Moderating effects of distrust and social influence on aesthetic experience of augmented reality: Motivation-opportunity-ability model perspective

Augmented Reality (AR) applications have been actively developed by numerous tourism institutions or organizations around the world in order to provide tourists with unique and memorable experience. Tourists can be physically and virtually immersed in tourism sites with aesthetic experience provided by AR application. However, AR applications are cutting-edge technology and consequently tourists have to undergo some annoying process in order to use it. Thus, not enough motivation, opportunity and ability of tourists can be barriers to enhancing aesthetic experience. So we adopted Motivation-Opportunity-Ability (MOA) model in order to assessing the predictors of aesthetic experience. Further, assuming that the relationship between MOA and aesthetic experience can be moderated by negative perception about technology and extrinsic influence, we adopted distrust of technology and social influence as moderating variables. The results show that only (intrinsic) motivation (enjoyment) and ability (self-efficacy) have effects on aesthetic experience. Distrust of technology showed that it moderates the relationship between ability (self-efficacy) and aesthetic experience. Based on these key findings, we present theoretical and practical implications with suggestions for future research.