Prior self-validation hypothesis studies suggest that an individual’s attitude toward advertising is affected by the cognitive processing of the message and the valence of emotion. Yet, the effect of emotional arousal and stimulus credibility on attitudes toward a destination has not been discerned. This study employs the self-validation hypothesis to investigate the effect of the three dimensions of thinking on attitudes toward Iran. Participants (N = 416) were randomly assigned to a two (high vs. low arousal) × two (high vs. low source credibility) experiment. The partial least squares multigroup analysis results indicated that the emotionally arousing stimulus led to a greater influence of the amount and confidence of thought on attitudes. The effect of the amount of thought on attitude was greater in response to a credible stimulus. This research advances knowledge by revealing that emotional arousal has a significant positive impact on three dimensions of thinking and positive attitudes.

先前的自我验证假设研究表明，个人对广告的态度会受到信息的认知处理和情感效价的影响。然而，尚未意识到情绪唤醒和刺激可信度对目的地态度的影响。这项研究采用自我验证假设，以研究思考的三个维度对伊朗态度的影响。参与者（N = 416）被随机分配到两个（高唤醒与低唤醒）×两个（高与低来源可信度）实验中。偏最小二乘多组分析结果表明，情绪激发刺激导致思维量和信心对态度的影响更大。在可靠的刺激下，思考量对态度的影响更大。