Does Subconscious Public Health Emergency Risk Perception Still Influence Festival Visitors’ Participation Intention? -Based on TPB Model

To verify the long-term impact and mechanism of public health emergency risk perception on people’s psychology and behaviour, this research used a longitudinal design (2022, 2023, 2025) with 783 valid samples and the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to model festival visitors’ decision-making. Quantitative results reveal that though explicit fear diminished over time, the subconscious risk imprint (S-PHERP) plateaued, forming a persistent 'risk memory residue'. Crucially, S-PHERP negatively moderates the effect of festival attractiveness on engagement intention. Qualitative findings further demonstrate how environment trigger this subconscious perception. Overall, this research finds that S-PHERP reduces engagement intention by weakening the influence of key TPB antecedents, thereby advancing the understanding of post-pandemic behavioral inertia. It establishes a complex decision-making landscape for post-pandemic festival-going and extends the TPB framework and offers a trigger-context perspective for designing resilient festival experiences.