Face matters: leveraging service robots for promoting travelers’ high-effort pro-environmental intentions

Promoting high-effort pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs) among travelers remains a significant challenge in advancing sustainable tourism. While existing research has emphasized the influence of social norms in shaping such behaviors, the potential of intelligent technologies in this area has been largely overlooked. Service robots, in particular, represent a promising yet underexplored frontier for environmental persuasion, possessing psychological advantages that may surpass those of conventional, human-led interventions in motivating more demanding pro-environmental actions. Grounded in Politeness Theory, this study investigates whether, how, and why service robots can effectively promote travelers’ high-effort pro-environmental intentions (PEIs). Drawing on data from three scenario-based experiments involving 934 participants, the findings show that service robots, especially those employing a social-oriented interaction style, are more effective than human staff in promoting high-effort PEIs, primarily through reduced perceived negative face threat and enhanced perceived positive face gain. Moreover, the interaction between service staff type and interaction style is more pronounced in high-end (vs. low-end) consumption contexts. Theoretically, this study contributes to the PEB literature by highlighting the importance of face-related mechanisms. Practically, it provides practical guidance for tourism professionals on the use of intelligent technologies in encouraging sustainable behavior in tourism.