Emotions as core building blocks of an experience

By Marcel C. M. Bastiaansen, X. Lub, Ondrej Mitas, Timothy Hyungsoo Jung, M. Ascenção, D. Han, T. Moilanen, B. Smit, W. Strijbosch. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 2019

169 citations recorded by the source corpus.

PurposeThis paper aims to stimulate the discussion in the fields of hospitality, tourism and leisure on what exactly constitutes “an experience” and how to measure it; the authors unpack the experience construct into its core constituent elements, namely, emotions.Design/methodology/approachThe paper reviews insights from psychology and cognitive neuroscience that define experiences as a fine-grained temporal succession of emotions that occur during an experiential episode. Limitations of current methods for measuring experiences are discussed, after which biometric and neuroscientific methods are reviewed that are optimally geared toward measuring emotions, as they occur during an experience with fine temporal detail.FindingsAn overview is presented of the available studies within the fields of hospitality, tourism and leisure that use these methodologies. These studies show that using these methodologies provides a fruitful methodological approach to measuring experiences in real time.Practical implicationsCompanies are constantly seeking to create memorable experiences for their customers. The proposed research methodologies allow companies to get a more fine-grained image of what impacts customers over the course of their experience and to actively integrate the use of emotions into creating experiences, as emotions are key to making them memorable.Originality/valueThe paper sketches the contours of a rapidly emerging framework that unpacks memorable experiences into their constituent element – emotions. It is proposed that this will contribute to a deeper understanding of how consumers experience offerings in the hospitality, tourism and leisure industry.

Subfields: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Sensory Systems, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/1222cb0c768988ba5d547f929d278caab0b25a31

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In Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

  1. Drew Martin
  2. Arch G. Woodside
  3. Sameer Hosany

In Social Psychology

  1. Drew Martin
  2. Yuhui Gao
  3. Arch G. Woodside
  4. Sameer Hosany
  5. Szu‐Hsin Wu

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