The effects of moral emotions and justifications on visitors' intention to pick flowers in a forest recreation area in Taiwan

This study examines the relationships between visitors' moral emotions and justifications and their intention to pick flowers in a forest recreation area. Moral emotions consist of guilt, embarrassment and shame. Justifications refer to the denial of responsibility, denial of injury and appeal to a descriptive norm. Self-reported data from 466 visitors to the Kenting National Forest Recreation Area in Taiwan were collected by questionnaire and analyzed using multiple regression analysis. The results indicated that both moral emotions and justifications were significantly related to flower-picking intention. The stronger the visitors' moral emotions were, the weaker was their flower-picking intention, while the more effective their justifications for flower-picking were, the stronger was their flower-picking intention. The results suggest that if park managers want to deter visitors' flower-picking intention, the managers will have to develop persuasive strategies to facilitate their moral emotions and reduce their justifications. It is noted that strategies may not be universal but should vary according to the cultural beliefs of visitor groups.