The Influence Of Social Media On Tourists’ Plastic Reduction Behavioral Intention

The issue of plastic pollution is one of the key challenges to development in the world today,with excessive tourism and the pandemic of COVID-19 further intensifying the conflict.Our government has continued to make efforts in legislation and policy,continuously releasing policies and programs to combat plastic pollution,pressing for responsibility for plastic pollution control and strengthening the whole chain of governance.Social media,as an emerging medium,is an important way for the public to express and communicate.Environmental issues have become one of the most discussed topics on online social media.Relevant stakeholders are also beginning to realize the important role of social media for plastic pollution control,and are gradually stimulating the public’s intention to participate in plastic reduction behavior through simultaneous offline and online participation.Social media platforms have become an effective channel for information dissemination and interaction to promote behavioral change among visitors.In order to further stimulate the public’s sustainable tourism behavior and promote the process of sustainable tourism development through social media platforms,this study constructs a model of the influence mechanism of tourists’ plastic reduction behavioral intention in social media scenarios based on SOR theory,social identity theory,social learning theory and three forms of social support in social media contexts,and deeply investigates the relationship between perceived supportive communication,moral identity,vicarious reinforcement and tourists’ plastic reduction behavior.This paper uses a literature review,questionnaire experiment and statistical analysis to study and analyze the topic and experimental data.The empirical analysis of this study was conducted through three rounds of studies and the data recovered was analyzed using SPSS 25.0 with Smartpls 3.3.7.The findings of the study indicated that:First,a pilot study was conducted to test for reliability and validity to finalize the scale questions.It was verified that perceived supportive communication had a significant positive correlation on plastic reduction behavior intention.This was used as the basis for supporting study 1 and study 2.Secondly,after the data from study 1 passed the reliability and manipulation tests,the data were further analyzed to find that perceived supportive communication in the two scenarios had a significant differential effect on plastic reduction behavior intention and moral identity,which also had a significant effect on plastic reduction behavior intention.The mediating effect of moral identity was also verified.Thirdly,Study 2 was also first tested for reliability and manipulation.The data results showed a significant interaction between perceived supportive communication(interactive/non-interactive)and vicarious reinforcement(reward/punishment),with a significant main effect of perceived supportive communication on plastic reduction behavior intention and a non-significant effect of vicarious reinforcement.The moderating effect of vicarious reinforcement was verified.In addition,the moderating effect of vicarious reinforcement was found to be more pronounced in the case of vicarious rewards.Based on the results of the three rounds of studies,this paper combines several management suggestions on how to motivate tourists to reduce their behavioral intentions.On the one hand,it is important to establish a ’circle culture’ of sustainable tourism behavior and to use digital technology to build more interactive and supportive social media communication scenarios.On the other hand,social media platforms should be used to inspire tourists to identify with the values of the circles and groups they belong to,thus internalizing their own moral character.Finally,it is important to balance the reward and punishment mechanisms in plastic pollution management.Finally,this study presents three shortcomings and outlooks regarding the selection of social media platforms and corresponding materials,the lack of realistic experience of its scenarios,and other forms of interaction on the platforms to be deepened.