• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.49-60
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• 2017

Previous research found that merely touching an object can create psychological ownership and the endowment effect. It was also found that just imagining touching an object without actually touching the object can make the same effect on psychological ownership. Prior research on haptic imagery examined the effect of haptic imagery induced by direct instruction of imaging on psychological ownership. We investigate a new method which can induce the haptic imagery in a more natural way than direct instruction of imaging. We manipulated imagery conditions such as visual-haptic congruence multimodal cue, visual-haptic incongruent multimodal cue, direct instruction condition and control condition, and examined the effects on imagery vividness, feeling of physical control, perceived ownership, and purchase intention. We conducted the experiment on 140 undergraduate students and our results showed that visual-haptic congruence multimodal cue condition is more effective than direct instruction of haptic imagery while visual-haptic incongruence multimodal cue condition is not effective. Our study extends prior haptic imagery research by making important marketing implications for online retailing.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.41-60
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• 2021

The purpose of this research was to determine whether multimodal cues in an online shopping environment could enhance tactile consumer mental imagery, purchase intentions, and attitudes towards an apparel product. One limitation of online retail is that consumers are unable to physically touch the items. However, as tactile information plays an important role in consumer decisions especially for apparel products, this study investigated the effects of multimodal cues on overcoming the lack of tactile stimuli. In experiment 1, to explore the product, the participants were randomly assigned to four conditions; picture only, video without sound, video with corresponding sound, and video with discordant sound; after which tactile mental imagery vividness, ease of imagination, attitude, and purchase intentions were measured. It was found that the video with discordant sound had the lowest average scores of all dependent variables. A within-participants design was used in experiment 2, in which all participants explored the same product in the four conditions in a random order. They were told that they were visiting four different brands on a price comparison web site. After the same variables as in experiment 1, including the need for touch, were measured, the repeated measures ANCOVA results revealed that compared to the other conditions, the video with the corresponding sound significantly enhanced tactile mental imagery vividness, attitude, and purchase intentions. However, the discordant condition had significantly lower attitudes and purchase intentions. The dual mediation analysis also revealed that the multimodal cue conditions significantly predicted attitudes and purchase intentions by sequentially mediating the imagery vividness and ease of imagination. In sum, vivid tactile mental imagery triggered using audio-visual stimuli could have a positive effect on consumer decision making by making it easier to imagine a situation where consumers could touch and use the product.