Pleasure Through Pain: An Empirical Examination of Benign Masochism in Tourism

Nørfelt, Astrid, Kock, Florian, Karpen, Ingo Oswald, and Josiassen, Alexander (2023) Pleasure Through Pain: An Empirical Examination of Benign Masochism in Tourism. Journal of Travel Research, 62 (2). pp. 448-468.

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Abstract

Paradoxical at first sight, some tourists engage in activities involving negative emotions and even physical pain. Tourism scholars have begun investigating this phenomenon and have called for more of such research. Against this background, the authors introduce to tourism the notion of benign masochism, defining it as a trait describing a person’s tendency to embrace and seek pleasure through safely playing with a stimulating level of physical pain and negative emotions. In doing so, the authors root benign masochism in the notion of play from evolutionary psychology and develop a benign masochism scale that is able to predict various tourism outcomes, including willingness to visit a haunted house, to go on a challenging adventure holiday, and to visit a nuclear disaster site. The authors conclude by discussing theoretical and managerial implications as well as limitations and future opportunities for research.

Item ID: 73574
Item Type: Article (Research - C1)
ISSN: 1552-6763
Keywords: adventure tourism, Benign masochism, dark tourism, evolutionary psychology, play
Copyright Information: © The Author(s) 2022
Date Deposited: 19 May 2022 03:12
FoR Codes: 35 COMMERCE, MANAGEMENT, TOURISM AND SERVICES > 3508 Tourism > 350806 Tourist behaviour and visitor experience @ 100%
SEO Codes: 11 COMMERCIAL SERVICES AND TOURISM > 1104 Tourism services > 110402 Socio-cultural issues in tourism @ 100%
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