Tablets, touchscreens, and touchpads: How varying touch interfaces trigger psychological ownership and endowment

Abstract

As mouse‐driven desktop computers give way to touchpad laptops and touchscreen tablets, the role of touch in online consumer behavior has become increasingly important. This work presents initial explorations into the effects of varying touch‐based interfaces on consumers, and argues that research into the interfaces used to access content can be as important as research into the content itself. Two laboratory studies using a variety of touch technologies explore how touchscreen interfaces can increase perceived psychological ownership, and this in turn magnifies the endowment effect. Touch interfaces also interact with importance of product haptics and actual interface ownership in their effects on perceived product ownership, with stronger effects for products high in haptic importance and interfaces that are owned. Results highlight that perceptions of online products and marketing activities are filtered through the lens of the interfaces used to explore them, and touch‐based devices like tablets can lead to higher product valuations when compared to traditional computers.

Understanding Customer Experience Throughout the Customer Journey

“…Brasel and Gips (2014) find that touching an item (on a tablet or smartphone) leads to a greater sense of ownership and attachment than clicking on the device (on a desktop or laptop). Brasel and Gips (2014) find that touching an item (on a tablet or smartphone) leads to a greater sense of ownership and attachment than clicking on the device (on a desktop or laptop).…”

Explanations of the endowment effect: an integrative review

“…Mere ownership effects are driven by psychological rather than factual ownership [28,32]. Merely touching a good, touching an image of a good, or imagining one owns a good engenders a more positive evaluation if that experience creates a feeling of psychological ownership [68][69][70][71][72]. Psychological ownership increases with the amount of time one possesses a good [26,28], for as long as 2 months later [27].…”

“…Even virtually touching or imagining one owns a good is sufficient to create this mere ownership effect [68,72]. It was originally assumed that ownership was a necessary but not a sufficient condition for the endowment effect [2].…”

A Study of Purchase Decision and Its Affecting Factors for Mobile Shopping Among Smartphone Users

“…Venkatesh et al (2012) [4] find mobile adoption is affected by performance expectancy and effort expectancy. Brasel and Gips (2014) [5] show touch interfaces on mobile devices can increase customers' purchase intentions.…”