Hedonistic or Epistemic Cultural Immersion: Photo Shorts Methodology

The research determined whether hedonistic immersion imagery or epistemic cultural immersion imagery would be more likely to attract college students to book a spring break cruise. Photo Sorts, a projective method, was used to present seven hedonistic and seven epistemic cultural photographs to a convenience sample of college students to determine preferences for Caribbean island excursions. Subjects were asked to assume that they were on a cruise in the Caribbean island; deciding which excursions to take. Forty respondents were tasked with looking at fourteen photographs; placing each one into either the “Do not want to do” or “Want to do” bin. Nominal variables, categories (Want to do/Do not want to do), and an analysis based on counts rather than rating scales characterized the research. Thus, the Chi-Square method found, at 90% confidence, that Royal Caribbean should emphasize hedonistic imagery in its video and digital brochure to attract cruise-bound college students.