Start Date
10-12-2017 12:00 AM
Description
With the rise of tablets and smartphones, online shopping is increasingly occurring on “direct-touch” computer interfaces. Work is needed to investigate whether and how the different interfaces affect consumers’ psychological reaction to products. This research attempts to examine how sense of touch elicited by touch versus non-touch computer interfaces influences the ways online consumers construe products. Drawing on the literature on mental simulation and construal level, we propose that high sense of touch could result in a concrete mental product construal by decreasing the perceived psychological distance of products; accordingly, touch interfaces can shift consumers’ attentions to product feasibility considerations, whereas non-touch interfaces shift consumers’ attentions to product desirability considerations. Two lab experiments are designed to test these effects. Potential theoretical contributions, practical implications, and future research are discussed.
Recommended Citation
PENG, Xixian; Wang, Xinwei; and Teo, Hock Hai, "Touch Makes You Think Concretely: The Effects of Computer Interfaces on Product Evaluation" (2017). ICIS 2017 Proceedings. 10.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2017/HCI/Presentations/10
Touch Makes You Think Concretely: The Effects of Computer Interfaces on Product Evaluation
With the rise of tablets and smartphones, online shopping is increasingly occurring on “direct-touch” computer interfaces. Work is needed to investigate whether and how the different interfaces affect consumers’ psychological reaction to products. This research attempts to examine how sense of touch elicited by touch versus non-touch computer interfaces influences the ways online consumers construe products. Drawing on the literature on mental simulation and construal level, we propose that high sense of touch could result in a concrete mental product construal by decreasing the perceived psychological distance of products; accordingly, touch interfaces can shift consumers’ attentions to product feasibility considerations, whereas non-touch interfaces shift consumers’ attentions to product desirability considerations. Two lab experiments are designed to test these effects. Potential theoretical contributions, practical implications, and future research are discussed.