From Immersion to Identification: The Mechanism of Cultural IP Experience on Tourists’ Value Internalization

Background Immersive cultural-IP experiences are increasingly used to convey culture and guide values, yet the psychological mechanism through which they foster identification and value internalization remains under-specified. Objective This study examines how immersive experience influences cultural identity and value acceptance via cultural understanding and emotional resonance, and whether tourist engagement amplifies these effects. Methods Using the “Chang’an Twelve Hours” immersive block in Xi’an as the field, we collected 412 valid questionnaires and tested a stimulus–organism–response model with structural equation modeling, mediation (bootstrap), and moderation (interaction and Johnson–Neyman) analyses. Results Immersive experience significantly enhanced cultural understanding and emotional resonance, but showed no direct effect on cultural identity or value acceptance. Cultural understanding and emotional resonance exerted significant single- and chain-mediating effects; tourist engagement positively moderated the paths from immersive experience to cognition and emotion. Conclusions Immersive cultural-IP experiences influence identity and value acceptance primarily through a “cognition → emotion → identification → internalization” chain that is strengthened when visitors are highly engaged. The findings enrich theory at the intersection of experience economy, S-O-R, and social identity, and offer practical implications for designing educationally effective cultural-tourism experiences.