Cognition and Affect Interplay: A Framework for the Tourist Vacation Decision-Making Process

The article investigates traditional decision-making choice models and offers a new way of thinking about the tourist vacation-making intricacies. Specifically, this article examines the interrelationship between affect and cognition in the tourist vacation decision-making process and argues that consumers, during each vacation decision-making task, use both affect and cognitive processes in varying degrees depending on their valence and intensity. The traditional view of decision making posits that the consumer is a rational decision maker who proceeds through a series of prescribed steps before finding an optimal decision solution. However, with the growing prominence on the role of affect, “hot” aspects of cognition in psychology, and neuroscience investigations, much of the traditional cognitive-dominated theories are being reexamined. A tourist decision-making framework is presented demonstrating the proposed theory and provides understanding to the influences that affect and cognition have on the decision-making process. After delineating these concepts, propositions are presented followed by the Discussion and Conclusions section that summarizes and discusses challenges associated with studying affect.