ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Environmental Psychology
This article is part of the Research TopicThe Role of Empathy in Behavioral Change Toward Ethical Consumption and Environmental SustainabilityView all 11 articles
The Impact of Empathy with Nature on Tourists' Responsible Behavioral Intentions in Natural Heritage Tourism: The Moderating Roles of Escapism and Awe
Provisionally accepted
- 1Hubei Institute of Fine Arts, Wuhan, China
- 2Hanyang University, Seongdong-gu, Republic of Korea
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Natural heritage tourism offers unique opportunities for visitors to engage with both ecological and cultural resources, yet fostering responsible tourist behavior remains a critical challenge for sustainable destination management. This study investigates the mechanisms through which tourists' perceptions of natural and cultural environments influence their responsible behavioral intentions, focusing on the mediating role of empathy with nature and the moderating effects of perceived escapism and awe. Using Shennongjia in Hubei Province, China, as a case study, data were collected through structured questionnaires and analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results indicate that both natural and cultural environmental perceptions significantly stimulate empathy with nature, which in turn positively affects tourists' economic and non-economic responsibility behaviors. Empathy with nature was found to mediate the relationships between environmental perceptions and both types of responsible behaviors. Perceived escapism moderated the effect of natural environment perceptions on empathy, while awe strengthened the relationship between empathy and non-economic responsibility behaviors. Notably, the moderating effects of escapism on cultural perceptions and awe on economic responsibility behaviors were not significant, highlighting nuanced boundary conditions. These findings contribute to theory by clarifying the dual role of natural and cultural stimuli in promoting empathy-driven responsible behavior and by identifying the differential effects of affective moderators on economic versus non-economic actions. Practically, the results suggest that destination managers should design experiences that integrate natural and cultural engagement, foster empathy, and strategically evoke escapism and awe to enhance both material and normative sustainable behaviors among tourists.
Keywords: awe, Empathy with nature, Escapism, Natural Heritage Tourism, Responsible Behavioral
Received: 07 Jul 2025; Accepted: 02 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wang, Huang, Chen and Liu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Kang Wang
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