Navigating impulsivity: the dual role of emotional arousal and privacy concerns in AI travel recommendations

This study investigates how four AI recommendation attributes, namely perceived intelligence, recommendation relevance, anthropomorphism, and perceived intrusiveness, shape impulsive travel intentions through emotional arousal and privacy concerns. Drawing on feelings-as-information theory, it posits that perceived intelligence, anthropomorphism, and relevance increase emotional arousal, thereby fueling impulsive decisions, whereas intrusiveness diminishes emotional arousal and raises privacy concerns. A scenario-based survey involving 403 participants tested these relationships using structural equation modeling and Hayes’ PROCESS macro. Findings indicate that perceived intelligence, anthropomorphism, and recommendation relevance each elevate emotional arousal, leading to heightened impulsive intentions, whereas perceived intrusiveness weakens emotional arousal and strengthens privacy concerns. Emotional arousal mediates the effects of intelligence, anthropomorphism, and intrusiveness on impulsive travel intentions, while privacy concerns mediate the influence of intelligence, anthropomorphism, and relevance. Digital literacy further moderates these relationships, underscoring the need to balance personalized AI recommendations with robust privacy safeguards to responsibly foster impulsive travel intentions.