Emotions in recall of memorable food experiences while travelling: a psychoevolutionary theory approach

Using Plutchik’s psychoevolutionary theory of emotion, this manuscript investigates emotions experienced when recalling both positive and negative memorable food experiences while travelling, building upon food tourism (culinary tourism) research. Research on memorable food tourism experiences has tended to focus on the attributes of the experience, rather than the individuals’ emotions, and researchers have focused almost exclusively on positive memorable experiences. This study advances research beyond elements of memorable experiences to emotional factors. A survey of American travellers revealed that joy is the overwhelmingly most common emotion in positive memories, followed by surprise and nostalgia. For negative memories, common emotions experienced were anger, sadness, disapproval, disgust, and joy. Joy was evident in both positive and negative experiences, which is a novel finding. The research identifies nostalgia as a basic emotion in tourism, which is not accounted for in the psychoevolutionary theory of emotion. Positive and negative emotions for each person were paired, and the most common pairs were: joy-anger, joy-sadness, joy-disapproval, and joy-disgust. These pairs of responses differ from the positive–negative dichotomies proposed in the psychoevolutionary theory. The study also identifies the impact of recollection in memorable experience research.