Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Fear atmospheres in fearscapes serve as crucial catalysts for tourists’ “thrill-seeking pleasure.” While prevailing atmosphere research predominantly emphasizes producer logic and receiver embodiment, research on atmosphere construction logic from the audience perspective thus demands urgent scholarly advancement. Focusing on Shaanxi’s intangible cultural heritage Xue Shehuo, we employ Q methodology and ethnography to deconstruct tourists’ atmospheric construction processes. Study 1 reveals five constitutive dimensions of fear atmospheres: individual cathartic associations, spatiotemporal context, performers’ embodied semiotics, hyperreal props, and skills. Study 2 uncovers three recursive construction logic: materiality–cognition synergy, cognition–meaning dynamic conversion, and meaning–materiality cyclical reinforcement. This research advances atmosphere theory by (1) delineating the configurational anatomy of fear atmospheres, (2) explicating tourists’ agential role in affective meaning-making, and (3) reconciling the material-discursive tensions in ritual performance studies. Practical implications address the paradox between ethical edification and horror consumption in ritual tourism.

Keywords

fear atmospheres Xue Shehuo folk ritual performance Q methodology focused ethnography

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Adams

K. M.

(2025). Tourism ethnography and tourism geographies. Tourism Geographies, 27(3–4), 713–724. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2024.2402985

Anderson

(2009). Affective atmospheres. Emotion, Space and Society, 2(2), 77–81. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emospa.2009.08.005

Ash

(2013). Rethinking affective atmospheres: Technology, perturbation and space times of the non-human. Geoforum, 49, 20–28. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2013.05.006

Ashworth

G. J.

Isaac

R. K.

(2015). Have we illuminated the dark? Shifting perspectives on dark’ tourism. Tourism Recreation Research, 40(3), 316–325. https://doi.org/10.1080/02508281.2015.1075726

Baker

Wildman

Mason

Donaldson

(2014). Q-ing for health—a new approach to eliciting the public’s views on health care resource allocation. Health Economics, 23(3), 283–297. https://doi.org/10.1002/hec.2914">https://doi.org/10.1002/hec.2914

Basu

Paul

Singh

(2022). Visual merchandising and store atmospherics: An integrated review and future research directions. Journal of Business Research, 151, 397–408. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.JBUSRES.2022.07.019

Baudrillard

(1994). Simulacra and simulation. University of Michigan Press.

Bennett

(2010). Vibrant matter: A political ecology of things. Duke University Press.

Bille

Bjerregaard

Sørensen

T. F.

(2015). Staging atmospheres: Materiality, culture, and the texture of the in-between. Emotion, Space and Society, 15, 31–38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emospa.2014.11.002

10.

Böhme

(2013). The art of the stage set as a paradigm for an aesthetics of atmospheres. Ambiances: International Journal of Sensory Environment, Architecture and Urban Space, 187–192. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315538181

11.

Braun

Clarke

(2012). Thematic analysis. In Cooper

Camic

P. M.

Long

D. L.

Panter

A. T.

Rindskopf

Sher

K. J.

(Eds.), APA handbooks in psychology (Vol. 2). Research designs: Quantitative, qualitative, neuropsychological, and biological (pp. 57–71). American Psychological Association.

12.

Bristow

R. S.

Keenan

(2018). A study of Fright Tourism during Hallowe’en. E-review of Tourism Research, 15(1), 63–78.

13.

Brown

A. S.

Marsh

E. J.

(2009). Creating illusions of past encounter through brief exposure. Psychological Science, 20(5), 534–538. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02337.x

14.

Brown

S. R.

(1996). Q methodology and qualitative research. Qualitative Health Research, 6(4), 561–567. https://doi.org/10.1177/104973239600600408

15.

Chatzidakis

Maclaran

(2023). Tourism and the perils of an oppositional atmosphere. Annals of Tourism Research, 101, 103614. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.ANNALS.2023.103614

16.

Cross

R. M.

(2005). Exploring attitudes: The case for Q methodology. Health Education Research, 20(2), 206–213. https://doi.org/10.1093/her/cyg121

17.

Czermak

Vogler

(2025). Light versus dark motives in dark tourism: A conceptualization from an ethical perspective. Current Issues in Tourism, 28(2), 203–219. https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2023.2300035

18.

Dancausa

Hernández

R. D.

Pérez

L. M.

(2023). Motivations and constraints for the ghost tourism: A case study in Spain. Leisure Sciences, 45(2), 156–177. https://doi.org/10.1080/01490400.2020.1805655

19.

Daniels

(2015). Feeling at home in contemporary Japan: Space, atmosphere and intimacy. Emotion, Space and Society, 15, 47–55. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emospa.2014.11.003

20.

DeLanda

(2006). A new philosophy of society: Assemblage theory and social complexity. Continuum.

21.

Denning

(2021). Three foodbanks in a decade of austerity: Foodbank affective atmospheres. Antipode, 53(4), 1018–1037. https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.12716

22.

Doherty

M. J.

(2014). Exploring project manager insights about IT project success using Q-methodology. Journal of Technology Research, 5 (1), 1–24. Retrieved from, http://www.aabri.com/jtr.html

23.

Drinkwater

Massullo

Dagnall

Laythe

Boone

Houran

(2022). Understanding consumer enchantment via paranormal tourism: Part I—Conceptual review. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 63(2), 195–215. https://doi.org/10.1177/1938965520967920

24.

Duff

(2010). On the role of affect and practice in the production of place. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 28(5), 881–895. https://doi.org/10.1068/d16209

25.

Duff

(2016). Atmospheres of recovery: Assemblages of health. Environment and Planning A, 48(1), 58–74. https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518X15603222

26.

Duff

Moore

(2015). Going out, getting about: Atmospheres of mobility in Melbourne’s night-time economy. Social & Cultural Geography, 16(3), 299–314. https://doi.org/10.1080/14649365.2014.979864

27.

Edensor

(2000). Staging tourism: Tourists as performers. Annals of Tourism Research, 27(2), 322–344. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0160-7383(99)00082-1

28.

Edensor

(2012). Illuminated atmospheres: Anticipating and reproducing the flow of affective experience in Blackpool. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 30(6), 1103–1122. https://doi.org/10.1068/d12211

29.

Foster

M. D.

Kijin

(2015). The book of yokai: Mysterious creatures of Japanese folklore (1st ed.). University of California Press. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/j.ctt14btg72

30.

Fryer

(2022). A critical realist approach to thematic analysis: Producing causal explanations. Journal of Critical Realism, 21(4), 365–384. https://doi.org/10.1080/14767430.2022.2076776

31.

Gadd

K. J.

(2021). Understanding the affects in street children’s lives in Pelotas, Brazil. Social & Cultural Geography, 22(4), 461–479. https://doi.org/10.1080/14649365.2019.1593494

32.

Gentry

G. W.

(2007). Walking with the dead: The place of ghost walk tourism in Savannah, Georgia. Southeastern Geographer, 47(2), 222–238. https://doi.org/10.1353/sgo.2007.0023

33.

Giddens

(1984). The constitution of society: Outline of the theory of structuration. University of California Press.

34.

Gioia

D. A.

Corley

K. G.

Hamilton

A. L.

(2013). Seeking qualitative rigor in inductive research: Notes on the Gioia methodology. Organizational Research Methods, 16(1), 15–31. https://doi.org/10.1177/1094428112452151

35.

Goulding

(2023). “Atmosphere”-the what? The where? And the how?: Launching the annals of tourism research curated collection on atmosphere 2023. Annals of Tourism Research, 101, Article 103591. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2023.103591

36.

Goulding

Pressey

(2023). A palimpsestic analysis of atmospheres at dark tourism. Annals of Tourism Research, 101, Article 103577. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2023.103577

37.

Hollett

Ehret

(2015). “Bean’s World”: (Mine) Crafting affective atmospheres of gameplay, learning, and care in a children’ s hospital. New Media & Society, 17(11), 1849–1866. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444814535192

38.

Holloway

(2010). Legend-tripping in spooky spaces: Ghost tourism and infrastructures of enchantment. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 28(4), 618–637. https://doi.org/10.1068/d9909

39.

Huang

W. J.

Xiao

Wang

(2018). Airports as liminal space. Annals of Tourism Research, 70, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2018.02.003

40.

Ironside

(2018). The allure of dark tourism: Legend tripping and ghost seeking in dark places. In Waskul

Eaton

(Eds.), The supernatural in society, culture and history (pp. 95–115). Temple University Press [online], chapter 5. http://tupress.temple.edu/book/20000000009554

41.

Ivanova

Light

(2018). ‘It’s not that we like death or anything’: Exploring the motivations and experiences of visitors to a lighter dark tourism attraction. Journal of Heritage Tourism, 13(4), 356–369. https://doi.org/10.1080/1743873X.2017.1371181

42.

Jeffares

Skelcher

(2011). Democratic subjectivities in network governance: A Q methodology study of English and Dutch public managers. Public Administration, 89(4), 1253–1273. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.2010.01888.x

43.

Jones

(2020). Manipulating diplomatic atmospheres: The United Nations security council and Syria. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 110(5), 1369–1385. https://doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2019.1696665

44.

Joy

Wang

J. J.

Orazi

D. C.

Yoon

LaTour

Peña

(2023). Co-creating affective atmospheres in retail experience. Journal of Retailing, 99(2), 297–317. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretai.2023.05.002

45.

Knoblauch

(2005). Focused ethnography. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung/Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 6(3), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-6.3.20

46.

Kolk

H. A.

(2020). Negative heritage: The material-cultural politics of the American haunted history tour. Journal of Cultural Geography, 37(2), 117–156. https://doi.org/10.1080/08873631.2020.1754083

47.

Krisjanous

Carruthers

(2018). Walking on the light side: Investigating the world of ghost tour operators and entrepreneurial marketing. Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, 21(2), 232–252. https://doi.org/10.1108/QMR-12-2016-0123

48.

Latour

(2005). Reassembling the social: An introduction to actor-network-theory. Oxford University Press.

49.

Lee

Y. J.

(2021). Tourist behavioural intentions in ghost tourism: The case of Taiwan. International Journal of Tourism Research, 23(5), 958–970. https://doi.org/10.1108/JHTI-04-2024-0300

50.

Chen

X. Z.

(2024). Tourism-industrial atmosphere and executive change: How can they impact firms?-A mixed context analysis study. Annals of Tourism Research, 109, Article 103847. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.ANNALS.2024.103847

51.

Liu

(2022). Review of the landscape of fear and its application in tourism geography. Tropical Geography, 42(4), 642–658. https://doi.org/10.13284/j.cnki.rddl.003465

52.

Liang

(2024). Fear or joy? Study on the emotional experience of recreational fear space. Tourism Tribune, 39(6), 56–71. https://doi.org/10.19765/j.cnki.1002-5006.2023.00.027

53.

Lin

(2015). ‘Cabin pressure’: Designing affective atmospheres in airline travel. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 40(2), 287–299. https://doi.org/10.1111/tran.12079

54.

Lovell

(2023). Media tourism through atmospheric practice. Annals of Tourism Research, 101, Article 103579. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2023.103579

55.

Lutz

White

G. M.

(1986). The anthropology of emotions. Annual Review of Anthropology, 15, 405–436.

56.

Norget

(2006). Days of death, days of life: Ritual in the popular culture of Oaxaca. Columbia University Press. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7312/norg13688

57.

Paiva

(2023). The paradox of atmosphere: Tourism, heritage, and urban liveability. Annals of Tourism Research, 101, Article 103600. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2023.103600

58.

Paiva

Sánchez-Fuarros

(2021). The territoriality of atmosphere: Rethinking affective urbanism through the collateral atmospheres of Lisbon’ s tourism. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 46(2), 392–405. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2023.103600

59.

Pedreño-Peñalver

Huertas-Valdivia

Orea-Giner

(2024). An exploratory study of the future paranormal tourist experience on ghost tours. Journal of Tourism Futures, 10(3), 524–538. https://doi.org/10.1108/JTF-04-2023-0097

60.

Pharino

Pearce

Pryce

(2018). Paranormal tourism: Assessing tourists’ onsite experiences. Tourism Management Perspectives, 28, 20–28. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tmp.2018.06.003

61.

Picard

(1996). Bali: Cultural tourism and touristic culture. Archipelago Press.

62.

Rainoldi

Ladkin

Buhalis

(2025). Digital nomads’ work-leisure management practices. Annals of Tourism Research, 111, Article 103904. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2025.103904

63.

Rao

Xie

(2024). Facilitating “migrant-local” tacit knowledge transfer in rural tourism development: A longitudinal case study. Tourism Management, 100, 104836. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2023.104836

64.

Rasool

Tariq

Amin

Mubushar

Cobanoglu

(2025). Dark tourism, thana tourism, and ghost tourism: A bibliometric visualization review for the last 23 years (2000–2023). Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Insights, 8(3), 937–966. https://doi.org/10.1108/JHTI-04-2024-0300

65.

Rhoden

Kaaristo

(2020). Liquidness: Conceptualising water within boating tourism. Annals of Tourism Research, 81, Article 102854. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2019.102854

66.

Ritchie

Lewis

Nicholls

C. M.

Ormston

(Eds.). (2013). Qualitative research practice: A guide for social science students and researchers. Sage. https://www.jstor.org/stable/20761996

67.

Robbins

Krueger

(2000). Beyond bias? The promise and limits of Q method in human geography. The Professional Geographer, 52(4), 636–648. https://doi.org/10.1111/0033-0124.00252

68.

Rokka

Auriacombe

Arnould

Sitz

(2023). Dynamics of convivial affective atmospheres. Annals of Tourism Research, 101, Article 103601. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2023.103601

69.

Ruppert

(2022). Affective atmospheres of weapons technologies: The case of battle drones, combat fighters and bodies in contemporary German geopolitics. Emotion, Space and Society, 45, Article 100909. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emospa.2022.100909

70.

Russell-Mundine

(2012). Reflexivity in Indigenous research: Reframing and decolonising research? Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 19, Article e7. https://doi.org/10.1017/jht.2012.8

71.

Shaw

(2014). Beyond night-time economy: Affective atmospheres of the urban night. Geoforum, 51, 87–95. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2013.10.005

72.

Shaw

Richardson

M. J.

(2022). ‘An Epic Tale of England’: Atmospheric authentication of nationalist narratives. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 40(2), 351–368. https://doi.org/10.1177/02637758211065758

73.

Song

K. B.

Lê

Kim

H. R.

Yoo

S. M.

Kang

M. S.

Chu

H. N.

Hwang

I.-S.

Hong

J. H.

(2024). Consumer-driven characterization of healing foods using Q methodology and Q based sorting. Food Quality and Preference, 117, Article 105181. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodqual.2024.105181

74.

Stone

P. R.

(2011). Dark tourism and the cadaveric carnival: Mediating life and death narratives at Gunther von Hagens’ Body Worlds. Current Issues in Tourism, 14(7), 685–701. https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2011.563839

75.

Stone

P. R.

Sharpley

(2008). Consuming dark tourism: A thanatological perspective. Annals of Tourism Research, 35(2), 574–595. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2008.02.003

76.

Sumartojo

Pink

(2018). Atmospheres and the experiential world: Theory and methods. Routledge.

77.

Sun

(2021). Feeling dark, seeing dark: Mind–body in dark tourism. Annals of Tourism Research, 86, Article 103087. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2020.103087

78.

Tan

X. W. A.

(2021). Atmospheres of street performance in Taipei: Affect and emotion as dynamic, simultaneous, more-than-representational experiences. Emotion, Space and Society, 38, Article 100766. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emospa.2021.100766

79.

Thomassen

(2016). Liminality and the modern: Living through the in-between. Routledge.

80.

Thompson

R. C.

(2010). “Am I Going to See a Ghost Tonight?”: Gettysburg ghost tours and the performance of belief. Journal of American Culture, 33(2), 79–91. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1542-734X.2010.00735.x

81.

Tripathy

McFarlane

(2022). Perceptions of atmosphere: Air, waste, and narratives of life and work in Mumbai. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 40(4), 664–682. https://doi.org/10.1177/02637758221110574

82.

Volgger

(2019). Staging genius loci: Atmospheric interventions in tourism destinations. In Volgger

I. M.

Pfister

(Eds.), Atmospheric turn in culture and tourism: Place, design and process impacts on customer behaviour, marketing and branding (pp. 139–151). Emerald Publishing Limited. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1871-3173201916

83.

Wall

S. S.

(2015). Focused ethnography: A methodological adaptation for social research in emerging contexts. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung/Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 16(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-16.1.2182

84.

Wang

Sun

(2025). Tourism and indigenous leisure consumption: A Q approach. Annals of Tourism Research, 111, Article 103901. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2025.103901

85.

Wang

Bai

(2020). Perception structure and measurement of place atmosphere in Lijiang Ancient Town. Tourism Science, 34(5), 40–61. https://doi.org/10.16323/j.cnki.lykx.2020.05.003

86.

Watson

Ward

Fair

(2021). Staging atmosphere: Collective emotional labour on the film set. Social & Cultural Geography, 22(1), 76–96. https://doi.org/10.1080/14649365.2018.1551563

87.

Watts

Stenner

(2012). Doing Q methodological research: Theory, method & interpretation. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 2, 67–91.

88.

Wijngaarden

Hracs

B. J.

(2024). “We are continuing an industrial revolution here”: Assembling, experiencing and leveraging the affective atmospheres of post-industrial workspaces. Geoforum, 148, Article 103944. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2024.103944

89.

Wilhelm

J. L.

(2020). Atmosphere in the home stadium of Hertha BSC (German Bundesliga): Melodies of moods, collective bodies, and the relevance of space. Social & Cultural Geography, 21(5), 718–737. https://doi.org/10.1080/14649365.2018.1514646

90.

Wood

A. F.

(2020). Haunting ruins in a western ghost town: Authentic violence and recursive gaze at Bodie, California. Western Journal of Communication, 84(4), 439–456. https://doi.org/10.1080/10570314.2020.1721556

91.

Yang

Kim

P. B.

(2021). Pushing forward high-performance work systems in the hotel industry: A procedural-justice climate to promote higher unit-level outcomes. Tourism Management, 87, Article 104385. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.TOURMAN.2021.104385

92.

Yang

Zou

Zhu

(2024). A study of changing subjectivity in overseas Chinese and the reconstruction of placeness in the qiaoxiang under the practice of property rights in tourism destinations–evidence from the WulinVillage in jinjiang, Fujian, China. Tourism Tribune, 39(2), 151–162. https://doi.org/10.19765/j.cnki.1002-5006.2024.02.016

93.

Zang

Chen

(2023). Q method: Intrinsic tension and development limits from the methodological perspective. Public Administration and Policy Review, 12(4), 154–168.

94.

Zhu

Gao

(2015). Review on “emotional turn” and emotional geographies in recent western geography. Geographical Research, 34(7), 1394–1406. https://doi.org/10.11821/dlyj201507017

Crafting a Fear Atmosphere in a Ritual Performance: A Q-Method Approach

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References