Vicariously touching products through observing others' hand actions increases purchasing intention, and the effect of visual perspective in this process: An fMRI study

Liu, Yi; Zang, Xuelian; Chen, Lihan; Assumpção, Leonardo; Li, Hong

doi:10.1002/hbm.23845

Cited by 10 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 48 publications

(61 reference statements)

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“…Consumers have become increasingly tolerant of purchasing products online, a medium not conducive to physical interaction with products prior to purchase. Research has shown that viewing touch increases purchase intention (Liu et al 2018) and that actual product touch is important when assessing and purchasing products (Grohmann, Spangenberg, and Sprott 2007;Holbrook 1983;McCabe and Nowlis 2003;Peck and Childers 2003). Yet when touch is translated to a digital environment and consumers view a hand interacting with a product, we wonder whether vicarious touch affects how consumers value products.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Observing Product Touch: The Vicarious Haptic Effect in Digital Marketing and Virtual Reality

Luangrath¹,

Peck²,

Hedgcock³

et al. 2022

Journal of Marketing Research

105

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Retail is rapidly evolving to construct virtual environments for consumers. Online product images, videos, and virtual reality (VR) interfaces enliven consumer experiences and are a source of product information. Since consumers are unable to physically touch products in these digital environments, this research considers vicarious touch, or the observation of a hand in physical contact with a product in a digital environment. Across eight studies, the authors use images, GIFs, and VR to show that vicarious touch affects consumers’ psychological ownership and product valuation due to the active nature of product touch which results in a felt sense of body ownership of the virtual hand. This is termed the vicarious haptic effect. Results demonstrate that it is not simply enough to have a hand in an advertisement, the hand must be touching a product. The vicarious haptic effect is strongest for people who become highly stimulated by an immersive VR experience (i.e., measured via the elevation in heart rate). The vicarious haptic effect is attenuated if the viewed interaction does not represent a diagnostic hand movement. The authors discuss theoretical and managerial implications for digital product presentation in order to encourage feelings of product ownership and valuation.

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

Observing Product Touch: The Vicarious Haptic Effect in Digital Marketing and Virtual Reality

Luangrath¹,

Peck²,

Hedgcock³

et al. 2022

Journal of Marketing Research

105

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…In contrast, retailers from web stores use vicarious‐touch strategies to induce consumers' virtual experience of touching a product. These vicarious‐touch strategies include, but are not limited to, inviting consumers to observe a human hand touching a product in a picture (Liu et al, 2018; Luangrath et al, 2022), imagine touching a product (Peck & Shu, 2009; Peck et al, 2013; Pino et al, 2020; Silva et al, 2021), view haptic cues contained in an online booking service (Lv et al, 2020; Silva et al, 2021) and place a haptic cue (i.e., a graspable object) besides the non‐graspable target product (Maille et al, 2020).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The researchers recruited participants from different countries to study the effect of touching on product attitudes. These countries include, but are not limited to, China (e.g., Liu et al, 2018), Italy (e.g., Streicher & Estes, 2016), France (e.g., Racat et al, 2021), Canada (e.g., Grohmann et al, 2007), Brazil (e.g., Vieira, 2013), the United States (e.g., Peck & Wiggins, 2006), Israel (e.g., Ert et al, 2016), the UK (e.g., Marlow & Jansson‐Boyd, 2011), India (e.g., Jha et al, 2019), Austria (e.g., Hazeé et al, 2019), Australia (e.g., Heller et al, 2019) and New Zealand (e.g., Fenko et al, 2016). According to Hofstede (1993), people living in these countries differ from each other in one important cultural dimension: uncertainty avoidance.…”

Section: Theory and Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does product touch affect consumer attitude toward a product? Meta‐analysis of effect sizes, moderators, and mediators

Liu

Awan

2022

Psychology and Marketing

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Consumers rely on physical touch in offline shopping and vicarious touch (i.e., imagining touch) in online shopping to develop their attitudes toward a product. The subject of how touching (versus not touching) affects consumer attitudes toward a product merits studying. However, past research has drawn controversial conclusions regarding the effect of product touch on consumer attitudes. This study conducted a meta‐analysis to resolve this inconsistency and explore the reasons for this inconsistency. It quantitatively analyzed 185 effect sizes in 42 empirical studies conducted between 2003 and 2022. In general, relative to not touching, touching had a positive effect on consumers' attitudes toward a product (ρ $\rho $ = 0.242, p < 0.001), and the effect size was moderate. Furthermore, the positive touch effect was mediated by consumers' cognitive experiences relating to the product and their affective experiences relating to the product. The cognitive path (total indirect effect = 0.068, p < 0.001) being stronger than the affective path (total indirect effect = 0.067, p < 0.001). Importantly, it showed that past inconsistency regarding the touch effect could be explained by moderators including product type (utilitarian versus hedonic), participants' uncertainty avoidance, and type of touch (physical touch versus vicarious touch). This study provides new insights into the product touch literature and offers valuable implications for online and offline retailing and consumer well‐being.

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“…Studies in cognitive psychology and consumer behavior have shown that observing hand haptic cues and product touch could stimulate vicarious touch experience. The process of automatically simulating others’ hand-touch actions appears psychologically and behaviorally ( Liu et al, 2018 ), even if the subjects rationally judge that the behavior does not come from themselves ( Wegner et al, 2004 ). This vicarious sensory experience also helps to infer its sensory characteristics and obtain sensory information about products ( Pino et al, 2020 ), thereby enhancing purchase and payment intention ( Luangrath et al, 2022 ).…”

Section: Hypotheses Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can visual language convey tactile experience? A study of the tactile compensation effect of visual language for online products

et al. 2022

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IntroductionThere is a common phenomenon of tactile missing in online retail. How to realize consumer tactile compensation is a consensus problem in the field of e-commerce. More and more marketeers and scholars convey their ideas via visual display, but few researches have focused on the tactile compensatory effect of visual language.MethodsStudy 1 collected data from nearly 13,000 online purchases to analyze the impact of haptic cues on sales in real online shopping platforms; Study 2 used a experimental research method to design three experimental groups: hand haptic cue group vs. Object haptic cue group vs. control group (N = 165) to investigate whether the main effect of haptic cues and the dual mediating effect of mental simulation held. Study 3 also adopted a simulated experimental research approach to design a two-factor group: 2 (haptic cue: hand vs. object) × 2 (product type: tactile functional product vs. tactile experiential product) (N = 198). To further explore whether the moderating effect of product type holds based on Study 2.ResultsTherefore, based on the visualization theory and mental simulation theory, and through a second-hand data experiment and two simulated experiments, this study confirmed that visual language did have a compensation effect on tactile missing specifically. Haptic cues in metaphorical visual language can actively compensate for consumers’ tactile loss, thus affecting the purchase intention. Mental simulation plays a mediating role in the tactile compensation effect. Product type has a moderating effect, and the use of hand (object) haptic cues in metaphorical visual language in tactile functional products (tactile experiential products) can lead to a more active purchase intention.DiscussionThis study not only enriches the theoretical research on the tactile compensation effect of visual language, but also provides valuable management enlightenment for e-commerce enterprises to improve the effectiveness of online product display and online sensory marketing strategies.

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Vicariously touching products through observing others' hand actions increases purchasing intention, and the effect of visual perspective in this process: An fMRI study

Cited by 10 publications

References 48 publications

Observing Product Touch: The Vicarious Haptic Effect in Digital Marketing and Virtual Reality

Observing Product Touch: The Vicarious Haptic Effect in Digital Marketing and Virtual Reality

Does product touch affect consumer attitude toward a product? Meta‐analysis of effect sizes, moderators, and mediators

Can visual language convey tactile experience? A study of the tactile compensation effect of visual language for online products

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