Influence of Social Norms and Anthropomorphized Roles in Safety Compliance: Mediating Effects of Risk Perception and Behavioral Intention

Mohamed Badr El-Deen, Raghda; Khalaf, Samar Nabil

doi:10.21608/ijhth.2025.386374.1071

Influence of Social Norms and Anthropomorphized Roles in Safety Compliance: Mediating Effects of Risk Perception and Behavioral Intention

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Tourism Studies Department, Faculty of Tourism and Hotels, Fayoum University, Fayoum, Egypt

² Hotel Studies Department, Faculty of Tourism and Hotels, Fayoum University, Fayoum, Egypt

10.21608/ijhth.2025.386374.1071

Abstract

This study examines pivotal factors influencing safety compliance in the tourism and hospitality sectors, especially focusing on the roles of social norms and anthropomorphized roles with the mediating effects of risk perception and behavioral intention. This study deals with a significant theoretical gap in the literature on social norms and anthropomorphized roles on safety compliance within the tourism and hospitality industry, where a limited theoretical exploration has been made on interaction between these constructs. On the basis of the principle of the Theory of Planned Behavior and anthropomorphism theory, a conceptual model was developed and tested using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) to analyze the proposed model. A pilot study was conducted to test the units of measurement instruments and refine the model before the main data collection. The analysis is carried out using ADANCO-PLS v2.4. The data was collected by questionnaire from a sample of domestic and international travelers engaged in tourism and hospitality services. The results suggest that both social norms and anthropomorphized roles significantly affect risk perception and behavioral intention. In addition, behavioral intention emerged as a strong predictor of safety compliance, while risk perception showed a moderate effect. Mediation analysis indicated that risk perception fully mediates the effect of the independent variables on safety compliance, while behavioral intention partially mediates these relationships. The findings offer theoretical contributions and practical implications for how these considerations affect safety behaviors among travelers and how such understanding can be supportive in successful safety communication.

Keywords