ABSTRACT Dark tourism is growing rapidly, attracting millions of tourists every year and increasingly playing an educational role. This paper analyzes the sample data of 425 tourists and focuses on the influencing mechanism of how emotional experience affects tourists' personal initiative through the mediating effects of sense of awe and memorable memory and the moderating effect of peer emotional contagion according to affective events theory and emotional contagion theory. This study revealed that emotional experience affects tourists' personal initiative through the mediating effects of sense of awe and memorable memory rather than through its direct effect. Furthermore, sense of awe and memorable memory play chain mediating roles between emotional experience and tourists' personal initiative. Additionally, peer emotional contagion can positively moderate the influence of emotional experience on sense of awe and that of sense of awe on memorable memory. Therefore, this study provides valuable insights for organizations seeking to improve personal initiative and promote the development of the educational functions of dark tourism destinations.
Qu et al. (Sun,) studied this question.