The Surprise Effect in Hospitality: Exploring the Role of Social Distance and Mysterious Consumption in Accommodation Choice

Abstract

This research examines how social distance and how attentional allocation responses to surprise shape accommodation choice. We argue that surprise redirects attention toward the features of the offering, making relational considerations more influential. Across three online experiments and one laboratory eye-tracking study, we find that consumers are more willing to choose accommodations for socially close others, and that surprise intensifies this tendency by increasing attention to the unexpected. Eye-tracking data provide convergent evidence that surprise-driven attention underlies these effects. The findings integrate social distance theory with attentional allocation to offer a cohesive framework for understanding decision-making under uncertainty in hospitality settings. We also outline managerial implications for designing surprise-based offerings that align with relational contexts.