Reflection at Night: Exploring University Students’ Cognitions Regarding Nighttime Destination Authenticity

Nighttime destinations, characterized by distinctive lighting, atmosphere, and activities, provide rich cognitive stimuli for university students. However, university students’ cognition regarding authenticity within such settings remains underexplored. Grounded in psychological empowerment theory, and the cognition–affect–conation framework, this study investigates how university students’ perceptions of objective and existential authenticity (i.e., intrapersonal and interpersonal) in a nighttime destination coincide with the meaning of nighttime destination and subsequent critical reflection. It further investigates the moderating role of nocturnal escapism between the meaning of nighttime destination and critical reflection. Using survey data from 764 university students at the “City of Sleepless in the Song Dynasty,” this research employs Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) and fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA). The results indicate that intrapersonal authenticity shows the strongest association with the meaning of nighttime destination and critical reflection. The fsQCA reveals four distinct configurations consistently associated with high critical reflection, highlighting configurational complexity. This study offers insights into university students’ cognition of nighttime destination authenticity and discusses perceived experiential qualities that may coincide with critical reflection.