer (1988) claims that text genre can
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indeed be an important factor in encouraging mental imagery processing and Lee et al. (2010)
also found textual qualities of destination Web sites to matter. Thus, there is a need to further
examine the relations between textual genre and mental imagery.
A text genre very common in tourism promotion is the narrative (Rozier-Rich & Santos,
2010). Narrative in a broad sense refers to anything recounted or retold; in a narrower sense it
describes something that is told or recounted in the form of a story (Denning, 2000). It is the
latter that is of specific interest in the context of persuasion. Delgadillo and Escalas (2004)
identified two required structural features that distinguish narratives from other text genres:
chronology and causality. The first refers to events described in the narrative as being organized
with respect to a temporal sequence. Second, text elements are structured in a way that builds
relationships among characters and objects, thus allowing for causal inference. Similarly, Stein
and Albro (1997, p. 12) suggest that stories are comprised of “goal-directed action-outcome
sequences” called “episode schemata,” that is, they start from initial events that result in a
response from a character’s physical condition, psychological state, or both. These responses
develop goals that lead to courses of action and certain outcomes (Pennington & Hastie, 1986).
The specific structure of narratives influences the way in which they are processed.
According to Packer and Jordon (2001), narratives allow the human mind to “collapse
boundaries of space and time, drawing attention to previously undetected connections, creating
links between disparate ideas and elements (p. 174).” Some researchers claim that this is the
case because the structure of narratives resembles the associative way the human mind stores
knowledge (Schank & Abelson, 1995). They are also inherently entertaining (Brewer, 1988).
Green and Brock (2002) stress that mental imagery may be facilitated by narratives because they
allow for deep immersion and, thus, “transportation” into the story. Transportation into a
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narrative world is conceptualized as a distinct mental process, which may mediate the impact of
narratives on beliefs, and may derive its force from individuals’ general ability to create vivid
mental images (Green & Brock, 2000; Escalas, 2004).
Narrative processing has indeed been linked to persuasion. Padgett and Allen (1997)
contend that narrative advertising would be the most effective way to communicate, especially in
the context of an experiential product such as tourism. This argument has also been made by
Mattila (2000). Escalas (2007) finds that self-referenced narratives enable consumers to generate
a positive evaluation of an advertised product no matter what level of argument strength they
include. When narrative ads are presented in the form of stories, potential customers are likely to
envision functional consequences and derive symbolic meanings to interpret the advertisement
(Padgett & Allen, 1997). Phillips and McQuarrie (2010) also point out that the greater the
transportation into a story, the greater the belief that the world within the story is true, since there
will be less critical examination of the ideas that were presented in the story world.
In the context of tourism, Gretzel (2006) suggests that “travel stories help us understand
and make meaning of our travel experiences and encourage us to relive and reflect on trips, as
well as integrate travel experiences with the rest of our experiences and knowledge” (p. 175).
Adaval and Wyer (1998) found that vacations at unfamiliar destinations were more positively
evaluated by consumers who were exposed to advertising information in a narrative format
rather than in a list of attributes. According to research by Tussyadiah and Fesenmaier (2008),
the narrative structure of travel blogs allows readers to feel empathy and associate the
experiences of the blogger with their own. A connection between the reading of travel narratives
and narrative transportation was established by Rozier-Rich and Santos (2010).
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While tourism-related print and TV advertising make extensive use of sensory
descriptions and narrative texts, destination Web sites often contain functional lists of, for
example, attractions or accommodation establishments (Gretzel & Fesenmaier, 2002). The
question is whether including a greater amount of narrative text on destination Web sites will
increase the persuasiveness of these Web sites.
2.3 Processing Pictures and Sounds
As mentioned above, pictures have been studied extensively in the context of mental
imagery processing (Rossiter 1978; Shepard, 1967; Kisielius & Sternthal, 1984). In addition,
Lutz and Lutz (1977, 1978), Alesandrini and Sheikh (1983), and Rossiter and Percy (1983)
investigated the effects of various types of pictures specifically on recall and attitude. Babin et al.
(1992) found a picture superiority effect which demonstrated that visual information would be
remembered over verbal information. In the context of destination marketing, Olson,
McAlexander, and Roberts (1986) found that pictures presented in destination advertisements
have an influence on a consumer’s perception of the vacation experience through the association
of variety of pictures with certain types of experiences. Furthermore, Miller and Stoica (2003)
indicated that photographic images of beach scenes effectively stimulated mental imagery
processing. More recently, Walters, Sparks and Herington (2007) asserted that the presence of
more concrete pictures affects the extent of elaboration and the quality of consumers’
consumption visions. Adaval and Wyer (1998) noted that the addition of pictures to a narrative
format can encourage readers to imagine the sequence of events, and can facilitate the
construction of a representation to be used as a basis for judgment. In a more recent study they
reconfirmed that a picture presented in combination with narrative text can cause a verbal event
description to be more vivid, help the recipients to enhance perceptual links between events, and
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increase the story’s coherence (Adaval, Isbell, & Wyer, 2007). On the other hand, Goossens
(1995) claimed that using pictorial images may smother individuals’ imagination as they become
over-reliant on the featured image as an information source rather than elaborating on their own
mentally created images.
With regard to the effects of sound on mental imagery, several researchers found that the
inclusion of sound effects increased mental imagery processing (Ferrington, 1994; Miller &
Marks, 1992, 1997). Lee et al. (2010), however, did not identify any significant sound effects.
Interestingly, Frick (1984) discovered that if processing was evoked visually with a set of items
followed by a series of auditory items, recall was better than if both sets of items were elicited by
auditory or visual modes alone. With regard to mixing sound and narrative text, Kerr (1999)
claimed that sounds add critical information to narrative text. Even more persuasively,
Verhallen, Bus, and De Jong (2006) showed that stories accompanied by multimedia features
including video, sounds and music were able to stimulate people to construct meaning and gain a
deeper understanding of the story line. Specifically, presenting the story with sounds can result
in a listener’s greater ability to process the story and to construct a more coherent mental
representation of the story events (Verhallen et al., 2006). These findings are consistent with
dual coding theory.
Dual coding theory developed by Paivio (1971) points out that people learn better when
stimuli include related verbal and pictorial information compared to verbal information alone or
pictorial information alone. He also indicated that information presented via the pictorial channel
is more salient and better remembered than information presented through the verbal channel
(Paivio, 1991). Richardson (1999) also pointed out that information is likely to be retrieved
more accurately when it is encoded using dual codes rather than just one code. If one code is
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forgotten, the other code can still facilitate the retrieval of all the information. Lukosius (2004)
claimed that the more codes (e.g. picture, sound, text, touch, etc.) used, the better the recall.
Multimedia learning theory developed by Mayer (1997) suggests that multimedia presentations
can foster focused attention and immersion into the content and, consequently, can make it more
meaningful. The ability of destination Web sites to include both visual, verbal and auditory
stimuli should therefore contribute to their persuasiveness.
Along with multimedia learning theory and dual coding theory, media richness theory,
which was initially posited by Daft and Lengel (1986), also asserts that multiple cues embedded
in messages support information processing tasks. Rich media are especially important in
ambiguous communication contexts (Daft, Lengel & Trevino, 1987; Dennis & Kinney, 1998). In
the context of online consumer behavior, a recent study noted that the perceived richness of
online stores may have a significant impact on consumers’ intentions to buy online (Brunelle &
Lapierre, 2008). However, a priori statements of one medium being richer than another are
inappropriate as they neglect the specific communication context (Dennis & Valacich, 1999).
Furthermore, D’Ambra (1995) asserted that the measures provided by Daft et al., (1987) were
highly unreliable and unidimensional. Due to these reasons, this study adopted dual coding
theory and multimedia learning theory as theoretical frameworks to guide the research.
2.4. Communication Effects of Mental Imagery Processing
Mental imagery plays a significant role in mediating ad-evoked feelings and attitudes
(Bone & Allen, 1990, 1992; Burns et al., 1993; Mitchell, 1986; Mitchell & Olsen, 1981). Since
mental imagery is self-generated cognitive processing, it can be expected to be more personally
relevant (Escalas, 2007). Thus, it may result in self-generated persuasion and stronger attitudes
(MacInnis & Jaworski, 1989). Importantly, mental imagery can lead to self-sell and therefore
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greater belief that the formed attitude is correct (Tormala & Petty, 2004). The literature also
infers stronger attitudes as a result of mental imagery processing from the fact that it involves
high elaboration processing (Haugtvedt & Petty, 1992; Petty et al., 1995). Petty and Krosnick
(1995) noted that there are two dimensions of strong attitudes: the first is related to the
persistence of an attitude (stability), which is the degree to which an attitude remains unchanged
over an extended period. The other is resistance: the attitude’s ability to withstand an attack.
Research by Petty and Cacioppo (1986) indicates that strong attitudes are more likely to come to
mind faster, persist over time, resist counter persuasive attempts and guide behavior more than
weak attitudes. Several researchers have also found a connection between attitude certainty and
resistance to persuasion (Bassili, 1996; Krosnick & Abelson, 1992; Swan, Pelham, & Chidester,
1988; Pomerantz, Chaiken, & Tordesillas; 1995; Tormala & Petty, 2002). Such resistance to
persuasion is of great importance in an online travel planning context, where new and potentially
negative information about a destination is only a click away.
3. Conceptual Framework and Hypotheses
While there is strong theoretical and, in part, also empirical support for the positive
effects of narrative, pictorial and auditory stimuli on mental imagery processing and for mental
imagery processing leading to stronger attitudes, no empirical study has so far tested these
relationships in a comprehensive model. A comprehensive model is important to simultaneously
test the effects and also to identify interaction effects. Further, most of the research on which the
theories are based was conducted using print advertising. In contrast, the current study seeks to
examine whether these assumptions hold true in the context of multimedia environments such as
destination Web sites.
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As illustrated in Figure 1, specific Web site features (text information in narrative format,
presence of picture and presence of sound) are posited as predictor variables, while
communication effects in the form of attitude strength, attitude confidence, and attitude
resistance are assigned as dependent variables. Mental imagery serves as a mediator to
accentuate or attenuate the effects of the predictor variables on the dependent constructs. Overall,
the conceptual framework indicates that an imagery-eliciting Web site feature is assumed to
evoke mental imagery, which in turn is expected to lead to stronger attitudes, i.e., attitudes that
are more resistant to counter-persuasion attacks.
As described in the literature review, narratives, pictures and sounds enrich information,
foster immersion, and encourage a deeper and more extensive processing of content. Therefore,
the following hypotheses are proposed:
H1: Narrative text on a destination Web site has a positive influence on mental imagery
processing.
H2: Pictures on a destination Web site positively affect mental imagery processing.
H3: The presence of sound on a destination Web site encourages mental imagery
processing.
According to the cognitive theory of multimedia learning (Mayer 1997), a story
supplemented with multimedia such as pictures or sounds may foster a deeper understanding of
information. Additionally, research by Verhallen et al. (2006) suggests that presenting pictures
or sounds can increase the ability to process a story and construct a more coherent mental
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representation of story events. Stories can uniquely incorporate pictures or sounds to enhance
perceptual links between events and to increase the story’s coherence (Adaval et al., 2007). Thus,
there is strong support for interaction effects to take place among the mental imagery inducing
stimuli.
H1a: The positive impact of narrative text on imagery processing will be even greater
when pictures are present.
H1b: The positive impact of narrative text on imagery processing will be even greater
when sounds are present.
H1c: The positive impact of narrative text on imagery processing will be the greatest
when pictures and sounds are both present.
H2a: The positive impact of pictures on imagery processing will be greater when sound
is present.
The reviewed literature suggests that mental imagery processing is a form of cognitive
processing that is elaborate and focused and very influential when it comes to attitude formation.
Consequently, when customers surf destination Web sites, imagery processing allows them to
form more concrete expectations and engage in greater information elaboration, which will likely
instill confidence and make their attitudes stronger and more resistant to change.
H4: Mental imagery processing leads to positive communication effects, namely greater
attitude strength and confidence.
H5: Attitude strength and confidence effects generated through mental imagery
processing significantly influence attitude resistance to change.
4. Research Methodology
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An experiment was designed to examine the influence of Web site design features
including narrative texts, presence of pictures, and sound effects on attitude strength, confidence
and resistance, with the assumption that this influence is mediated by mental imagery processing
induced by these Web site elements.
4.1 Design
The study used a 2 (narrative text vs. expository text) × 2 (picture vs. no picture) × 2
(sound vs. no sound) full factorial between-subjects design to determine the main and interaction
effects of the influence of narrative content, pictures, and sounds on mental imagery processing
and ultimately attitude strength, confidence and resistance. The Web site designed for the
purpose of the experiment showed a fictitious island destination. Only the homepage of the Web
site was visible, with the links indicated on the page not being active to achieve controlled
exposure to the text/picture/sound elements. There were a total of eight experimental conditions.
The contents and lengths of the text included on the sites were the same, only the text structure
varied. Narrative text and expository text differ in that narrative text portrays a sequence of
events, includes protagonists, and connects parts of the text by means of suggesting causal
relationships (Wolfe, 2005). In contrast, expository text is descriptive, does not refer to
protagonists, and does not seek to connect the individual text elements (Figure 2). The narrative
text condition is presented in Figure 3. The Web site shown to the subjects only included the
logo and text in the no-picture condition. The picture condition (Figure 3) included a series of
four revolving pictures of island, beach, and ocean scenes. In the sound condition, the Website
included ocean sounds (crashing waves and seagulls). All conditions were pre-tested to ensure
their appropriateness.
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4.2 Measures 4.2.1 Mental Imagery. To measure the mental imagery construct, the present study adapted an
imagery scale developed by Miller, Hadjimarcou, and Miciak (2000). This mental imagery scale
consists of four dimensions: 1) vividness; 2) quantity; 3) valence; and, 4) modality. Quantity and
modality were measured using seven-point rating scales ranging from 1 (Strongly disagree) to 7
(Strongly agree), including three items for quantity and two items for modality (Table 1). Only
taste and scent were tested as modalities as sound and visual stimuli were provided in some of
the conditions and touch was not applicable in the context of the study. The vividness and
valence scales were measured using seven-point semantic differential scales, including five items
for vividness and five for valence (Table 1). The items were preceded by the introductory
statement “The mental imagery I experienced was…”.
4.2.2 Attitude Scales. As dependent variables, the current study explored attitude strength,
confidence, and resistance of attitude to counter-arguments. The scales for attitude strength and
confidence were adapted and modified from Bizer, Tormala, Rucker, and Petty (2006) using
seven-point rating scales (Table 1). Attitude strength was measured with four items and
confidence with two. In order to measure attitude resistance, subjects were exposed to a negative
destination review that contradicted the initial destination description. Attitude strength was
measured before as well as after the exposure to the reviews. Accordingly, an attitude resistance
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measure was produced by subtracting the attitude strength score of each item in time two from
attitude strength scores in time one.
4.3 Participants
This study intended to obtain a minimum of 25 responses per experimental cell; thus, at
least 200 participants were needed. The goal of the study was to test a theoretical model rather
than to describe occurrences of a phenomenon in a population; also, influences of visual, textual
and auditory stimuli on mental imagery processing are based on very basic cognitive processes in
which social characteristics should not play a role. Thus, a student sample was deemed to be
appropriate. Problems arising from potential gender differences were avoided by using random
assignment to the experimental conditions. A $3 gift card was given to each participant as an
incentive to join the study. The recruitment effort resulted in 252 responses. However, seven
students could not complete the survey due to technical problems, and six students completed the
survey but indicated the same response for every question. Consequently, a total of 239 subjects
were included in the analysis.
4.4 Procedure
When subjects arrived at the research lab, they were greeted by a research assistant and
informed that an online travel agency was interested in developing a newly created destination
Website. Next, they were seated at a computer and randomly assigned to an experimental
condition based on the order of their appearance. The subjects were instructed to carefully look
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at the Website and read the vacation destination description provided. After being exposed to the
Website for two minutes, they were presented with an online, self-administered questionnaire
asking them to evaluate the Website and rate their attitude toward the destination. The Web-
based survey then presented a negative review of the destination. The participants were asked to
indicate their attitudes toward the destination again after their exposure to the negative review.
After completing the survey, all subjects were debriefed and compensated.
4.5 Manipulation Checks
To make sure that the manipulations were reliable and effective, this study conducted
several manipulation checks during pre-tests by asking pre-test subjects about the believability of
the Website and the destination review as well as the suitability of the texts, pictures and the
sound. More specifically, 15 graduate students and 20 students from the same subject pool as the
main study were involved in a series of pre-tests to evaluate the validity and score reliability of
the scales used in this study as well as to test whether subjects could successfully distinguish the
narrative text from the expository text; pre-testing determined that this was the case. During the
main study, manipulation checks aimed to make sure that the subjects actually paid attention to
the manipulations. First, all subjects in the picture conditions stated that they saw pictures.
Second, all of those in the sound conditions indicated that they had heard sound.
4.6 Analysis
The hypothesized relationships between independent, mediator, and dependent measures
were tested by means of structural equation modeling (SEM) using Amos 5.0 (Arbuckle, 2003).
To address problems with large sample size requirements, unreliability, and non-normal or
coarsely measured item-level data, parceling was used (Landis, Beal, & Tesluk, 2000). The idea
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of creating and using item parcels was originally introduced by Cattell (1956), and further
explored by Cattell and Burdsal (1975). Parceling is usually done by summing or averaging
several items that presumably measure the same construct (Meade & Kroustalis, 2005). For the
current study, a total of six parcels were created for each dimension underlying a latent construct.
First, under the mental imagery construct, quantity, modality, vividness and valence parcels were
created by averaging the item scores. In the context of the communication effect construct,
attitude strength and attitude confidence parcels were produced. However, attitude resistance
was measured using its four items separately since the construct consisted of only one dimension.
5. Results
5.1 Measurement Model
The originally proposed measurement model was estimated using maximum-likelihood
estimation. As suggested by Hu and Bentler (1999) and Quintana and Maxwell (1999), several
indices were used to assess goodness of fit for the model. The initial test of the measurement
model resulted in poor model fit (Chi-Square/df = 4.1; CFI = .95; NFI = .93, RMSEA =.10). In
particular, the mental imagery construct exhibited very poor construct reliability, as indicated by
the fact that the four parcel indicators loaded inappropriately onto the latent construct.
Additional analyses suggested that vividness and valence variables were causing the problems.
Therefore, an alternative model was estimated that only included quantity and modality as
dimensions of mental imagery processing. As discussed by other researchers (Gefen, Straub &
Boudreau, 2000; Chin & Todd, 1995; MacClallum, Roznowski & Necowitz, 1992), the dropping
of measurement items to improve model fit should be executed with caution as it can generate an
overfitting of the model to the data. As recommended in the literature (MacCallum et al. 1992),
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only a few model modifications were made to fix the relatively severe model-fit problems. Also,
appropriateness from a theoretical point of view was a major decision criterion. The overall
model fit improved: Chi-Square/df=3.0, which is appropriate (Kline, 1998); CFI = .97; NFI
= .95; and RMSEA =.09; consequently, the alternative model was adopted. The discriminant
validity of the constructs was tested by calculating the squared roots of average variance
extracted (AVE). As shown in Table 2, all AVE scores were higher than the threshold of .5 as
recommended by Fornell & Larcker (1981) for all three constructs (mental imagery= .65;
communication effect= .84; attitude resistance= .84). Second, the convergent validity of the
constructs was examined. All items had factor loadings higher than .5, which suggests good
convergent validity (Nunnally, 1967). Composite reliability was computed to assess the internal
consistency of the constructs. As shown in Table 2, the composite reliability values of all of the
constructs exceeded the minimum .60 suggested by Nunnally and Bernstein (1994).
5.2 Structural Model
The overall model fit and the regression paths were estimated to determine if the
proposed model described the data well. As shown in Table 3, the model fit is acceptable. The
normalized chi-square statistic indicated an adequate fit (Kline, 1998). Further, the
recommended threshold is 0.9. for NFI, CFI and GFI (Brown, 2006), and RMSEA values less
than .08 are seen as indicating satisfactory fit (Hu & Bentler, 1999).
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The squared multiple correlation coefficients (SMC; R2) for indicator variables were
assessed. SMCs lie between 0 and 1 (the closer to 1, the more of the latent construct can be
explained by the model). The results reveal that the model does not explain mental imagery
(R2=.07) and attitude resistance (R2=.10) very well. However, it explains a large portion of the
communication effects construct (R2= .72).
Figure 4 shows the hypothesized structural model paths. Most of the model paths yielded
significant parameter estimates. However, in the context of the impact of multimedia stimuli
(e.g., narrative text, pictures, and sound) on mental imagery processing, only pictures showed a
significant effect (β=.23, p < .01). These results provide support for Hypothesis 2, but not for
Hypotheses 1 and 3. Additionally, the interaction effects were not significant. Thus, the results
of the structural model did not support H1a, H1b, H1c, and H2a.
Most importantly, Figure 4 reveals that the mental imagery construct strongly influenced
the communication effects construct (β=.85, p < .01), which is represented by attitude strength
and attitude confidence. In other words, evoked mental imagery leads to positive
communication effects, which supports Hypothesis 4. In addition, the results presented in Figure
4 show that attitude strength and confidence have a significant impact on attitude resistance
(β=.32, p < .01). This implies that the stronger the attitude the more resistant it is to negative
stimuli. This finding supports Hypothesis 5. In addition, this study confirmed full mediation of
mental imagery processing as the modification indices for the model did not suggest the need for
modeling additional relationships among the constructs.
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6. Implications
The purpose of this study was to generate insights into the nature of imagery-evoking
Website features including narrative text, pictures, and sounds, and to explore the relationship
between these Web site features and communication effects that are encouraged through mental
imagery processing. The overarching goal was to see whether certain Website features can
induce changes in attitudes that are resistant to subsequent persuasion attempts.
6.1 Theoretical Implications
Prior research has found that mental imagery processing can be evoked by various
external advertising stimuli (Babin & Burns, 1997; Bone & Ellen, 1992; MacInnis & Price,
1987; Miller & Marks, 1997; Lutz & Lutz, 1977). Most of this research has focused on print
advertising and has usually only included one stimulus, which does not allow for interaction
effects to be tested. Mental imagery research in the context of Websites has mainly dealt with
the effects of object interactivity (Schlosser, 2003; Macias, 2003) and sensory information (Lee
et al., 2010). Thus, the current study has contributed to mental imagery research by
simultaneously testing three different stimuli in the context of a Website. Further, in the tourism
field very little research has been conducted on the effects of features (Lee & Gretzel, 2008) and
particularly pictures (Jeong & Choi, 2004) included in destination Websites. Thus, the findings
certainly contribute to this body of literature as well.
The most important finding of the study is that mental imagery processing indeed not
only leads to very strong attitudes but also greater confidence in attitudes. This issue had not
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been addressed in the context of tourism nor in the context of online information processing . In
the present study, mental imagery processing was confirmed as an important element of
persuasive communication in the context of travel planning, even if the persuader is not a human
communicator or a traditional advertising medium but a Website. Consequently, more emphasis
needs to be placed on studying mental imagery processing in the context of tourism marketing
and travel decision-making as well as online communication environments.
With respect to attitude resistance, this study also successfully supports past research
indicating that strong attitudes significantly influence attitude resistance (Haugtvedt & Petty,
1992; Petty et al., 1995). Based on these findings, it can be stated that once subjects form strong
attitudes and confidence in the destination through mental imagery processing, they are more
likely to resist negative reviews of the destination. Given that very little research has been
conducted regarding attitude resistance in the realm of tourism marketing while the likelihood of
tourism consumers being exposed to reviews is increasing, the findings of this study are an
important contribution to tourism marketing research.
6.2 Practical Implications
With the growing amount of information available on the Internet and the increasing
number of destination options available to travel consumers, it will be ever more important to
create persuasive Website designs that can help consumers learn about destinations and form
strong attitudes about them. Moreover, in the context of successful tourism marketing, with the
rocketing amounts of consumer-generated contents that include personal stories, pictures, and
sound available on tourism Websites, a persuasive Website effectively instills confidence in
consumers and helps them form attitudes that are more resistant to counter-arguments. Also,
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21
given the many benefits for marketing that can be assumed to result from imagery processing, it
appears to be critical for online tourism marketing to be better informed about the effectiveness
of imagery processing and the stimuli that can encourage it. When consumers evaluate
experience products, they may have a higher degree of uncertainty compared to other physical
products. Running a simulation-like scenario in one's mind can facilitate the process of
destination decision making and lead to more confidence in the decision. While customers
consume information on travel Websites, imagery processing enables them to engage in greater
information elaboration and to form more certain expectations (Goossens, 2000). Tourism
marketers should make an effort to help travel planners to imagine what it would be like to
experience the destination, which can lead to positive attitudes and build confidence.
Furthermore, the generated high levels of certainty foster resistance to subsequent negative
persuasion, which is of high practical relevance given the likely exposure to social media content
in travel information searches (Xiang & Gretzel, 2010).
These findings can help tourism marketers understand how critical it is to invest in
careful Website design and also to evaluate the effectiveness of particular designs. The current
study especially emphasizes the importance of pictures. While many tourism marketers
intuitively know that they are important, this study shows that they can make a significant
difference; thus, decisions to place pictures on Websites need to be made with an understanding
that changes will affect the Website’s persuasiveness. In general, Websites are often designed by
practitioners based on past experience, existing examples, or technological considerations. The
research presented in this paper argues very strongly for a more scientific approach to Website
design.
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6.3 Limitations and Future Research
The current study should be considered in light of its limitations. First, while the
manipulations were extensively pre-tested there always remains the question of whether they
were strong enough. Second, using just a beach destination for this experiment may constrain
the generalizability of the results found in this study. The use of Websites for a broader array of
tourism products such as hotels, events and festivals, and other destinations may generate
different results in terms of mental imagery processing. Third, the use of student subjects was
limiting in that students can be different from older and less educated individuals in terms of
their experience or proficiency in interpreting information (James & Sonner, 2001). However,
given that the research aim of the current study was to focus on theoretical explanation rather
than the generalization of the study to a population, using student subjects was appropriate
(Sternthal, Tybout & Calder, 1994; Peterson, 2001; Walters, Sparks & Herington, 2007).
Moreover, as is typical for experiments, the context was artificially created and did not represent
a real travel planning scenario, which can influence motivations to process the information.
Further, the problems in measuring the vividness and valence of mental imagery processing
suggest that a stable measure has yet to be developed to assess these dimensions. The lack of
visible effects could have been due to only measuring the quantity and modality of the mental
imagery.
Future research in this area should be extended to include a greater variety of
potentially imagery-evoking Website features. For example, it may be interesting to investigate
how interactive or customized features such as interactive maps or chatting with travel experts on
the Website influence mental imagery processing. On the other hand, presenting just pictures to
subjects without any other conditions, or pictures with narration in the form of audio instead of
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narrative text, or videos that combine moving pictures with narrative and sound may result in a
different level of mental imagery processing. Also, varying the length of the narratives and the
type and quality of sound might produce different results. Additionally, while instructions to
imagine have been widely tested for evoking mental imagery processing, they have not been
tested in online environments, and thus can be a subject for future research. Further, the
experiment was conducted using traditional computer screens. However, Fogg, Booker and Don
(2004) assert that recently developed mobile phones are more compelling platforms for
narratives. They claim that mobile phones are highly personal devices, thus people are more
likely to experience content from those phones in a way that is more personal and influential than
content from a computer. If people are indeed more receptive to persuasive messages through
mobile phones, it will be valuable to study mental imagery processing while using these other
types of platforms, which are increasingly used in the context of travel and tourism.
Several issues need to be discussed with regard to the text manipulation. First, all
subjects were exposed to a text in either expository or narrative form. Thus, even though the
findings of this study revealed that the narrative versus expository text did not influence mental
imagery processing, it is highly possible that the information contained in the text by itself might
have evoked mental imagery processing. The proposed structural model showed that the picture
condition significantly affected mental imagery, but indicated a small standardized coefficient
β=0.23, which means that the pictures had a small influence on mental imagery. Nevertheless,
many of the subjects reported mental imagery. It needs to be asked what generated this mental
imagery. Indeed, both text conditions contained a large number of sensory words. Previous
research has found that the proper mixture of sensory information presented on Websites can
strongly evoke mental imagery, which can greatly influence consumer attitudes and behavioral
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intentions (Lee et al., 2010; Miller et al., 2000; Schlosser, 2003). Another aspect that might have
to be considered is the length of the text as it was rather short to avoid burdening the study
subjects. In real trip planning contexts, individuals are highly motivated to process information
and will probably consume more text, which might make effects more visible.
Of the stimuli included in the study, only pictures significantly affected mental imagery
processing. The result is consistent with existing research (Babin et al., 1992; Kisielius &
Sternthal, 1984; Paivio, 1971; Rossiter, 1978; Shepard, 1967; Hirschman & Solomon, 1984;
Starch, 1966) that finds pictures to more efficiently evoke mental imagery processing than other
stimuli. However, the insignificant results for the other modalities are inconsistent with research
that claims that narrative texts and sounds support mental imagery processing. More research is
needed to examine whether the specific context (i.e. destinations) is the reason for this or if other
types of manipulations are needed to evoke effects.
In addition, the current study revealed that sound does not influence mental imagery.
Some researchers claim that when imagery processing and auditory perception compete for the
same resources, elaboration of information can be reduced (Unnava, Agarwal, & Haugtvedt,
1996). In other words, they assert that imagery generated by subjects selectively interfered with
the processing of externally provided information (Unnava et al., 1996). For example, while
conducting the experiment for this study, subjects were informed that they would see the
Website of an island destination. At that time, subjects might have generated auditory imagery
by themselves before they actually heard waves and seagull sounds. In this case, based on
Unnava et al. (1996), the interference between self-generated auditory imagery and actual sounds
can adversely affect cognitive elaboration. Not enough research currently exists to address this
issue in a definitive manner.
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25
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Table 1. Descriptive Statistics for Each Construct
Items in Scale Internal Consistency Construct
Name Item No. Item Wording Mean SD
Cronbach’s Alpha
Quantity
Q12a Many images came to my mind 5.23 1.34
0.92 Q12b A lot of images came to my mind 4.96 1.45
Q12c I experienced various images in my mind 5.02 1.41
Modality Q12d I imagined tastes 3.38 1.71
0.82 Q12e I imagined scents 3.72 1.85
Vividness
Q13a Vivid-Vague 2.77 1.49
0.93 Q13b Clear-Unclear 2.90 1.44 Q13c Sharp-Dull 3.34 1.60
Q13d Intense-Weak 3.69 1.61 Q13e Well-defined-Fuzzy 3.28 1.61
Valence
Q13f Pleasant - Unpleasent 2.20 1.21
0.96
Q13g Good-Bad 2.37 1.26 Q13h Nice-Awful 2.38 1.30 Q13i Likable-Not likeable 2.21 1.23
Q13j Positive-Not positive 2.08 1.16
Attitude Strength-Time 1
Q14 How good would the destination be for a pleasure trip? 6.12 1.02
0.94 Q15 How positive would you say is your impression of the destination? 5.88 1.01
Q16 How much do you think you would like this destination? 6.02 1.05
Q17 How favorable is your impression of the destination? 5.86 1.05
Attitude Confidence
Q18 How certain are you of your attitude toward this destination? 5.40 1.23 0.84
Q19 How sure are you that your current impression of the destination is correct? 4.85 1.39
Attitude Strength-Time 2
Q20 How good would the destination be for a pleasure trip? 3.68 1.48
0.95 Q21 How positive would you say is your impression of the destination? 3.46 1.36
Q22 How much do you think you would like this destination? 3.72 1.54
Q23 How favorable is your impression of the destination? 3.47 1.32
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Table 2. Alternative Measurement Model Analysis
Latent Variable Indicators Factor Loadings Construct Reliability
Average Variance Extracted
(AVE)
Mental Imagery Quantity .72
.60 .65 Modality .58
Communication Effect
Attitude Strength .96 .82 .84
Attitude Confidence .69
Attitude Resistance
Attitude Resistance 1 .76
.90 .84 Attitude Resistance 2 .78
Attitude Resistance 3 .86
Attitude Resistance 4 .94
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Table 3. Model-Fit Indices for Structural Model Model-Fit Statistics χ
2 df χ2/df CFI GFI NFI RMSEA
132.49 65 2.03 .93 .93 .89 .065
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Figure 1. Conceptual Framework
Website Characteristics
Narrative Text vs. Expository Text
Presence of Picture vs. No Picture
Presence of Sound vs. No Sound
Mental Imagery
Processing
H1
H3
H2
H4
Attitude Strength
& Confidence
Attitude Resistance
H5 H5
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Figure 2. Experimental Condition: Expository Text Only
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Figure 3. Experimental Condition: Narrative Text, Picture, No Sound
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**denotes significance at the 0.5 level
Figure 4. Hypothesized Structural Model.
Mental Imagery
Q M
e e
Communication Effects AC
AS e
e
Attitude Resistance AR3
AR2 e
e
AR1 e
AR4 e
Sound
Narrative × Picture
Narrative × Sound
Picture
Narrative
Narrative Picture Sound
Picture × Sound
.07 (ns)
.23**
.00 (ns)
- .05 (ns)
.07 (ns)
.06 (ns)
- .07 (ns)
.76 .81
.88
R 2 = .72
R 2 = .10
.92 .72 .58
R 2 = .07
.95
.70
.85** .32**
× ×
d
d
d
-
38
Appendix 1.
Intercorrelations Among Proposed Indicators 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
1. AtRes1 - 2. AtRes2 .39** - 3. AtRes3 -.66** -.48** - 4. AtRes4 -.65** -.36** .78** - 5. Quan .54** .39** -.66** -.70** - 6. Modality .40** .42** -.56** -.50** .66** - 7. Vividness .20** -.03 -.05 -.14* .23** -.01 - 8. Valence .19** .04 -.12 -.16* .30** .13* .72** - 9. AttiS .25** .24** -.37** -.28** .23** .17** .00 -.01 - 10. AttiC .03 .11 -.01 .01 -.01 .02 .10 .05 -.15*
Note. N = 239. 1=AtRes(Attitude resistance) ,2= AtRes2 , 3= AtRes3 , 4=AtRes4 , 5=Quantity ,6=Modality, 7= Vividness , 8=Valence 9=Attitude Strength , 10=Attitude Confidence * p < .05. ** p < .01.
2. Theoretical Background2.2 Narrative Information Processing2.4. Communication Effects of Mental Imagery Processing
3. Conceptual Framework and Hypotheses4.1 Design4.2 Measures4.3 Participants4.4 Procedure4.5 Manipulation Checks5.1 Measurement Model5.2 Structural Model6.1 Theoretical Implications