Exploring the mechanism of empathy on lens language and linguistic landscape on movie-induced tourism: The moderating effect of cultural differences

Abstract

Since the development of film-induced tourism, scholars have increasingly shifted their attention to examining film-induced tourism from different perspectives. However, little research has been devoted to the underlying mechanisms by which audiences empathize with movie scenes. Current research believes that the lens language of movies is helpful for the communication between the movie and the audience. It not only helps the audience to shape the imagination of the movie scene, but also contributes to the construction of a virtual language landscape, and promotes the audience’s cognition of the movie scene. Bringing their emotions and self-expression into the story ultimately enhances the audience’s perception of where it was filmed. In exploring the framework of the transformation of empathy in lens language to landscape language, cultural differences are also proposed as the boundary conditions for the relationship between lens language and empathy. Structural equation modeling with PLS-SEM was employed to test the proposed hypotheses. The findings suggest that lens language positively predicts language landscape and empathy positively mediates the aforementioned relationship. Furthermore, the interaction term of cultural differences amplifies the relationship between lens language and empathy. Finally, we discuss theoretical and practical implications.

Exploring the appeal of villainous characters in film-induced tourism: perceived charismatic leadership and justice sensitivity

“…When people see extraordinary abilities in others, they develop feelings of admiration (Immordino- Yang et al 2009). In the context of the film as a marketing tool, the success of film-induced tourism derives from the audience's admiration for film celebrities (Zeng et al 2023). Admiration elicited by film characters can come not only from heroes but also from villains.…”