key: cord-0778412-d8zrn42r
authors: Kim, Jungkeun; Lee, Jacob C.
title: Effect of COVID-19 on Preference for Private Dining Facilities in Restaurants
date: 2020-07-21
journal: nan
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhtm.2020.07.008
sha: 6296adf811d5e81ab1bf45441adc44faf8856d7a
doc_id: 778412
cord_uid: d8zrn42r

Abstract The present research investigates the effect of the perceived threat of the virus on the preference for private dining facilities. Integrating the theories about the psychology of risk with research on preference for private dining, we predict that the prominence of the virus systematically increases preference for private dining. Four studies (N = 812) consistently support our prediction. Consumers who perceive the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic as high (vs. low) evaluate the private dining restaurant highly (Study 1) and the private dining table highly (Study 2). Moreover, the salience of the virus generates a preference for the private (vs. non-private) dining table (Study 3) and for the restaurant with private rooms (Study 4). In sum, this research suggests a strategy to recover from the negative effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the restaurant industry.

COVID-19 generated a major crisis for hospitality businesses, such as hotels, restaurants, or bars. For example, restaurants were forced to close because of the lockdown policy in early 2020. In addition, consumers also showed tendency to avoid other people in public. Even after reopening, such businesses were recommended by law to focus on delivery service or to operate their business with a significantly reduced use of their capacities because of the social distancing policy. The forecast of the future of restaurants is catastrophic, in that experts estimated that over half of restaurants could not survive (Severson & Yaffe-Bellany, 2020) .

Therefore, a strategic move to maintain consumer demand in the crisis (Pizam & Mansfeld, 1996) is critically important (Sigala, 2020) .

Because of COVID-19, consumers typically over-react, such as by stockpiling or extreme avoiding of other people. In the service area, they are also reluctant to visit restaurants and bars. Therefore, in this situation, it is very important to consider the various factors that might restore the intent to visit restaurants. Accommodation in private rooms in restaurants is an important factor in consumers' perception of the restaurant (Hwang & Yoon, 2009; Tse, So, & Sin, 2006; Yim, Lee, & Kim, 2014) . Based on Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS) (Elliot, 2006) theory, the contagion effect (Argo, Dahl, & Morales, 2006) , and crisis management theory (Barton, 1994) , in this paper we examine the effect of the salience of COVID-19 on the preference for restaurants with private dining facilities or private tables.

Ultimately, this study suggests a recovery strategy from the devastating effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on hospitality service (Sigala, 2020) .

In general, people have a strong motivation to engage in social and physical interaction (Hill, 2009 ). However, the COVID-19 pandemic dramatically forced us to live in a "new normal".

A pandemic historically generates the fear of others, based on the perceived threat of pathogens (Murray & Schaller, 2010) . People also tend to have a subjective (rather than objective/actual) perception of the disease threat (Slovic, Fischhoff, & Lichtenstein, 1980) . Therefore, it's very important to understand how the perceived threat of COVID-19 affects various behaviors, including the preference for restaurants.

We predict that, when the COVID-19 threat is perceived to be great, consumers will prefer restaurants with private dining tables/rooms and will prefer the private table in choosing a restaurant table. We make this prediction based on several theories. First, the Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS) (Elliot, 2006) theory suggests this prediction, in that the anxiety caused by the pandemic could generate avoidance behavior, such as increasing physical distance from others in social interactions. The desire for safety increases, and thus people avoid other people who might carry COVID-19 (Crandall & Moriarty, 1995) . In addition, the contagion effect (Argo, Dahl, & Morales, 2006; Kim, 2017) also focuses on humans' exaggerated inference of the transmission of the essences of the objects. This effect showed people's avoidance of the direct (Argoet al., 2006) and indirect physical contact (Kim, 2017) . Finally, research on crisis management shows that consumers increase their attention to a travel option that is perceived as being prepared (e.g., a clean and safe certified hotel, such as one using the CovidClean program) for crisis management (Barton, 1994; Pizam & Fleischer, 2002; Tse, So, & Sin, 2006) . This preference towards the option with preparedness suggests that people show a greater demand for the option that involves less risk (Rittichainuwat & Chakraborty, 2009 ). Integrating the above, we hypothesize:

The high perceived threat of the COVID-19 pandemic will increase preference for a restaurant with private rooms.

We conducted four empirical studies (total n = 812), during May and June of 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic was prevalent. Because of the special situation, all participants were U.S. residents recruited from an online panel (Amazon Mechanical Turk) for a nominal payment. All stimuli are illustrated in Figure 1 .

Study 1 investigated the main prediction about the effect of the perceived threat of the virus on the attitude towards the private dining restaurant. We expected that consumers with a high perceived threat would show a higher overall preference.

First, participants residing in the U.S. (n = 199, 44.7% female, average age = 37.1) were given the basic information about COVID-19. Then they were asked to indicate how they perceived the threat of the virus on four items (e.g., what are the chances of you getting infected with the coronavirus?) based on Kim (2020) and Kim et al. (2020) along 7-point scales (Cronbach's α = .790). Second, participants were asked to imagine that they were booking a restaurant and found that one option was a private dining restaurant, as shown in Table D (R 2 = .02, F (1, 250) = 5.67, β = .15, p = .018), supporting H2. For non-private dining table K, we found a marginally significant effect, but the direction was opposite (R 2 = .01, F (1, 250) = 3.12, β = -.11, p = .079). For all other tables, the regression analysis was not significant (all ps>.10).

Study 3 replicated Study 2 with a few modifications. First, rather than comparing all tables, this study mainly focused on the relative preference between Table D (a private dining table) and Table J (a non-private dining table that was usually preferred because it was by a window). Second, participants in Studies 1 and 2 rated the perceived threat before the main judgment. In this study, we manipulated the order of measuring the perceived threat and the relative preference in order to manipulate the salience of the perceived threat.

Participants residing in the U.S. (n = 174, 47.1% female, average age = 36.2) were randomly assigned to one of 2 (Salience of the COVID-19: High vs. Low) x 2 (order: threat first vs. evaluation first) between-subjects conditions. The key decision was to rate their relative preference between Tables D and J (1 = definitely choose The order factor was not significant. Therefore, we ignored this factor in further analysis. The results of ANOVA (IV = the salience of the virus, DV = relative preference for Table D (i.e., private dining table) was evaluated more highly when salience was high (M _high salient = 5.63, SD = 1.80 vs. M _low salient = 5.15, SD = 1.78; F (1, 172) = 3.11, p = .079, η 2 = .018). In contrast, Table J 

Instead of measuring, Study 4 manipulated the salience of the threat in order to provide a strong evidence of the causal relationship. We also focused on the preference for the restaurant with private rooms (vs. not).

First, participants residing in the U.S. (n = 187, 46.0% female, average age = 37.6) were randomly assigned to one of 2 conditions (Salience of the COVID-19: High [writing about their experience of lockdown] vs. low [no writing task]). Participants for the high salience were first asked to write down their daily experiences during the lockdown. In contrast, participants for the low salience did not do a writing task. Participants were then exposed to two restaurants (either having private rooms or not; Figure 1) 

This research note provided four empirical studies investigating the effect of the perceived threat or salience of the virus on the preference for the private dining restaurant or dining table. We found that consumers who perceived the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic as high (vs. low) evaluated the private dining restaurant highly (Study 1) and the private dining table highly (Study 2). In addition, the salience of the virus generated the preference for the private (vs. non-private) dining table (Study 3) and for the restaurant with private rooms (Study 4). This paper has several theoretical and practical implications. First, it increases the understanding of the effect of the perceived threat of the disease on the restaurant decision.

The results of this study supported the expected avoidance of others, especially under the great threat and anxiety from the pandemic. Second, previous studies mainly focused on the individual's preference for or attitude toward the private dining facility (e.g., Hwang & Yoon, 2009; Tse et al., 2006) or perception of price (Yim et al., 2014) . This study extends our understanding of the facilities management of the hospitality setting by incorporating the psychological effect of the environmental factors. Third, this paper provided a straightforward suggestion for hospitality managers, in that emphasizing private dining rooms or tables could be a quick solution for the reduction in restaurant visiting because of the pandemic. Fourth, this study also suggested another recovery strategy for the negative effect of the disease on the sale of hospitality service (Tse, So, & Sin, 2006; Chen, Jang, & Kim, 2007) .

This study has a few limitations, suggesting a future study. First, all studies were conducted using an online panel. Although our use of multiple studies involving multiple methods consistently supported our hypotheses, after the pandemic is controlled, a field study can complement our studies. Second, like that to private (vs. public) rooms, consumers might show similar attitudes about the spatial distance between tables in the restaurant. Future studies can investigate the effect of the perceived threat on the evaluation of different spatial distances. Finally, this study could extend to the private social dining setting as well (Qian, Law, & Fan, 2020) . Table D (Private table)  Table J (Non-private table) 

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