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Using the Brief Sensation Seeking Scale (BSSS) to predict holiday preferences
Personality and Individual Differences 36 (2004) 141–153 www.elsevier.com/locate/paid
Using the Brief Sensation Seeking Scale (BSSS) to predict holiday preferences Peter Eachus* School of Community, Health Sciences and Social Care, University of Salford, Frederick Road, Salford M6 7QU, UK Received 1 July 2002; received in revised form 2 December 2002; accepted 27 January 2003
Abstract The aim of this research was to examine the utility of the Brief Sensation Seeking Scale (BSSS) in predicting holiday preferences. The BSSS was administered to a convenience sample of 300 participants and of these 111 were returned. Holiday preferences were determined using a four factor scale designed to assess preferences for holidays whose central theme could be described as either, Adventurous, Beach, Cultural, or Indulgent. The results of this survey confirmed the psychometric properties of the BSSS and showed that it had utility in predicting holiday preferences. Significant correlations with the BSSS were obtained for Adventurous holiday preferences, Beach preferences, and Indulgent preferences. Within the four subscales of the BSSS, Experience Seeking was significantly correlated with Adventurous and Indulgent holiday preferences. Boredom Susceptibility was significantly correlated with Beach holiday preferences, as was Thrill and Adventure Seeking. Finally Disinhibition was found to be significantly correlated with Beach and Cultural holiday preferences. It was concluded that the sensation seeking personality, as measured using the BSSS scale, was predictive of holiday preferences. # 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction At the beginning of the 21st century global tourism represents one of the major growth areas in the economies of both the developed and the developing world. Even in Manchester (the home town of the author), what was once a grim city in the north west of England, the city from which the world wide industrial revolution began, the growth in the tourist industry now outstrips all other forms of economic growth. Why would anyone choose to holiday in Manchester, a town * Tel.: +44-161-295-2428; fax: +44-161-295-2427. E-mail address: [email protected] (P. Eachus). 0191-8869/03/$ - see front matter # 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/S0191-8869(03)00074-6
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famed for being wet and grey? Indeed, what are the factors that influence the behaviour of people when choosing any holiday destination? The purpose of this paper is to examine the role played by personality, and in particular sensation seeking, in determining tourist choice. Considering the size and impact the tourist industry has had in recent years there is remarkably little research on the psychology of tourism. Jackson, White, & White (2001) examined the citations associated with ‘‘Annals of Tourism Research’’ between the years 1984 and 2000 and found only one personality reference out of the 320 publications. One of the few published studies is that of Gilchrist, Povey, Dickinson, and Parey (1995) who used the Sensation Seeking Scale (SSS), (Zuckerman, Eysenck, & Eysenck, 1978) to examine the characteristics of people choosing ‘adventure holidays’. People who had recently returned from an adventure holiday were compared with a control group and were found to differ significantly on total scores and on the Thrill and Adventure Seeking sub scale of the SSS. The Sensation Seeking Scale is a personality measure characterised by ‘‘the need for varied, novel, and complex sensations and experiences and the willingness to take physical and social risks for the sake of such experiences’’ (Zuckerman, 1979, p. 10). People who score highly on the SSS seem to be drawn to activities that are of high risk, e.g. sexual risk-taking, (Hoyle, Feifar, & Miller, 2000), reckless driving (Heino, van der Molen & Wilde, 1996), smoking, (Zuckerman, Ball, & Black 1990) alcohol use (Stacy, Newcomb, & Bentler, 1993) and the use of illegal drugs (Zuckerman, Kuhlman, Joireman, Teta, & Kraft, 1993). Despite this positive finding of Gilchrist et al., the authors concluded that the Sensation Seeking Scale (SSS) needed updating if it was to become an adequate psychometric tool for use in tourism research. A revised version of the sensation seeking scale has now been published, the Brief Sensation Seeking Scale or BSSS (Hoyle, Stephenson, Palmgreen, Larch, & Donohew, 2002), and many of the deficiencies of the original scale have now been remedied. The new scale is much shorter, only 8 items compared with 40 in the original, the wording of the items has been brought up to date, and a Likert format has been substituted for the forced choice format in the original scale. Although the new scale has been standardised on over 7000 young people, it has not yet been used in an applied setting like psychotourism. One of the few researchers in this field to develop a tourism specific theory of personality is Plog (1972, 1987, 1991) who has suggested a psychocentric–allocentric dimension of personality. The original work stemmed from research that sought to find out why people on above average incomes refused to use air travel to reach their destinations. It was found that these people tended to be more anxious than average, were not venturesome, and felt they had very little control over their lives. In contrast, allocentrics were found to be adventurous and to prefer many varied experiences. In tourism terms, Jackson et al. (2001) suggest that the psychocentrics would prefer package holidays where everything was prebooked, they prefer familiar destinations, to be around people from their own culture, and to drive rather than fly to their destinations. Allocentrics are explorers, they prefer adventurous experiences away from traditional tourist routes, they like being part of other cultures and are happy to accept basic amenities. They are more likely to be independent travellers, avoiding organised tourism and preferring to holiday in relatively unknown destinations. The predictive validity of the allocentric–psychocentric dimension of personality is rather ambiguous. Smith (1990) developed a 21-item tourism personality scale and using a multinational sample investigated the relationship between tourist behaviour and the allocentric– psychocentric dimension of personality. No significant relationship was observed. One of the few
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studies to find a significant relationship between tourist behaviour and allocentric–psychocentric personality was that of Griffith and Albanese (1966) who found a significant correlation (r=0.23, P<0.05) between allocentric/psychocentric personality type and actual travel behaviour. There also appears to be a relationship between Eysenck’s extraversion dimension of personality and Plog’s allocentricism and psychocentricism. Lee-Hoxter and Lester (1988) found a small but significant correlation between allocentricism and extraversion as measured with the Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI) (Eysenck & Eysenck, 1970). This finding should not be too surprising given the description of the allocentric personality type that does appear to be that of an outgoing gregarious type of person. Jackson, Schmierer, and White (1999) have also examined the relationship between extraversion and allocentricism/psychocentricism and although they failed to find a significant correlation, factor analysis of all the items from the two scales revealed a two factor solution with Factor 1 essentially made up of extraversion items and Factor 2 allocentric items. This would suggest that the two constructs are in fact independent of each other and therefore tourists and their destination choices may best be described by two dimensions of personality rather than one.
Fig 1. A two dimensional tourist personality typology (adapted from Jackson et al., 2001).
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The model that follows from these findings has been proposed by Jackson et al. (2001) and is illustrated in Fig. 1. This model provides descriptors for four distinct personality types based on the two dimensions of extraversion/introversion and allocentricism/psychocentricism. Jackson et al. (2001) then go further in that they suggest the types of behaviour that should be typical of tourists with these different personality types. These have been superimposed on the model and are shown in italics in Fig. 1. Thinking about these four personality types in terms of holiday preferences it is suggested in this study that the following would be typical. The Explorer: This will involve self travel, own organisation, getting to the culture and the people. Will tend to be secluded, away from crowds. Will involve a degree of self-enrichment, excitement and challenge, e.g. trekking in Borneo. Climbing in remote regions or perhaps singlehanded sailing across oceans. The Adventurer: Similar to above but emphasis on travelling with others, friends or other tourists, e.g. overland trips as part of group of friends, sailing with others. The Guided: Holidays in home country, tends to go to the same place year after year. May be simple as in the British holiday camp/resort or it may verge on the more luxurious, e.g. Club Med, or an annual cruise on the same ship/destination, or staying in the same five star hotel each year. The Groupie: In Britain this would be the typical Club 18–30 person. . . a packaged holiday but with lots going on for young people, lots of activities, chance to meet other young people, lots of nightlife, sun, sand and sex. One of the difficulties in using the typology suggested by Jackson et al. (2001) is that there appears to be a great deal of overlap and ambiguity in terms of how these typologies might translate into holiday preferences. For example, the Explorer and the Adventurer typologies appear to be very similar, the only real difference being that the Explorer prefers to holiday alone whereas the Adventurer like the company of others. The Guided person prefers everything to be organised, as in a packaged tour, but then so does the young person on a Club 18–30 holiday, i.e. the Groupie. Obviously these ambiguities need to be resolved before this typology can be used as a psychometric instrument for evaluating holiday preferences. In the research to be presented in this paper it is proposed to take these descriptors and tourist personality types and to use them as a basis for a scale which will be used to identify four specific tourism choices. In the model proposed by Jackson et al. (2001) personality was used as the basis of the typology. In the research described in this paper it is proposed to modify this typology so that rather than looking at tourist personality a more objective measure of tourist choice might be used which can then be operationalised in terms of four distinct holiday preferences, thus: Adventurous preference: People who prefer adventurous holidays are likely to be independent travellers, like to be doing active things when on holiday, don’t mind roughing it, and prefer remote and unusual places to the more ‘‘touristy’’ destinations. Beach preference: Beach people are looking for a holiday in which they spend a great deal of time lying in the sun not doing very much at all. They like to be part of a crowd, want a holiday with lots of action and nightlife. Their holiday has probably been booked through a travel agent or tour operator. Cultural preference: People who express a cultural preference are likely to want to learn something new on their holiday. This might involve visits to museums or art galleries, but it might also be more ‘‘hands on’’, as in learning a new skill like painting or music. They see holidays as a
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cultural experience and as such will always try to make the most of it, e.g. meeting locals, trying to speak the language, and trying local food. Indulgent preference: For some people holidays should be about being pampered. Those with Indulgent preferences want the best they can afford in every respect, hotels, food, resort. They almost certainly eat and drink too much while on holiday, but see that as an integral part of the holiday experience. While the person with Cultural preferences might want to spend time in a gallery or at the opera, the indulgent person is more likely to be found shopping! It should be noted of course that even with this preference typology there is a certain degree of overlap. One person’s beach holiday will be another person’s indulgent holiday. For others, a holiday break in a Mediterranean resort might seem very adventurous compared with (say) a week in their usual home resort. These overlaps are inevitable and the degree to which they can be minimised in the development of a scale like this has to be empirically determined. The main hypothesis to be tested in this investigation is that the BSSS and its subscales will have some utility in predicting holiday preferences.
2. Method 2.1. Participants A convenience sample of 111 participants made up of staff and students from the University of Salford was obtained for this study. The age range of the sample was 17–75 years with a mean of 36.13 and a S.D. of 13.80. The gender split was 67 females and 39 males, five people did not provide this information. It should be noted that the responders in this study were of course selfselecting and because all responses were anonymous it was not possible to make any comparisons between responders and nonresponders. 2.2. Instruments 2.2.1. The Brief Sensation Seeking Scale (BSSS) (Hoyle et al., 2002) This scale measures sensation seeking using four subscales, two items per sub scale. See Table 1 for details of the items. Experience Seeking—the need to seek out new experiences. Boredom Susceptibility—the tendency to become restless and the need for the unpredictable. Thrill and Adventure Seeking—the need for excitement and adventure. Disinhibition—the tendency to ignore societal inhibitions. The BSSS is comprised of eight items, two per subscale and uses a five-point Likert format from strongly agree through to strongly disagree for responses. 2.2.2. The Holiday Preferences scale This scale measures holiday preferences using four subscales (10 items for each) as described earlier. Examples of items used in these sub scales are provided below:
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Table 1 Items and descriptive statistics for the BSSS compared with present study Item Experience seeking I would like to explore strange places. I would like to take off on a trip with no pre-planned routes or timetables. Sub scale Total Boredom Susceptibility I get restless when I spend too much time at home. I prefer friends who are excitingly unpredictable. Sub scale Total Thrill and Adventure Seeking I like to do frightening things. I would like to try bungee jumping. Sub scale Total Disinhibition I like wild parties. I would love to have new and exciting experiences, even if they are illegal. Sub scale Total Scale Total
M item-total r
SD
Corrected
4.07 (3.98) 3.47 (3.94) 7.54 (7.92)
0.97 (0.97) 1.29 (1.19) 1.78 (n/a)
0.19 (0.38) 0.26 (0.41)
3.33 (4.18) 3.14 (3.59) 6.57 (7.77)
1.25 (1.00) 1.03 (0.99) 1.73 (n/a)
0.12 (0.31) 0.41 (0.54)
2.63 (3.47) 2.57 (3.71) 5.20 (7.18)
1.21 (1.16) 1.55 (1.45) 2.50 (n/a)
0.62 (0.58) 0.50 (0.44)
2.38 2.50 4.88 3.01
1.31 1.26 2.17 0.59
0.49 (0.51) 0.56 (0.56)
(3.83) (3.17) (7.00) (3.74)
(1.15) (1.30) (n/a) (0.71)
0.71 (0.76)a
BSSS study n=1263. Present study n=111. a Coefficient alpha.
Adventurous Preference I would much prefer trekking to lying on a beach. Roughing it while on holiday doesn’t bother me. Beach Preference My ideal holiday involves spending a lot of time lying on a beach. My favourite type of holiday includes lots of sun, sand and nightlife. Cultural Preference Whenever I go on holiday I always make an effort to visit a local museum or art gallery. Travel and holidays should be about enriching your own knowledge. Indulgent Preference My ideal holiday would be a luxury cruise I think I would enjoy a holiday being pampered at a health spa Each subscale is assessed using ten items with a five-point Likert format as used for the BSSS. The minimum and maximum scores that can be obtained for each sub scale are 10 and 50 respectively. The higher the score on a particular sub scale the greater the preference exhibited for that type of holiday. 2.3. Procedure The items from the BSSS and the Holiday Preferences Scale were randomly combined to form a questionnaire that was called the Interests and Preferences Survey. Participants were recruited by
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post and email by sending them a request to participate in the research attached to a copy of the questionnaire. The request made it clear that no names were required and all responses would remain confidential, the only personal details requested were age and gender. Completed questionnaires were to be returned to a central collection point in the administration area of the University. In total 300 questionnaires were distributed and two weeks allowed for completion and return.
3. Results Of the 300 questionnaires distributed, 111 were returned, a response rate of 37%, an acceptable level for this type of survey. The BSSS is a new scale and its psychometric properties should be confirmed by other studies. In Table 1 the item and descriptive statistics for the data gathered in this survey and for the original BSSS study (in parentheses) are compared. In drawing these comparisons it should be noted that there were very wide differences between the two groups, both in sample size and composition and therefore any conclusions must be treated as tentative at best. The means and standard deviations for the two groups across all eight items are reasonably consistent. There is a slight tendency for the standard deviations of the present study to be greater than those for the BSSS but this probably reflects the greater heterogeneity of the sample in the present study. The data in the BSSS study was obtained from a sample of school children, age range 13–17 years whereas in the present study the age range was much wider, 17–75 years and this may account for the greater variability in response. The overall item analysis for this study appears to indicate that the BSSS is not as reliable as the authors claim and there seems to be a particular problem with the first item of the Boredom Susceptibility scale which showed a corrected item-total r of only 0.12 compared with 0.31 for the BSSS study. In the original BSSS study the authors also looked for response differences in ethnicity and gender. They reported that African-Americans tended to score slightly lower on the BSSS compared with other ethnic groups but no differences were found when genders were compared. The present study did not look at ethnicity as a variable but a comparison of gender was made. No significant differences were found for either the BSSS scale as a whole or any of the sub scales, supporting the findings of Hoyle et al. (2002) in the original study. 3.1. Predicting holiday preferences The main aim of the present study was to examine the utility of the BSSS in predicting holiday choice preferences. Descriptive statistics and alpha coefficients for the holiday preferences scale are shown in Table 2. Each sub scale contained 10 items which were scored on a five-point Likert scale and therefore the minimum and maximum scores that could be obtained were 10 and 50, respectively. The reliability of the subscales (Cronbach’s Alpha), with the possible exception of Adventure Preference which is on the low side, reached acceptable levels. The differences in expressed holiday preferences were examined using the nonparametric Friedman test and were found to be statistically significant, (Chi2=109.183, df=3, P< 0.0001),
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Table 2 Descriptive statistics and alpha coefficients for the Holiday Preferences Scale M Adventure preference Beach preference Cultural preference Indulgent preference
36.55 24.46 35.33 26.67
SD
alpha
N
5.35 7.18 6.24 7.00
0.66 0.80 0.77 0.73
111 110 111 111
with participants preferring Adventure holidays to the greatest extent and Beach holidays the least. Differences in the total scores of the sub scales of the BSSS (Table 1) were also examined using the Friedman test. The differences are statistically significant (Chi2 =92.38, df=3, P<0.0001) and although direct comparisons cannot be made with the Holiday Preferences scale it is interesting to note that participants score most highly on the Experience Seeking subscale and that this most closely resembles the Adventure preferences subscale on the Holiday Preferences scale. To examine the relationship between the BSSS and the scores on the Holiday Preferences Scale, Spearman’s rho was used and the correlation matrix is shown in Table 3. The table shows the correlations between age, BSSS, and the Holiday Preferences subscales, i.e. Adventurous (adve), Beach, Cultural (cultur) and Indulgent (indul). For completeness the BSSS sub scales of Experience seeking (exp), Boredom Susceptibility (bord), Thrill and Adventure Seeking (TAS) and Disinhibition (disin) are also shown. 3.2. Age, sensation seeking and holiday preferences Although many of the correlations were significant in the predicted directions, others require further discussion. The BSSS was developed using, in the main, groups of adolescents aged 13–17 Table 3 Correlation matrix for age, BSSS and holiday preferences BSSS age BSSS adve beach cultur indul exp bord TAS disin
0.34** 1.00
adve
beach
0.35** 0.34** 1.00
.72** 0.43** .31** 1.00
* P< 0.05 (1-tailed). ** P< 0.01 (1-tailed).
cultur 0.45** 0.05 0.55** 0.39** 1.00
indul 0.30** 0.04 0.57** 0.48** 0.30** 1.00
exp 0.18* 0.53** 0.61** .19* 0.25** 0.43** 1.00
bord 0.11 0.54** 0.12 0.22** 0.01 0.04 0.17* 1.00
TAS .45** 0.80** 0.21* 0.46** 0.10 0.01 0.24** 0.13 1.00
disin .44** 0.79** 0.10 0.57** 0.19* 0.11 0.23** 0.22** 0.56** 1.00
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years and no significant differences were found in the scores obtained by these different age groups (Hoyle et al., 2002). However, as a concept, it would seem reasonable that a trait such as sensation seeking might be more characteristic of younger people rather than their older counterparts. In the study reported here, the age range is considerably wider and the predicted hypothesis of a negative relationship between age and BSSS is confirmed, (r= 0.34, P< 0.01). Given this finding, the positive correlation between age and a preference for Adventurous holidays (r=0.35, P<0.01) appears somewhat contradictory. Older people tend not to prefer Beach holidays (r= 0.72, P<0.01), but do express Cultural holiday preferences (r=0.46, P< 0.01), both findings that would be expected. It was predicted that because, in part, older people are more likely to have a greater disposable income than the young, they would be more likely to prefer Indulgent holidays, this does not appear to be the case, if anything the reverse is true (r= 0.30, P<0.001). The relationships between age and the BSSS sub scales are largely what were expected with older people scoring lower on the Thrill and Sensation Seeking scale and the Disinhibition scale. There is a significant but small correlation with Experience Seeking, but no relationship was found with Boredom Susceptibility; older people it seems are just as susceptible to boredom as the young. 3.3. Holiday Preferences and Sensation seeking It was predicted that people who score highly on the BSSS would tend to prefer Adventurous type holidays and this was confirmed (r=0.34, p< 0.01). Those people who prefer Beach holidays also score highly on the BSSS scale (r=0.43, P<0.01) and this was to be expected since many of the items on this sub scale refer to the enjoyment of crowds, nightlife and other activities that sensation seekers might be expected to prefer. A negative correlation was predicted for the relationship between BSSS scores and a preference for Cultural holidays since people with a strong need for stimulation are not likely to be happy spending their time in art galleries, quiet museums or admiring architecture. In fact the correlation obtained was small and failed to reach significance ( r= 0.05, ns). The relationship between BSSS and preferences for Indulgent holidays was more difficult to predict. This sub scale was operationalised in terms of ‘‘lazy’’ self indulgent activities, e.g. being pampered, waited on and so on. It was assumed that these preferences would not be those of people who were sensation seekers since sensation seeking can be quite physically demanding! The findings suggest that there is little or no relationship between these two variables and they may well best be considered as independent constructs. At this stage in the analysis it must be concluded that the BSSS scale as a whole is only successful in predicting Adventurous and Beach holiday preferences. One difficulty faced by this study is that age may in fact be having a confounding influence on the correlations obtained. When age is controlled and a partial correlation matrix computed the results are indeed somewhat different from those depicted in Table 3. Comparing the partial correlation coefficients in Table 4 with the correlations in Table 3, reveals the extent to which age has had an influence. The main hypothesis in this study is concerned with predicting holiday preferences from scores obtained with the BSSS. From Table 4 it can be seen that ability of the BSSS to predict Adventurous and Beach holiday preferences holds up, Cultural holiday preferences remains unchanged but the prediction of Indulgent holiday preferences now reaches statistical significance and in the direction predicted (r= 0.25, P< 0.01).
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Table 4 Partial correlation matrix controlling for age
BSSS adve beach cultur indul exp bord TAS disin
BSSS
adve
1.00
0.53** 1.00
beach 0.28** 0.19* 1.00
cultur 0.05 0.47** 0.16 1.00
indul 0.25** 0.49** 0.37** 0.12 1.00
exp 0.63** 0.57** 0.08 0.18* 0.42** 1.00
Bord 0.53** 0.15 0.26** 0.03 0.06 0.12 1.00
TAS 0.75** 0.42** 0.25** 0.09 0.17* 0.30** 0.15 1.00
disin 0.75** 0.27** 0.30** 0.18* 0.05 0.32** 0.25** 0.42** 1.00
* P< 0.05 (1-tailed). ** P< 0.01 (1-tailed).
People who score highly on the need for sensation seeking do not tend to prefer the Indulgent type of holiday. Looking at changes in the relationships between the BSSS subscales and holiday preferences it can be seen that there is now a significant correlation between Disinhibition scores and Adventure preferences (r=0.27 P<0.01), a positive correlation as would be predicted. The correlation between Boredom Susceptibility and preferences for Beach holidays has changed significantly after controlling for age. Previously there had been a positive correlation (r=0.22, P<0.01) between these variables, this has now become negative (r= 0.26, P< 0.01). Intuitively this makes sense since it might be expected that younger people would be more susceptible to boredom than those who are older. It is also more consistent with the finding that Beach holiday preference is negatively correlated with age (r= 0.72, P<0.01); young people are more likely to prefer sun, sand and sea holidays, than are older people. Another change in the results which points to greater consistency is the correlation between the Thrill and Adventure Seeking (TAS) sub scale and preferences for Indulgent holidays. Previously there was no significant correlation between these two variables, this has now become modestly significant (r= 0.17, P<0.05) indicating that those people who prefer Indulgence tend to avoid thrills and adventures. A significant change in the correlations that is more difficult to interpret is that between Beach and Cultural holiday preferences. This has gone from being a significant negative correlation (r= 0.39, P<0.01) to now being not significant at all (r= 0.16, ns). The negative correlation made sense in that it showed that people who prefer cultural holidays don’t like lying around on beaches. Now after controlling for age this significant correlation has disappeared suggesting that age was the factor responsible. It now appears that it is not so much that people with cultural preferences don’t like beach holidays, rather it is that older people are more likely to express preferences for Cultural holidays. A similar argument can be made for the change in the correlation between Cultural and Indulgent preferences. If age is not controlled a significant negative correlation is observed (r= 0.30, P<0.01), a correlation which is quite difficult to explain. When age is controlled for, the significance disappears (r= 0.12, ns) suggesting that it is age that is responsible for this spurious relationship.
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4. Discussion This study sought to examine the utility of the Brief Sensation Seeking Scale (BSSS) (Hoyle et al., 2002) in predicting holiday preferences and in this it has been moderately successful. There were some sampling issues with the present study, for example the responders to this survey were self-selecting and there is no way of knowing how they may have differed from the nonresponders. The sample size utilised was small compared with the 1000+ in the Hoyle et al. (2002) study and it was also more varied, particularly in terms of age. Nevertheless, and accepting the constraints of this more heterogeneous sample, the psychometric properties of the BSSS do appear to gain some support. A much more extensive survey would be required to instil greater confidence in these findings. However, it is tentatively concluded that the findings reported in this study do suggest that the BSSS may have wider applicability than the authors originally envisaged, and in the context of the present study, this would include the interface between psychology and tourism research. The central thesis in this research has been that an individual’s need for sensation will manifest itself in terms of their expressed holiday preferences. Implicit in this is the notion that different types of holidays provide different degrees of stimulation or sensation. People who want a quiet holiday, away from the crowds, are not going to be happy in a bustling resort that caters mainly for noisy young people, and vice versa. People will choose holidays that reflect certain aspects of their personality and it was suggested here that sensation seeking would be an important feature of that personality; the findings of this research support this thesis. For the most part the relationships that exist between sensation seeking and expressed holiday preferences are what would be expected and have been predicted. People with a high need for sensation tend to prefer holidays that will provide them with higher levels of stimulation. Thus those people who score highly on the BSSS want adventure experiences, they want excitement, nightlife, and to some extent, danger. They tend not to want to spend their time on the more passive cultural activities, e.g looking at art, exploring the history of a locality, or learning about the language and customs of the people. This conclusion should however be treated with a degree of caution. There is probably a closer degree of similarity between items on the Experience Seeking sub scale and the preference for Adventurous holidays than any of the other sub scale items. The effect of this would be to increase the correlations found and suggest a stronger relationship than perhaps actually exists. Similarly, the Experience Seeking items may also produce stronger negative correlations with other holiday preferences because they are more opposed to items contained within these other scales. Thus the large positive and negative relationships between Experience Seeking and Holiday Preferences sub scales may be exaggerated to some extent. There also appears to be a group of people who score in between the two extremes of the BSSS and whose expressed holiday preference tend to involve luxury and self-indulgence. These people are moderate sensation seekers whose appetites are satiated by more Epicurean delights. For these people, lazing by a pool, preferably in an exclusive hotel or resort, where they are waited on and every whim catered for, this is their ideal holiday. Inevitably, holiday preferences will be determined by multiple factors of which sensation seeking is only one. Nothing has been said about other motivators, e.g. how much a person can afford to spend on a holiday, topographical preferences, climate and so on. Of course all these things will be of importance in determining ultimate preferences. Even within holiday preferences as defined in this study there will be over-
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laps. A beach holiday taken by a family is likely to be a more quiet affair than a beach holiday taken by a group of young people; they may both express preferences for a beach holiday, but they may conceptualise this in very different ways. Lots of holidays will combine elements of the different sub scales. For example should a sailing holiday be considered as adventurous or luxurious, it depends of course on the type of sailing. In this study these types of differences have, hopefully, been accommodated through the item structure of the Holiday Preferences scale, but further work is needed on this scale to improve validity and reliability. Further research in this area might want to evaluate the relative importance of personality factors compared with other motivators in determining holiday preferences. Multivariate approaches would undoubtedly improve the efficacy of models that attempt to predict holiday preferences. Sensation seeking and the BSSS do appear to have a role in such a model, but how sensation seeking, or indeed other personality factors, might interact with different sources of motivation awaits empirical investigation
5. Conclusion This study has shown that there does appear to be a significant relationship between the personality trait of sensation seeking and expressed holiday preferences. People with a high need for sensation will tend to prefer the type of holiday that can meet that need and vice versa. It was concluded that sensation seeking may play an important part in the complex of motivations that ultimately lead to holiday choice. Further work is needed to identify other motivators and establish how they interact with personality to determine holiday preferences. References Eysenck, H., & Eysenck, S. (1970). The Eysenck Personality Inventory. San Diego: Edits. Gilchrist, H., Povey, R., Dickinson, A., & Povey, R. (1995). The Sensation Seeking Scale: its use in a study of the characteristics of people choosing ‘adventure holidays’. Personality and Individual Differences, 19(4), 513–516. Griffith, D., & Albanese, P. (1966). An examination of Plog’s psychographic travel model within a student population. Journal of Travel Research, 34, 47–55. Heino, A., van der Molen, H. H., & Wilde, G. J. S. (1996). Differences in risk experience between sensation avoiders and sensation seekers. Personality and Individual Differences, 20(1), 71–79 (9). Hoyle, R. H., Feifar, M. C., & Miller, J. D. (2000). Personality and sexual risk taking: a quantitative review. Journal of Personality, 68(6), 1203–1231 (29). Hoyle, R. H., Stephenson, M. T., Palmgreen, P., Lorch, E. P., & Donohew, R. L. (2002). Reliability and validity of a brief measure of sensation seeking. Personality and Individual Differences, 32(3), 401–414 (14). Jackson, M., Schmierer, C., & White, G. (1999). Is there a unique tourist personality which is predictive of tourist behaviour?. In J. Molloy, & J. Evans (Eds.), Tourism and hospitality: delighting the senses (pp. 39–47). Canberra: Bureau of Tourism Research. Jackson, M., White, G., & White, M. G. (2001). Developing a tourist personality typology. In: Proceedings of Council for Australian University Tourism and Hospitality Education (CAUTHE) National Research Conference, 7–10 February Canberra, Australia. Lee-Hoxter, A., & Lester, D. (1988). Tourist behaviour and personality. Personality and Individual Differences, 9, 177–178. Plog, S. (1972). Why destinations rise and fall in popularity. Paper presented to the Travel Research Association Southern California Chapter, Los Angeles, October.
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Plog, S. (1987). Understanding psychographics in tourism research. In R. Ritchie, & C. Goeldner (Eds.), Travel, tourism and hospitality research. New York: Wiley. Plog, S. (1991). Leisure travel: making it a growth market. . .again. New York: John Wiley and Sons. Smith, S. (1990). A test of Plog’s allocentric/psychocentric model: Evidence from seven nations. Journal of Travel Research, 28(4), 40–43. Stacy, A. W., Newcomb, M. D., & Bentler, P. M. (1993). Cognitive motivations and sensation seeking as long-term predictors of drinking problems. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 12(1), 1–24. Zuckerman, M. (1979). Sensation seeking: beyond the optimal level of arousal. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Zuckerman, M., Ball, S., & Black, J. (1990). Influences of sensation, gender, risk appraisal and situational motivation on smoking. Addictive Behaviours, 15, 209–220. Zuckerman, M., Eysenck, S., & Eysenck, H. J. (1978). Sensation seeking in England and America: cross cultural age and sex comparisons. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 46, 139–149. Zuckerman, M., Kuhlman, D. M., Joireman, J., Teta, P., & Kraft, M. (1993). A comparison of three structural models for personality: the big three, the big five, and the alternative five. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65, 757–768.
Using the Brief Sensation Seeking Scale (BSSS) to predict holiday preferences Peter Eachus* School of Community, Health Sciences and Social Care, University of Salford, Frederick Road, Salford M6 7QU, UK Received 1 July 2002; received in revised form 2 December 2002; accepted 27 January 2003
Abstract The aim of this research was to examine the utility of the Brief Sensation Seeking Scale (BSSS) in predicting holiday preferences. The BSSS was administered to a convenience sample of 300 participants and of these 111 were returned. Holiday preferences were determined using a four factor scale designed to assess preferences for holidays whose central theme could be described as either, Adventurous, Beach, Cultural, or Indulgent. The results of this survey confirmed the psychometric properties of the BSSS and showed that it had utility in predicting holiday preferences. Significant correlations with the BSSS were obtained for Adventurous holiday preferences, Beach preferences, and Indulgent preferences. Within the four subscales of the BSSS, Experience Seeking was significantly correlated with Adventurous and Indulgent holiday preferences. Boredom Susceptibility was significantly correlated with Beach holiday preferences, as was Thrill and Adventure Seeking. Finally Disinhibition was found to be significantly correlated with Beach and Cultural holiday preferences. It was concluded that the sensation seeking personality, as measured using the BSSS scale, was predictive of holiday preferences. # 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction At the beginning of the 21st century global tourism represents one of the major growth areas in the economies of both the developed and the developing world. Even in Manchester (the home town of the author), what was once a grim city in the north west of England, the city from which the world wide industrial revolution began, the growth in the tourist industry now outstrips all other forms of economic growth. Why would anyone choose to holiday in Manchester, a town * Tel.: +44-161-295-2428; fax: +44-161-295-2427. E-mail address: [email protected] (P. Eachus). 0191-8869/03/$ - see front matter # 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/S0191-8869(03)00074-6
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famed for being wet and grey? Indeed, what are the factors that influence the behaviour of people when choosing any holiday destination? The purpose of this paper is to examine the role played by personality, and in particular sensation seeking, in determining tourist choice. Considering the size and impact the tourist industry has had in recent years there is remarkably little research on the psychology of tourism. Jackson, White, & White (2001) examined the citations associated with ‘‘Annals of Tourism Research’’ between the years 1984 and 2000 and found only one personality reference out of the 320 publications. One of the few published studies is that of Gilchrist, Povey, Dickinson, and Parey (1995) who used the Sensation Seeking Scale (SSS), (Zuckerman, Eysenck, & Eysenck, 1978) to examine the characteristics of people choosing ‘adventure holidays’. People who had recently returned from an adventure holiday were compared with a control group and were found to differ significantly on total scores and on the Thrill and Adventure Seeking sub scale of the SSS. The Sensation Seeking Scale is a personality measure characterised by ‘‘the need for varied, novel, and complex sensations and experiences and the willingness to take physical and social risks for the sake of such experiences’’ (Zuckerman, 1979, p. 10). People who score highly on the SSS seem to be drawn to activities that are of high risk, e.g. sexual risk-taking, (Hoyle, Feifar, & Miller, 2000), reckless driving (Heino, van der Molen & Wilde, 1996), smoking, (Zuckerman, Ball, & Black 1990) alcohol use (Stacy, Newcomb, & Bentler, 1993) and the use of illegal drugs (Zuckerman, Kuhlman, Joireman, Teta, & Kraft, 1993). Despite this positive finding of Gilchrist et al., the authors concluded that the Sensation Seeking Scale (SSS) needed updating if it was to become an adequate psychometric tool for use in tourism research. A revised version of the sensation seeking scale has now been published, the Brief Sensation Seeking Scale or BSSS (Hoyle, Stephenson, Palmgreen, Larch, & Donohew, 2002), and many of the deficiencies of the original scale have now been remedied. The new scale is much shorter, only 8 items compared with 40 in the original, the wording of the items has been brought up to date, and a Likert format has been substituted for the forced choice format in the original scale. Although the new scale has been standardised on over 7000 young people, it has not yet been used in an applied setting like psychotourism. One of the few researchers in this field to develop a tourism specific theory of personality is Plog (1972, 1987, 1991) who has suggested a psychocentric–allocentric dimension of personality. The original work stemmed from research that sought to find out why people on above average incomes refused to use air travel to reach their destinations. It was found that these people tended to be more anxious than average, were not venturesome, and felt they had very little control over their lives. In contrast, allocentrics were found to be adventurous and to prefer many varied experiences. In tourism terms, Jackson et al. (2001) suggest that the psychocentrics would prefer package holidays where everything was prebooked, they prefer familiar destinations, to be around people from their own culture, and to drive rather than fly to their destinations. Allocentrics are explorers, they prefer adventurous experiences away from traditional tourist routes, they like being part of other cultures and are happy to accept basic amenities. They are more likely to be independent travellers, avoiding organised tourism and preferring to holiday in relatively unknown destinations. The predictive validity of the allocentric–psychocentric dimension of personality is rather ambiguous. Smith (1990) developed a 21-item tourism personality scale and using a multinational sample investigated the relationship between tourist behaviour and the allocentric– psychocentric dimension of personality. No significant relationship was observed. One of the few
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studies to find a significant relationship between tourist behaviour and allocentric–psychocentric personality was that of Griffith and Albanese (1966) who found a significant correlation (r=0.23, P<0.05) between allocentric/psychocentric personality type and actual travel behaviour. There also appears to be a relationship between Eysenck’s extraversion dimension of personality and Plog’s allocentricism and psychocentricism. Lee-Hoxter and Lester (1988) found a small but significant correlation between allocentricism and extraversion as measured with the Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI) (Eysenck & Eysenck, 1970). This finding should not be too surprising given the description of the allocentric personality type that does appear to be that of an outgoing gregarious type of person. Jackson, Schmierer, and White (1999) have also examined the relationship between extraversion and allocentricism/psychocentricism and although they failed to find a significant correlation, factor analysis of all the items from the two scales revealed a two factor solution with Factor 1 essentially made up of extraversion items and Factor 2 allocentric items. This would suggest that the two constructs are in fact independent of each other and therefore tourists and their destination choices may best be described by two dimensions of personality rather than one.
Fig 1. A two dimensional tourist personality typology (adapted from Jackson et al., 2001).
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The model that follows from these findings has been proposed by Jackson et al. (2001) and is illustrated in Fig. 1. This model provides descriptors for four distinct personality types based on the two dimensions of extraversion/introversion and allocentricism/psychocentricism. Jackson et al. (2001) then go further in that they suggest the types of behaviour that should be typical of tourists with these different personality types. These have been superimposed on the model and are shown in italics in Fig. 1. Thinking about these four personality types in terms of holiday preferences it is suggested in this study that the following would be typical. The Explorer: This will involve self travel, own organisation, getting to the culture and the people. Will tend to be secluded, away from crowds. Will involve a degree of self-enrichment, excitement and challenge, e.g. trekking in Borneo. Climbing in remote regions or perhaps singlehanded sailing across oceans. The Adventurer: Similar to above but emphasis on travelling with others, friends or other tourists, e.g. overland trips as part of group of friends, sailing with others. The Guided: Holidays in home country, tends to go to the same place year after year. May be simple as in the British holiday camp/resort or it may verge on the more luxurious, e.g. Club Med, or an annual cruise on the same ship/destination, or staying in the same five star hotel each year. The Groupie: In Britain this would be the typical Club 18–30 person. . . a packaged holiday but with lots going on for young people, lots of activities, chance to meet other young people, lots of nightlife, sun, sand and sex. One of the difficulties in using the typology suggested by Jackson et al. (2001) is that there appears to be a great deal of overlap and ambiguity in terms of how these typologies might translate into holiday preferences. For example, the Explorer and the Adventurer typologies appear to be very similar, the only real difference being that the Explorer prefers to holiday alone whereas the Adventurer like the company of others. The Guided person prefers everything to be organised, as in a packaged tour, but then so does the young person on a Club 18–30 holiday, i.e. the Groupie. Obviously these ambiguities need to be resolved before this typology can be used as a psychometric instrument for evaluating holiday preferences. In the research to be presented in this paper it is proposed to take these descriptors and tourist personality types and to use them as a basis for a scale which will be used to identify four specific tourism choices. In the model proposed by Jackson et al. (2001) personality was used as the basis of the typology. In the research described in this paper it is proposed to modify this typology so that rather than looking at tourist personality a more objective measure of tourist choice might be used which can then be operationalised in terms of four distinct holiday preferences, thus: Adventurous preference: People who prefer adventurous holidays are likely to be independent travellers, like to be doing active things when on holiday, don’t mind roughing it, and prefer remote and unusual places to the more ‘‘touristy’’ destinations. Beach preference: Beach people are looking for a holiday in which they spend a great deal of time lying in the sun not doing very much at all. They like to be part of a crowd, want a holiday with lots of action and nightlife. Their holiday has probably been booked through a travel agent or tour operator. Cultural preference: People who express a cultural preference are likely to want to learn something new on their holiday. This might involve visits to museums or art galleries, but it might also be more ‘‘hands on’’, as in learning a new skill like painting or music. They see holidays as a
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cultural experience and as such will always try to make the most of it, e.g. meeting locals, trying to speak the language, and trying local food. Indulgent preference: For some people holidays should be about being pampered. Those with Indulgent preferences want the best they can afford in every respect, hotels, food, resort. They almost certainly eat and drink too much while on holiday, but see that as an integral part of the holiday experience. While the person with Cultural preferences might want to spend time in a gallery or at the opera, the indulgent person is more likely to be found shopping! It should be noted of course that even with this preference typology there is a certain degree of overlap. One person’s beach holiday will be another person’s indulgent holiday. For others, a holiday break in a Mediterranean resort might seem very adventurous compared with (say) a week in their usual home resort. These overlaps are inevitable and the degree to which they can be minimised in the development of a scale like this has to be empirically determined. The main hypothesis to be tested in this investigation is that the BSSS and its subscales will have some utility in predicting holiday preferences.
2. Method 2.1. Participants A convenience sample of 111 participants made up of staff and students from the University of Salford was obtained for this study. The age range of the sample was 17–75 years with a mean of 36.13 and a S.D. of 13.80. The gender split was 67 females and 39 males, five people did not provide this information. It should be noted that the responders in this study were of course selfselecting and because all responses were anonymous it was not possible to make any comparisons between responders and nonresponders. 2.2. Instruments 2.2.1. The Brief Sensation Seeking Scale (BSSS) (Hoyle et al., 2002) This scale measures sensation seeking using four subscales, two items per sub scale. See Table 1 for details of the items. Experience Seeking—the need to seek out new experiences. Boredom Susceptibility—the tendency to become restless and the need for the unpredictable. Thrill and Adventure Seeking—the need for excitement and adventure. Disinhibition—the tendency to ignore societal inhibitions. The BSSS is comprised of eight items, two per subscale and uses a five-point Likert format from strongly agree through to strongly disagree for responses. 2.2.2. The Holiday Preferences scale This scale measures holiday preferences using four subscales (10 items for each) as described earlier. Examples of items used in these sub scales are provided below:
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Table 1 Items and descriptive statistics for the BSSS compared with present study Item Experience seeking I would like to explore strange places. I would like to take off on a trip with no pre-planned routes or timetables. Sub scale Total Boredom Susceptibility I get restless when I spend too much time at home. I prefer friends who are excitingly unpredictable. Sub scale Total Thrill and Adventure Seeking I like to do frightening things. I would like to try bungee jumping. Sub scale Total Disinhibition I like wild parties. I would love to have new and exciting experiences, even if they are illegal. Sub scale Total Scale Total
M item-total r
SD
Corrected
4.07 (3.98) 3.47 (3.94) 7.54 (7.92)
0.97 (0.97) 1.29 (1.19) 1.78 (n/a)
0.19 (0.38) 0.26 (0.41)
3.33 (4.18) 3.14 (3.59) 6.57 (7.77)
1.25 (1.00) 1.03 (0.99) 1.73 (n/a)
0.12 (0.31) 0.41 (0.54)
2.63 (3.47) 2.57 (3.71) 5.20 (7.18)
1.21 (1.16) 1.55 (1.45) 2.50 (n/a)
0.62 (0.58) 0.50 (0.44)
2.38 2.50 4.88 3.01
1.31 1.26 2.17 0.59
0.49 (0.51) 0.56 (0.56)
(3.83) (3.17) (7.00) (3.74)
(1.15) (1.30) (n/a) (0.71)
0.71 (0.76)a
BSSS study n=1263. Present study n=111. a Coefficient alpha.
Adventurous Preference I would much prefer trekking to lying on a beach. Roughing it while on holiday doesn’t bother me. Beach Preference My ideal holiday involves spending a lot of time lying on a beach. My favourite type of holiday includes lots of sun, sand and nightlife. Cultural Preference Whenever I go on holiday I always make an effort to visit a local museum or art gallery. Travel and holidays should be about enriching your own knowledge. Indulgent Preference My ideal holiday would be a luxury cruise I think I would enjoy a holiday being pampered at a health spa Each subscale is assessed using ten items with a five-point Likert format as used for the BSSS. The minimum and maximum scores that can be obtained for each sub scale are 10 and 50 respectively. The higher the score on a particular sub scale the greater the preference exhibited for that type of holiday. 2.3. Procedure The items from the BSSS and the Holiday Preferences Scale were randomly combined to form a questionnaire that was called the Interests and Preferences Survey. Participants were recruited by
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post and email by sending them a request to participate in the research attached to a copy of the questionnaire. The request made it clear that no names were required and all responses would remain confidential, the only personal details requested were age and gender. Completed questionnaires were to be returned to a central collection point in the administration area of the University. In total 300 questionnaires were distributed and two weeks allowed for completion and return.
3. Results Of the 300 questionnaires distributed, 111 were returned, a response rate of 37%, an acceptable level for this type of survey. The BSSS is a new scale and its psychometric properties should be confirmed by other studies. In Table 1 the item and descriptive statistics for the data gathered in this survey and for the original BSSS study (in parentheses) are compared. In drawing these comparisons it should be noted that there were very wide differences between the two groups, both in sample size and composition and therefore any conclusions must be treated as tentative at best. The means and standard deviations for the two groups across all eight items are reasonably consistent. There is a slight tendency for the standard deviations of the present study to be greater than those for the BSSS but this probably reflects the greater heterogeneity of the sample in the present study. The data in the BSSS study was obtained from a sample of school children, age range 13–17 years whereas in the present study the age range was much wider, 17–75 years and this may account for the greater variability in response. The overall item analysis for this study appears to indicate that the BSSS is not as reliable as the authors claim and there seems to be a particular problem with the first item of the Boredom Susceptibility scale which showed a corrected item-total r of only 0.12 compared with 0.31 for the BSSS study. In the original BSSS study the authors also looked for response differences in ethnicity and gender. They reported that African-Americans tended to score slightly lower on the BSSS compared with other ethnic groups but no differences were found when genders were compared. The present study did not look at ethnicity as a variable but a comparison of gender was made. No significant differences were found for either the BSSS scale as a whole or any of the sub scales, supporting the findings of Hoyle et al. (2002) in the original study. 3.1. Predicting holiday preferences The main aim of the present study was to examine the utility of the BSSS in predicting holiday choice preferences. Descriptive statistics and alpha coefficients for the holiday preferences scale are shown in Table 2. Each sub scale contained 10 items which were scored on a five-point Likert scale and therefore the minimum and maximum scores that could be obtained were 10 and 50, respectively. The reliability of the subscales (Cronbach’s Alpha), with the possible exception of Adventure Preference which is on the low side, reached acceptable levels. The differences in expressed holiday preferences were examined using the nonparametric Friedman test and were found to be statistically significant, (Chi2=109.183, df=3, P< 0.0001),
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Table 2 Descriptive statistics and alpha coefficients for the Holiday Preferences Scale M Adventure preference Beach preference Cultural preference Indulgent preference
36.55 24.46 35.33 26.67
SD
alpha
N
5.35 7.18 6.24 7.00
0.66 0.80 0.77 0.73
111 110 111 111
with participants preferring Adventure holidays to the greatest extent and Beach holidays the least. Differences in the total scores of the sub scales of the BSSS (Table 1) were also examined using the Friedman test. The differences are statistically significant (Chi2 =92.38, df=3, P<0.0001) and although direct comparisons cannot be made with the Holiday Preferences scale it is interesting to note that participants score most highly on the Experience Seeking subscale and that this most closely resembles the Adventure preferences subscale on the Holiday Preferences scale. To examine the relationship between the BSSS and the scores on the Holiday Preferences Scale, Spearman’s rho was used and the correlation matrix is shown in Table 3. The table shows the correlations between age, BSSS, and the Holiday Preferences subscales, i.e. Adventurous (adve), Beach, Cultural (cultur) and Indulgent (indul). For completeness the BSSS sub scales of Experience seeking (exp), Boredom Susceptibility (bord), Thrill and Adventure Seeking (TAS) and Disinhibition (disin) are also shown. 3.2. Age, sensation seeking and holiday preferences Although many of the correlations were significant in the predicted directions, others require further discussion. The BSSS was developed using, in the main, groups of adolescents aged 13–17 Table 3 Correlation matrix for age, BSSS and holiday preferences BSSS age BSSS adve beach cultur indul exp bord TAS disin
0.34** 1.00
adve
beach
0.35** 0.34** 1.00
.72** 0.43** .31** 1.00
* P< 0.05 (1-tailed). ** P< 0.01 (1-tailed).
cultur 0.45** 0.05 0.55** 0.39** 1.00
indul 0.30** 0.04 0.57** 0.48** 0.30** 1.00
exp 0.18* 0.53** 0.61** .19* 0.25** 0.43** 1.00
bord 0.11 0.54** 0.12 0.22** 0.01 0.04 0.17* 1.00
TAS .45** 0.80** 0.21* 0.46** 0.10 0.01 0.24** 0.13 1.00
disin .44** 0.79** 0.10 0.57** 0.19* 0.11 0.23** 0.22** 0.56** 1.00
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years and no significant differences were found in the scores obtained by these different age groups (Hoyle et al., 2002). However, as a concept, it would seem reasonable that a trait such as sensation seeking might be more characteristic of younger people rather than their older counterparts. In the study reported here, the age range is considerably wider and the predicted hypothesis of a negative relationship between age and BSSS is confirmed, (r= 0.34, P< 0.01). Given this finding, the positive correlation between age and a preference for Adventurous holidays (r=0.35, P<0.01) appears somewhat contradictory. Older people tend not to prefer Beach holidays (r= 0.72, P<0.01), but do express Cultural holiday preferences (r=0.46, P< 0.01), both findings that would be expected. It was predicted that because, in part, older people are more likely to have a greater disposable income than the young, they would be more likely to prefer Indulgent holidays, this does not appear to be the case, if anything the reverse is true (r= 0.30, P<0.001). The relationships between age and the BSSS sub scales are largely what were expected with older people scoring lower on the Thrill and Sensation Seeking scale and the Disinhibition scale. There is a significant but small correlation with Experience Seeking, but no relationship was found with Boredom Susceptibility; older people it seems are just as susceptible to boredom as the young. 3.3. Holiday Preferences and Sensation seeking It was predicted that people who score highly on the BSSS would tend to prefer Adventurous type holidays and this was confirmed (r=0.34, p< 0.01). Those people who prefer Beach holidays also score highly on the BSSS scale (r=0.43, P<0.01) and this was to be expected since many of the items on this sub scale refer to the enjoyment of crowds, nightlife and other activities that sensation seekers might be expected to prefer. A negative correlation was predicted for the relationship between BSSS scores and a preference for Cultural holidays since people with a strong need for stimulation are not likely to be happy spending their time in art galleries, quiet museums or admiring architecture. In fact the correlation obtained was small and failed to reach significance ( r= 0.05, ns). The relationship between BSSS and preferences for Indulgent holidays was more difficult to predict. This sub scale was operationalised in terms of ‘‘lazy’’ self indulgent activities, e.g. being pampered, waited on and so on. It was assumed that these preferences would not be those of people who were sensation seekers since sensation seeking can be quite physically demanding! The findings suggest that there is little or no relationship between these two variables and they may well best be considered as independent constructs. At this stage in the analysis it must be concluded that the BSSS scale as a whole is only successful in predicting Adventurous and Beach holiday preferences. One difficulty faced by this study is that age may in fact be having a confounding influence on the correlations obtained. When age is controlled and a partial correlation matrix computed the results are indeed somewhat different from those depicted in Table 3. Comparing the partial correlation coefficients in Table 4 with the correlations in Table 3, reveals the extent to which age has had an influence. The main hypothesis in this study is concerned with predicting holiday preferences from scores obtained with the BSSS. From Table 4 it can be seen that ability of the BSSS to predict Adventurous and Beach holiday preferences holds up, Cultural holiday preferences remains unchanged but the prediction of Indulgent holiday preferences now reaches statistical significance and in the direction predicted (r= 0.25, P< 0.01).
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Table 4 Partial correlation matrix controlling for age
BSSS adve beach cultur indul exp bord TAS disin
BSSS
adve
1.00
0.53** 1.00
beach 0.28** 0.19* 1.00
cultur 0.05 0.47** 0.16 1.00
indul 0.25** 0.49** 0.37** 0.12 1.00
exp 0.63** 0.57** 0.08 0.18* 0.42** 1.00
Bord 0.53** 0.15 0.26** 0.03 0.06 0.12 1.00
TAS 0.75** 0.42** 0.25** 0.09 0.17* 0.30** 0.15 1.00
disin 0.75** 0.27** 0.30** 0.18* 0.05 0.32** 0.25** 0.42** 1.00
* P< 0.05 (1-tailed). ** P< 0.01 (1-tailed).
People who score highly on the need for sensation seeking do not tend to prefer the Indulgent type of holiday. Looking at changes in the relationships between the BSSS subscales and holiday preferences it can be seen that there is now a significant correlation between Disinhibition scores and Adventure preferences (r=0.27 P<0.01), a positive correlation as would be predicted. The correlation between Boredom Susceptibility and preferences for Beach holidays has changed significantly after controlling for age. Previously there had been a positive correlation (r=0.22, P<0.01) between these variables, this has now become negative (r= 0.26, P< 0.01). Intuitively this makes sense since it might be expected that younger people would be more susceptible to boredom than those who are older. It is also more consistent with the finding that Beach holiday preference is negatively correlated with age (r= 0.72, P<0.01); young people are more likely to prefer sun, sand and sea holidays, than are older people. Another change in the results which points to greater consistency is the correlation between the Thrill and Adventure Seeking (TAS) sub scale and preferences for Indulgent holidays. Previously there was no significant correlation between these two variables, this has now become modestly significant (r= 0.17, P<0.05) indicating that those people who prefer Indulgence tend to avoid thrills and adventures. A significant change in the correlations that is more difficult to interpret is that between Beach and Cultural holiday preferences. This has gone from being a significant negative correlation (r= 0.39, P<0.01) to now being not significant at all (r= 0.16, ns). The negative correlation made sense in that it showed that people who prefer cultural holidays don’t like lying around on beaches. Now after controlling for age this significant correlation has disappeared suggesting that age was the factor responsible. It now appears that it is not so much that people with cultural preferences don’t like beach holidays, rather it is that older people are more likely to express preferences for Cultural holidays. A similar argument can be made for the change in the correlation between Cultural and Indulgent preferences. If age is not controlled a significant negative correlation is observed (r= 0.30, P<0.01), a correlation which is quite difficult to explain. When age is controlled for, the significance disappears (r= 0.12, ns) suggesting that it is age that is responsible for this spurious relationship.
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4. Discussion This study sought to examine the utility of the Brief Sensation Seeking Scale (BSSS) (Hoyle et al., 2002) in predicting holiday preferences and in this it has been moderately successful. There were some sampling issues with the present study, for example the responders to this survey were self-selecting and there is no way of knowing how they may have differed from the nonresponders. The sample size utilised was small compared with the 1000+ in the Hoyle et al. (2002) study and it was also more varied, particularly in terms of age. Nevertheless, and accepting the constraints of this more heterogeneous sample, the psychometric properties of the BSSS do appear to gain some support. A much more extensive survey would be required to instil greater confidence in these findings. However, it is tentatively concluded that the findings reported in this study do suggest that the BSSS may have wider applicability than the authors originally envisaged, and in the context of the present study, this would include the interface between psychology and tourism research. The central thesis in this research has been that an individual’s need for sensation will manifest itself in terms of their expressed holiday preferences. Implicit in this is the notion that different types of holidays provide different degrees of stimulation or sensation. People who want a quiet holiday, away from the crowds, are not going to be happy in a bustling resort that caters mainly for noisy young people, and vice versa. People will choose holidays that reflect certain aspects of their personality and it was suggested here that sensation seeking would be an important feature of that personality; the findings of this research support this thesis. For the most part the relationships that exist between sensation seeking and expressed holiday preferences are what would be expected and have been predicted. People with a high need for sensation tend to prefer holidays that will provide them with higher levels of stimulation. Thus those people who score highly on the BSSS want adventure experiences, they want excitement, nightlife, and to some extent, danger. They tend not to want to spend their time on the more passive cultural activities, e.g looking at art, exploring the history of a locality, or learning about the language and customs of the people. This conclusion should however be treated with a degree of caution. There is probably a closer degree of similarity between items on the Experience Seeking sub scale and the preference for Adventurous holidays than any of the other sub scale items. The effect of this would be to increase the correlations found and suggest a stronger relationship than perhaps actually exists. Similarly, the Experience Seeking items may also produce stronger negative correlations with other holiday preferences because they are more opposed to items contained within these other scales. Thus the large positive and negative relationships between Experience Seeking and Holiday Preferences sub scales may be exaggerated to some extent. There also appears to be a group of people who score in between the two extremes of the BSSS and whose expressed holiday preference tend to involve luxury and self-indulgence. These people are moderate sensation seekers whose appetites are satiated by more Epicurean delights. For these people, lazing by a pool, preferably in an exclusive hotel or resort, where they are waited on and every whim catered for, this is their ideal holiday. Inevitably, holiday preferences will be determined by multiple factors of which sensation seeking is only one. Nothing has been said about other motivators, e.g. how much a person can afford to spend on a holiday, topographical preferences, climate and so on. Of course all these things will be of importance in determining ultimate preferences. Even within holiday preferences as defined in this study there will be over-
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laps. A beach holiday taken by a family is likely to be a more quiet affair than a beach holiday taken by a group of young people; they may both express preferences for a beach holiday, but they may conceptualise this in very different ways. Lots of holidays will combine elements of the different sub scales. For example should a sailing holiday be considered as adventurous or luxurious, it depends of course on the type of sailing. In this study these types of differences have, hopefully, been accommodated through the item structure of the Holiday Preferences scale, but further work is needed on this scale to improve validity and reliability. Further research in this area might want to evaluate the relative importance of personality factors compared with other motivators in determining holiday preferences. Multivariate approaches would undoubtedly improve the efficacy of models that attempt to predict holiday preferences. Sensation seeking and the BSSS do appear to have a role in such a model, but how sensation seeking, or indeed other personality factors, might interact with different sources of motivation awaits empirical investigation
5. Conclusion This study has shown that there does appear to be a significant relationship between the personality trait of sensation seeking and expressed holiday preferences. People with a high need for sensation will tend to prefer the type of holiday that can meet that need and vice versa. It was concluded that sensation seeking may play an important part in the complex of motivations that ultimately lead to holiday choice. Further work is needed to identify other motivators and establish how they interact with personality to determine holiday preferences. References Eysenck, H., & Eysenck, S. (1970). The Eysenck Personality Inventory. San Diego: Edits. Gilchrist, H., Povey, R., Dickinson, A., & Povey, R. (1995). The Sensation Seeking Scale: its use in a study of the characteristics of people choosing ‘adventure holidays’. Personality and Individual Differences, 19(4), 513–516. Griffith, D., & Albanese, P. (1966). An examination of Plog’s psychographic travel model within a student population. Journal of Travel Research, 34, 47–55. Heino, A., van der Molen, H. H., & Wilde, G. J. S. (1996). Differences in risk experience between sensation avoiders and sensation seekers. Personality and Individual Differences, 20(1), 71–79 (9). Hoyle, R. H., Feifar, M. C., & Miller, J. D. (2000). Personality and sexual risk taking: a quantitative review. Journal of Personality, 68(6), 1203–1231 (29). Hoyle, R. H., Stephenson, M. T., Palmgreen, P., Lorch, E. P., & Donohew, R. L. (2002). Reliability and validity of a brief measure of sensation seeking. Personality and Individual Differences, 32(3), 401–414 (14). Jackson, M., Schmierer, C., & White, G. (1999). Is there a unique tourist personality which is predictive of tourist behaviour?. In J. Molloy, & J. Evans (Eds.), Tourism and hospitality: delighting the senses (pp. 39–47). Canberra: Bureau of Tourism Research. Jackson, M., White, G., & White, M. G. (2001). Developing a tourist personality typology. In: Proceedings of Council for Australian University Tourism and Hospitality Education (CAUTHE) National Research Conference, 7–10 February Canberra, Australia. Lee-Hoxter, A., & Lester, D. (1988). Tourist behaviour and personality. Personality and Individual Differences, 9, 177–178. Plog, S. (1972). Why destinations rise and fall in popularity. Paper presented to the Travel Research Association Southern California Chapter, Los Angeles, October.
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