Within a hair's breadth of buying the product: The impact of tangible and intangible bodily cues of contamination: The role of disgust and mental imagery

Abstract

In most retail environments, customers can handle products. However, the downside of this freedom to touch products is product contamination. The objectives of this paper are threefold: (a) to examine the effects of contamination cues (tangible vs. intangible) on consumer responses; (b) to show the mediating role of contamination, disgust, and mental imagery; and (c) to assess the robustness of the results on three product categories for different levels of contact intimacy. Three experimental laboratory studies on different product categories (a book [n = 95], T-shirt [n = 118], and apple [n = 102]) showed that tangible contamination cues decreased product evaluation and purchase intentions more than intangible contamination cues did. Moreover, contamination, disgust, and mental imagery mediated the effects of contamination cues on product evaluation and purchase intention. The findings provide theoretical and practical insights to help researchers and retailers understand the effect of tangible contamination cues on consumer responses.

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

“…This finding is consistent with the findings reported in most product literature (e.g., Luangrath et al, 2022; Peck & Shu, 2009). However, this is inconsistent with a few studies that have reported a negative touch effect (e.g., Gérard and Helme‐Guizon 2018) and a few studies that have reported a non‐existent touch effect (Liu et al, 2017; Liu et al, 2022; Peck & Wiggins, 2006). We believe the differences in the effect sizes can explain this inconsistency.…”