Confidence is a complex psychological construct that can be conceptualized as hierarchically structured. It reflects individuals’ self-affirmation and a relatively stable disposition to appraise their abilities and value in a favorable way (Chai et al., 2024). Confidence reflects a person’s perceived capacity to manage life demands and pursue desired outcomes, offering reassurance about achieving both psychological and material goals (Kamas and Preston, 2012). In the psychological context, culture is defined as a network of shared knowledge that is produced, disseminated, and reproduced among a group of interconnected individuals. The core function of culture is to offer a common reference framework that enables individuals to understand social realities, engage in social interactions, and adapt to external environments (MacWhite, 1954). Therefore, strengthening attachment to one’s cultural roots may reinforce trust in that culture and, in turn, support cultural confidence (Pan et al., 2021).

Structurally, cultural confidence is homologous to other self-related concepts that include similar psychological components. The study of cultural confidence requires a thorough understanding of the concept of confidence. Therefore, this study aims to clarify the fundamental connotations and basic attitude of cultural confidence by identifying similar concepts and different connotations of confidence. This study examines the generation of confidence by referring to different fields to understand the background of cultural confidence.

Due to the converging influences of cultural and tourism integration, digital empowerment, and the experience economy, the demand for cultural and creative tourism products is shifting from a focus on “functional use” to an emphasis on the “cognitive experience of information” (Song et al., 2021). Consumers are no longer purchasing mere commodities but rather a cultural experience or a form of spiritual satisfaction that provides them with a better product (Su et al., 2020). Therefore, it is necessary to shift away from the standardization of tourism products to propose a new model for current cultural and creative tourism products, namely, a model that includes both tangible content and intangible services, thereby expanding the scope from physical products to service experiences that are not only unique but also multidimensional (Chen et al., 2022).

Experience marketing was first proposed by Schmitt. He divided experiences into sense, feel, think, act, and relate, thereby developing the notion of strategic experience modules (SEMs), which focus on the consumer (Schmitt, 1999). Based on the SEMs model, the five dimensions of CCTPD are defined as follows: (1) Sense experience stimulates tourists’ sensory perceptions through design elements involving vision, smell, hearing, taste, and touch, thereby satisfying sensory needs; (2) Think experience integrates knowledge and informational content to support cognitive engagement during use, meeting learning-related demands; (3) Act experience focuses on functional features aligned with consumers’ behavioral patterns, supporting lifestyle integration; (4) Relate experience promotes social interaction and sharing through design, often leveraging social platforms to facilitate resonance, meeting social sharing needs; and (5) Feel experience evokes emotional resonance by connecting tourism experiences with local culture, addressing affective needs.

Recent studies highlight that immersive technologies (e.g., VR/AR and interactive installations) are associated with richer museum experience trajectories, for example by supporting perceived enjoyment, concentration, and perceived usefulness, which are in turn related to visitors’ attitudes and behavioral intentions. For example, Liu and Sutunyarak (2024) integrate TAM and flow theory to explain how immersive technology relates to visitors’ satisfaction and behavioral intention, underscoring the relevance of technology-enabled sense/feel/think/relate attributes in museum contexts.

To situate this study within the broader visitor-studies and museum-experience literature, we also draw on relevant international perspectives. Beyond the Chinese context, visitor studies and museum experience research have increasingly emphasized how learning, communication, and engagement emerge from the interaction between personal, sociocultural, and physical/technological contexts (e.g., Davidson, 2025). Recent empirical work also examines how visitors’ experiences inform museums’ communication strategies and service design (Li, 2024), and how the physical context shapes attention and engagement during museum learning (Rainoldi et al., 2020). Incorporating these perspectives helps position the present model within broader international debates on museum-based experiences and identity-related outcomes. These international insights also align with our SEM-based framing of CCTPD as multidimensional experience design, which we further test in the proposed cognition–identity–confidence model.

Psychological development progresses gradually from lower to higher stages. Cultural cognition is the first step in forming cultural identity and cultural confidence. Only by actively understanding a cultural object and developing a certain level of cultural self-awareness can one form the basis for positive attitudes and confidence toward that culture. Cultural cognition refers to the views and attitudes individuals develop after processing cultural information, reflecting how they understand a given culture (Wang and Huang, 2018). Building on Guan (2023), cultural cognition can be viewed as shaped by both internal and external components. Internally, the “mind” provides the core cognitive basis, while factors such as cultural background and emotions can influence how cultural information is processed and evaluated, highlighting individual subjectivity and agency. Externally, the cultural environment provides contextual cues that shape how cultural symbols are interpreted and how cultural meanings are constructed. Therefore, cultural cognition not only depends on the mind but is also influenced by social and cultural factors, making it a subjective process that carries specific social attitudes.

From a psychological perspective, attitude is an evaluative response tendency formed by an individual based on certain beliefs (Wang and Huang, 2018). Cultural identity, as an attitude, manifests as an individual’s or group’s sense of belonging and emotional identification with a specific culture. According to social identity theory, individuals define themselves through group membership and, under the influence of social and cultural factors, form a unified cognition of the world (Newman et al., 2007). Cultural cognition is the process by which individuals understand cultural symbols and meanings. This process interacts with the cultural environment, laying the foundation for the formation of cultural belonging and identity. Through emotional identification with culture, individuals strengthen their identification and pride in their own culture, further enhancing cultural identity. Wan and Chew (2013) suggested that acquiring cultural knowledge enables individuals to construct a cultural identity. Li and Liu (2022) reported that users perceive various sub-dimensions of destination culture, such as institutional, spiritual, and material culture, and spontaneously generate a cultural identity. Similarly, Zong et al. (2023) found that the stronger an individual’s understanding of traditional cultural symbols, the greater their cultural identity and emotional connection to those symbols. Hence, this study put forth the following hypothesis:

Cultural confidence is a process of simultaneous “knowing and doing,” in which “knowing” provides the content foundation for psychological development, and “doing” represents the externalization of this confidence (Guan, 2023). In the relationship between cultural cognition and cultural confidence, individuals who gain a deep understanding of cultural history and spiritual values can recognize the uniqueness of their culture, which leads to a strong sense of belonging and pride, thereby laying the foundation for greater cultural confidence. Moreover, cultural confidence is a positive emotional expression of an individual’s psyche. According to Ramalho and Forte (2019), knowledge and cognition significantly enhance an individual’s self-confidence and self-efficacy. Therefore, through cultural cognition, individuals strengthen their sense of control and identification with their culture, which not only boosts psychological confidence but also promotes the practical application of cultural elements. Positive feedback from these practices further reinforces cultural confidence. Ghaderi et al. (2023) suggested that cultural confidence is based on a comprehensive understanding and knowledge of a given culture. Similarly, Zhou et al. (2022) reported that understanding the history of the Chinese nation, particularly the corresponding tourists who followed, and the pride in being Chinese, helped to enhance pride in Chinese culture. Hence, this study put forth the following hypothesis:

Identity refers to people’s recognition of certain things, roles, or cultures (Lin et al., 2022). It is a psychological process that moves from cognition to emotion and then influences individual behavior. Cultural identity, which is equivalent to social identity in a cultural context, is part of an individual’s self-definition (Chattaraman et al., 2009) and highlights the psychological connection between an individual and a culture (Wan and Chew, 2013). Regarding the structure and measurement of cultural identity, Keillor et al. (1996) identified four dimensions of ethnic identity: cultural homogeneity, belief structure, ethnic heritage, and ethnocentrism. Wang and Hu (2011) argued that cultural identity encompasses symbols, identity, and values. Therefore, existing measures of cultural identity focus primarily on its materiality, group affiliation, and emotional aspects. Materiality refers to people’s tendency to recognize both material and immaterial elements of cultural carriers, emphasizing the content of cultural identity; group affiliation emphasizes individuals’ evaluation and sense of belonging to cultural groups in social relationships, reflected in behaviors and convergence with the target group; emotionality refers to the degree to which individuals accept social norms and values, reflecting self-recognition and pride in their own national culture.

From an individual perspective, cultural identity is developed by understanding and engaging with cultural values, thereby reflecting a positive stance toward and affirmation of those values (He and Wang, 2015). Individuals who are attracted by a cultural phenomenon or piece of cultural content are very willing to share their feelings and insights with others (Wang and Huang, 2018). When a person identifies strongly with a culture, they are inevitably loyal to it and integrate its core into their psychological and spiritual being; this process embodies the essence of cultural confidence (Lin et al., 2022). Furthermore, extensive research has suggested that cultural identity is a prerequisite for cultural confidence (Black, 1998; Lin et al., 2022), and as the consumers’ sense of cultural identity increases, their cultural confidence is also enhanced (Cleveland et al., 2015; Sun, 2022; Zhou et al., 2022). Hence, this study put forth the following hypothesis:

In the context of tourism, tourists can gain a comprehensive understanding of a given cultural entity by purchasing cultural products or visiting a digital cultural experience museum. By engaging in cultural consumption, users can experience another culture and create cultural memories that construct and reshape local cultural identity (Chen et al., 2023). Culture influences perception, which in turn affects cognition at both the social and individual levels. Perception and cognition depend on sensory inputs at the individual level and involve various top-down processes (Kastanakis and Voyer, 2014). Cultural and creative tourism products are tangible carriers that can enable individuals to perceive and experience culture, thereby stimulating the psychological process associated with cultural confidence. According to the theory of hierarchical needs, the level of consumer experience is closely related to the level of individuals’ needs (Yang, 2022); thus, the process by which users obtain in-depth experience with products can lead to the emergence of different psychological stages.

Cultural cognition involves tourists’ understanding and mastery of cultural knowledge. According to information processing theory, the cognitive process includes stages such as information reception, selective attention, encoding, storage, and retrieval (Payne, 1980). In the design of cultural and creative tourism products, design elements (such as graphics, symbols, text, and colors) are perceived by tourists as external information. These designs help focus tourists’ attention through multi-sensory stimulation, enhancing the understanding and memorability of the information. For example, Song et al. (2021) found that introducing cultural symbols, interactive displays, and contextual designs can attract tourists’ attention, thereby facilitating information encoding and storage.

Furthermore, as discussed in earlier analysis of the cultural cognition system, individuals’ background knowledge and past experiences influence how they process external information. In the context of cultural and creative tourism products, tourists may combine their own cultural background and travel experience to interpret these cultural elements. This process also contributes to their cultural cognition.

Cultural identity emerges when individuals connect with a culture, especially when their personal values align with it, leading to a strong sense of belonging. According to social identity theory, self-identity is not only shaped by personal traits but also by the groups and cultural contexts to which individuals belong (Spears, 2011). Cultural and creative tourism products convey core cultural values through design elements such as totems, cultural stories, and historical symbols. These elements serve as vehicles for cultural knowledge and help tourists connect emotionally with the culture, fostering a sense of cultural identity. For instance, Feng et al. (2023) demonstrated the historical continuity of local culture by incorporating redesigned elements of Wuqiang’s new year paintings into clothing design. The emotional value embedded in these designs, such as the historical memory of Wuqiang’s new year paintings, resonates with the local community. In conclusion, cultural and creative tourism products promote cultural identity through cognitive understanding, group belonging, and emotional connection.

Cultural confidence is not only a continuation of cultural cognition and identity, but also a deep psychological identification and emotional pride. Cultural and creative tourism products, through their design and experience, not only help visitors understand and identify with a particular culture but also inspire their cultural confidence. This is especially true when cultural carriers with spiritual or ethnic identity are selected. These products can evoke emotional resonance, stimulating visitors’ cultural identity and pride, thereby fostering a sense of “cultural mission” or “cultural honor.” For example, Zhou et al. (2022) found that red tourism, by immersing visitors in environments with revolutionary historical backgrounds, enhances their emotional connection to local culture and cultural confidence.

Additionally, another source of cultural confidence comes from the mechanism of cultural comparison. According to social comparison theory, individuals evaluate and understand the value of their own culture by comparing it with other cultures (Koenig-Lewis et al., 2021). Cultural and creative tourism products, especially in cross-cultural or multicultural contexts, encourage visitors to discover and identify with the advantages of their own culture, thus enhancing their cultural confidence.

Lin and Wang (2022) found that experiencing cultural products promotes cultural cognition and emotional identification among experiencers, as evidenced in their study on the experiential value participants perceived in the intangible heritage of Cantonese embroidery. Koenig-Lewis et al. (2021) reported that travelers can gain knowledge and enhance their cultural identity by experiencing local festivals. Similarly, based on David’s “cultural experiential learning circle,” Yan and Dong (2023) explored the pathways to the generation of cultural identity. Based on an exploration of the relationship between cultural experience and cultural confidence, Chen (2020) reported that college students’ experiential encounters in the context of creative design enriched their understanding of culture and enhanced their cultural confidence. Gao and Xu (2022) clarified the important roles of experiential design in cultural and creative tourism products in cultural cognition, cultural confidence, cultural dissemination, and cultural development, based on a case analysis of the Fuchun Mountains E-post. Based on the above analysis, this study proposes the following hypotheses:

Based on the research findings discussed above and the comprehensive reasoning underlying this study, the psychological generation of cultural confidence may involve a process of moving from cultural cognition to cultural identity, or it may be directly stimulated by cultural cognition. CCTPD, composed of sense, act, think, relate, and feel experience, may directly affect the different stages of the psychological generation of cultural confidence. Therefore, the following model is constructed (see Figure 1).

This study was conducted at the Cultural and Creative Experience Pavilion of the Chongqing Three Gorges Museum. The Chongqing Three Gorges Museum, one of China’s first-level national museums, is an important cultural landmark in Chongqing. It showcases Three Gorges culture, Ba culture, and local Chongqing culture, attracting numerous domestic and international visitors. Unlike traditional museums, the Three Gorges Museum emphasizes integrating modern technology and interactive experiences. It utilizes digital displays and multimedia technologies to enhance visitors’ sense of immersion. As an innovative expansion, the Cultural and Creative Experience Pavilion not only displays traditional historical artifacts but also offers a variety of cultural and creative tourism products and interactive experiences to help visitors deeply appreciate the unique charm of Three Gorges culture. The Experience Pavilion features 377 types and 461 styles of cultural and creative tourism products, employing the latest digital interactive technologies to provide visitors with an immersive experience of local culture, fostering emotional resonance and cultural identity. The Pavilion not only offers rich cultural content but also enhances visitors’ sense of participation and experience through its fun, innovative designs. The annual sales of cultural and creative tourism products reach approximately 8 million yuan, and visitors’ consumption behavior of tourism-related creative products reflects their recognition and confidence in local culture. Additionally, a large body of academic research on cultural and creative tourism products and design has been conducted based on the Three Gorges Museum, making it a highly representative and feasible research site.

The survey was conducted from April 15, 2024, to April 24, 2024, at the Cultural and Creative Experience Pavilion at the Three Gorges Museum in Chongqing, using a convenience sampling method. Visitors were interviewed at the conclusion of their tours. The survey was administered by eight research assistants who had received one training session in the data collection process. The interviews lasted 10 min on average and were audio-recorded after obtaining the visitors’ consent. Participants could withdraw from the study at any time, and those who completed the entire questionnaire received a small gift. The main reason for choosing a convenience sampling method in this study is that the visitor population at the Three Gorges Museum Cultural Creative Experience Pavilion is highly mobile and widely distributed. Convenience sampling is cost-effective when time and resources are limited, making it suitable for exploratory research (Andrade, 2021). To minimize biases in data collection, several measures were taken: first, during the survey design phase, expert reviews and pre-surveys were conducted to ensure the questionnaire’s scientific validity. Second, all surveyors received professional training to ensure standardized data collection. Finally, sampling was conducted across different time periods and visitor groups to cover a diverse range of backgrounds and reduce sample bias. Data collection transparency was ensured to reduce bias. In the end, 325 questionnaires were distributed, and 314 were collected as valid. To ensure an adequate sample size for reliable modelling, this study conducted a post hoc power analysis. The results indicated that the statistical power for each endogenous variable was high (greater than 0.80) (Cohen, 1988). Therefore, the sample size used in this study (n = 314) possesses sufficient statistical power to support the SEM results.

Structural equation modelling (SEM) was conducted in IBM SPSS Amos 24.0 to evaluate the succession of dependent relationships and to validate the relationships among the multiple independent and dependent constructs included in this research. To assess the conceptual model, a two-step procedure was employed. First, the measurement model—specified with reflective constructs—was assessed for reliability and validity using composite reliability (CR), Cronbach’s alpha, standardized factor loadings, and average variance extracted (AVE). After establishing the quality of the measurement scales, the structural model was estimated to clarify the relationships among the latent variables.

Because the data were collected using a self-report questionnaire in a single survey, we assessed potential common method bias. In addition to procedural remedies during questionnaire design and administration (e.g., pretest-based item refinement, standardized instructions, and trained survey administrators), we conducted Harman’s single-factor test by entering all measurement items into an unrotated EFA. If a single factor accounts for the majority of the total variance (commonly >50%), common method bias may be a concern.

The demographic profile of the sample is presented in Table 4. Fewer male respondents (37.3%) than female respondents (62.7%) completed the survey. Nearly half of the respondents (43.3%) were aged 18–24, and the next most common age groups were 25–34 (28.0%) and 35–44 (16.9%). Most of the respondents had a bachelor’s degree (69.7%), and the second most common level of education was a master’s degree (20.4%). With respect to respondents’ monthly income, the group of respondents earning less than ¥2,500 was the largest (37.6%), followed by the other groups, such as those earning ¥2,501–5,000 (17.2%), ¥7,501–10,000 (16.6%) and ¥5,001–7,500 (14.6%), which accounted for similar portions of the sample. In terms of respondents’ occupations, most of the respondents were students (40.8%) or staff members working for enterprises or public institutions (36.0%); the remaining respondents could be divided approximately equally into three types: laborers (6.1%), businesspersons (3.1%), and farmers (1.9%).

To explore the overall relationship between CCTPD and the psychological generation mechanism of cultural confidence, this study treated the five experiential dimensions of CCTPD as first-order variables. A single overall latent variable representing CCTPD is extracted as a second-order variable to construct Model 1, as shown in Figure 2. The final model consists of 9 constructs. Furthermore, to investigate the specific impact paths between the different dimensions of CCTPD and the various stages of cultural confidence generation, as shown in Model 2 in Figure 3, this study developed an 8-variable model to examine the direct effects of the five dimensions on cultural cognition, cultural identity, and cultural confidence.

Understanding the psychological formation of cultural confidence remains an important research topic. Although some scholars have suggested a direct link between cultural cognition and cultural confidence, our results indicate that cultural identity fully mediates the association between cultural cognition and cultural confidence. Specifically, cultural cognition was not significantly associated with cultural confidence when cultural identity was included, whereas cultural identity showed a strong association with cultural confidence. These findings are consistent with arguments by Guan (2023) and Wang and Huang (2018) that cultural cognition provides a basis for cultural identity, while cultural confidence often involves an additional process of psychological identification. In this view, cultural cognition may provide individuals with a basic understanding of culture, but the accumulation of cognitive information alone may be insufficient to correspond to higher cultural confidence. If cognitive understanding does not extend to emotional and value-based recognition, it may be less likely to coincide with stronger cultural confidence. Without such identification, confidence in culture may remain relatively superficial (Lin et al., 2022) or may even be expressed as “blind confidence” (Wang and Huang, 2018).

Moreover, the internalization of cultural cognition is often gradual and multifaceted. Cognitive processing can be planned, intentional, and reflective, suggesting that internalization is not only information processing but also a goal-directed psychological activity (Rosenbaum, 2001). Cultural confidence may be more likely to co-occur when cultural cognition aligns with individuals’ values and social identity, supporting the formation of recognition on a cognitive basis and, in turn, being associated with higher cultural confidence.

This perspective may also help explain why our findings differ from those reported by Zhou et al. (2022). Zhou et al. used Chinese “red culture” as the cognitive carrier, which often evokes national pride and identity-relevant meanings; thus, cultural cognition in that context may be more strongly linked to cultural confidence. By contrast, the cultural carrier in our study was historical culture, and visitors’ cognition was largely derived from cultural and creative tourism products or indirect and fragmented information. In this context, visitors’ cultural cognition may be more oriented toward factual learning, which may be less directly associated with cultural confidence unless accompanied by identity-related appraisal and emotional resonance.

First, this study examined the associations between CCTPD and different psychological stages related to cultural confidence. The SEM results indicated that CCTPD was positively associated with cultural cognition, cultural identity, and cultural confidence, with relatively large standardized coefficients (β > 0.5) for these paths. Consistent with prior work, these associations are in line with the idea that cultural and creative tourism products may correspond to multiple experience functions, including cognitive engagement (Song et al., 2021), social support (Wang and Yang, 2023), and affective experience (Feng et al., 2023). In this perspective, individuals may acquire cultural knowledge through cognitively oriented experiences, develop a sense of belonging through identity-related appraisal, and experience pride through cultural comparison. Together, these patterns help contextualize the multiple pathways linking cultural and creative tourism products with cultural confidence and are broadly consistent with interpretations informed by information-processing theory, social identity theory, and cultural comparison mechanisms in tourism-related cultural creativity.

Interestingly, the standardized association between CCTPD and cultural cognition was the largest (β = 0.714, p < 0.001), exceeding those with cultural confidence (β = 0.519, p < 0.001) and cultural identity (β = 0.467, p < 0.001). One possible interpretation is that cultural and creative tourism products may be particularly effective in communicating material or behavioral culture (Yang et al., 2022). Observations from the Cultural and Creative Experience Pavilion at the Three Gorges Museum also suggest that product design often emphasizes the extraction and transformation of cultural elements, which may be more immediately accessible to visitors and therefore more strongly linked to cultural cognition. In this sense, material and behavioral aspects of culture may be more readily perceived than more abstract spiritual culture.

Regarding indirect effects, cultural cognition and cultural identity appeared to play different roles in the association between CCTPD and cultural confidence. The specific indirect effect via cultural cognition alone was not significant, suggesting that the association between CCTPD and cultural confidence is unlikely to operate solely through increased cultural cognition. This may be because cultural cognition primarily reflects knowledge acquisition and informational understanding, whereas cultural confidence may require additional affective and value-based recognition. Thus, transmitting cultural knowledge through cultural and creative tourism products may not be sufficient to correspond to higher cultural confidence without identity-relevant and emotional components. In contrast, cultural identity showed a significant indirect effect between CCTPD and cultural confidence, indicating that when product experiences are associated with deeper recognition of cultural values, the relationship with cultural confidence tends to be stronger (Feng et al., 2023). This pattern suggests that cultural and creative tourism products may relate to cultural confidence partly by being associated with stronger feelings of cultural belonging and identification.

Additionally, we observed a significant sequential indirect effect through cultural cognition and cultural identity, consistent with a pathway in which CCTPD is associated with cultural cognition, which is then associated with cultural identity, and subsequently with cultural confidence. This sequential pattern highlights the potential interplay between cognitive and affective processes in cultural communication: knowledge-oriented content may be more likely to translate into cultural confidence when it co-occurs with identity-related appraisal and emotional resonance.

This study enriches the theoretical foundations of cultural psychology and design research. First, cultural confidence is a concept that has been predominantly discussed in the Chinese context. To our knowledge, existing studies have rarely examined the proposed psychological formation of cultural confidence using empirical model testing, with much prior work focusing on dimensions rather than the relationships and processes linking cognition, identity, and confidence. In our model, the indirect-effect results highlight the central role of cultural identity in the cognition–identity–confidence framework. Specifically, the full mediation pattern suggests that cultural cognition was not significantly associated with cultural confidence when cultural identity was included, whereas cultural identity showed a strong association with cultural confidence. The sequential indirect effect further indicates that CCTPD is associated with cultural confidence partly through its associations with cultural cognition and cultural identity. Taken together, these patterns are consistent with the view that cultural communication may relate to cultural confidence through an interplay of cognitive meaning-making and identity-relevant (affective/value-based) appraisal, offering a refined framework for understanding how cultural dissemination can be linked to cultural confidence.

For a concrete illustration, participatory museum practices can help translate the proposed framework into visitors’ lived experiences. In museums such as the Chongqing China Three Gorges Museum, programs (e.g., calligraphy workshops) can invite visitors to practice brush techniques while learning the cultural meanings behind characters and scripts. Such activities may simultaneously support cultural cognition (acquiring historical and symbolic knowledge) and cultural identity (experiencing shared cultural practice and belonging), which in turn may relate to stronger cultural confidence. Similar initiatives—such as traditional craft demonstrations, guided storytelling tours, and interactive heritage displays—illustrate how CCTPD can translate abstract cultural narratives into embodied, place-based experiences that support identity processes.

These findings provide a more comprehensive explanatory lens for cultural psychology and broaden the perspective on cultural cognition by underscoring that cultural communication and public education may benefit from going beyond the accumulation of factual information to include identity-relevant and emotionally resonant elements. Accordingly, in policy-making and social practice, cultural communication may be more effective when it moves beyond information transmission toward value-based identification and shared meaning-making. Public cultural projects may therefore prioritize depth of engagement rather than only expanding reach. In cultural product design, designers may consider combining knowledge-oriented content with emotionally engaging features and social sharing opportunities so that cognition- and identity-related processes can jointly align with cultural confidence.

Second, this study addresses the gap in understanding how CCTPD relates to cultural confidence. Our results suggest that CCTPD, as a design medium in a museum context, is positively associated with cultural cognition, cultural identity, and cultural confidence through multiple direct and indirect pathways. We also examined how CCTPD’s experiential dimensions relate to different stages of the proposed psychological process. As illustrated in Figure 6, different experiential dimensions showed distinct associations with cognition, identity, and confidence in a layered manner. This pattern is broadly consistent with Maslow’s hierarchy-of-needs perspective, in the sense that visitors’ needs may range from more basic, information-oriented engagement to deeper identity- and value-related experiences. Specifically, the cultural cognition stage is oriented toward the acquisition and transmission of cultural knowledge and the activation of learning interest; the cultural identity stage emphasizes interpretation of cultural connotations and social/collective meanings; and cultural confidence appears to align with both cognitive and affective foundations.

Notably, the same experiential design dimension may correspond to different psychological stages. For example, sense experience may be more strongly linked to cultural cognition when cultural resources are made salient through design transformation, while an immersive cultural atmosphere may be more closely associated with cultural confidence. Think experience may relate to cultural cognition through educational, knowledge-oriented content, while imagination- and memory-evoking designs may be more closely associated with cultural identity. Relate experience may support cultural identity through social belonging, whereas social recognition of cultural literacy and aesthetic taste may align more with cultural confidence. These insights provide actionable directions for designers and policymakers and highlight the importance of considering different stages of the cognition–identity–confidence framework when developing experience strategies.

This study has several limitations, which also suggest directions for future research.

First, the association between cultural cognition and cultural confidence may vary depending on the cultural carrier and the specific content through which culture is communicated. Future studies could test whether the proposed relationships hold across alternative carriers, such as traditional theatre, intangible cultural heritage crafts, and digital media. Such comparisons would help clarify the roles of different carriers in linking cultural dissemination to psychological outcomes and broaden perspectives in cultural communication research.

Second, this study examined cultural cognition, cultural identity, and cultural confidence as higher-level constructs to test their relationships within the proposed framework. Although the questionnaire items were developed based on relevant theories and were designed to reflect the multidimensional nature of these constructs, the present analyses did not further disentangle or compare specific subdimensions. Future research could therefore investigate the dimensional structures of cultural cognition, cultural identity, and cultural confidence in more detail and examine how different facets interact across stages, thereby enriching the theoretical account of cultural confidence formation.

Third, we did not explicitly examine whether the proposed relationships differ across demographic groups. Future studies could explore how demographic factors (e.g., age, cultural background, and education level) relate to each stage of cultural confidence formation and whether these factors moderate the links among cultural cognition, cultural identity, and cultural confidence. In addition, investigating users’ heterogeneous preferences for CCTPD may support more targeted and inclusive design strategies for different visitor segments and contribute to a more comprehensive design methodology.

Finally, because the sample was drawn exclusively from visitors to a single site (the Cultural and Creative Experience Pavilion of the Chongqing Three Gorges Museum), the external validity of the findings may be constrained. Future research should replicate the model using multi-site samples (e.g., different museum types and regions) and cross-cultural datasets to examine whether the cognition–identity–confidence pattern generalizes across cultural and institutional contexts. Moreover, due to the open nature of the research site and limitations in manpower and resources, convenience sampling was used. Although procedural measures were implemented to reduce potential biases (e.g., pretest-based item refinement, standardized instructions, trained survey administrators, and sampling across different time periods), the sample may still be subject to selection bias and may not fully represent the overall museum visitor population (e.g., the proportion of female and 18–24-year-old respondents was noticeably higher than that of other demographic groups).

In addition, some items exhibited a tendency toward high-end responses, which may reflect ceiling effects and/or social desirability. Although key indirect effects were estimated using bootstrapping and appeared robust, future work could improve measurement sensitivity by incorporating reverse-coded items and triangulating self-reports with behavioral indicators (e.g., observed engagement, revisit intention, and sharing behavior). Nevertheless, the study primarily aims to test the proposed relationships; thus, the observed patterns provide preliminary evidence, and the magnitude and generalizability of effects should be interpreted with caution. Because the data are cross-sectional, the sequential mediation should be interpreted as correlational rather than causal; longitudinal or experimental designs are needed to test temporal precedence and causal pathways. Future studies could also consider more rigorous sampling strategies (e.g., random or stratified sampling), alternative recruitment channels (e.g., social media combined with on-site recruitment), larger samples, and moderation analyses to strengthen robustness and generalizability.