Impact of personality traits and involvement on prior knowledge

•The effects of personality and involvement on tourists’ prior knowledge are tested.•Extraversion has moderate effect on personal relevance and familiarity.•The impacts of neuroticism on perceived risk and familiarity are found to be weak.•Personal relevance and perceived risk have significant effect on familiarity.•Familiarity has strong impact on analysis but moderate impact on elaboration.

Utilizing data collected in a southern city of China, this study proposes and tests a model that examines two personality traits namely extraversion and neuroticism as antecedents of perceived risk, personal relevance (two dimensions of involvement) and familiarity, and the influence of familiarity on analysis and elaboration (two dimensions of expertise). Familiarity and expertise are utilized as two dimensions of prior knowledge. Findings reveal that extraversion’s effects on personal relevance and familiarity are moderate. Familiarity has strong impact on analysis but moderate impact on elaboration. The impact of neuroticism on perceived risk and familiarity are found to be weak. While personal relevance has a moderate effect on familiarity, perceived risk’s impact on familiarity is found to be weak.