Activity (Alternative) 13.1 The Need for Touch

Introduction
Do you like to touch?

How would you rate each of the following statements with respect to how well it applies to you? Answer with a number from 1 to 7, where 1 is “strongly disagree” and 7 is “strongly agree.”

  1. When walking through stores, I can’t help touching all kinds of products.
  2. Touching products can be fun.
  3. I place more trust in products that can be touched before purchase.
  4. I feel more comfortable purchasing a product after physically examining it.
  5. When browsing in stores, it is important for me to handle all kinds of product.
  6. If I can’t touch a product in the store, I am reluctant to purchase the product.
  7. I like to touch products even if I have no intention of buying them.
  8. I feel more confident making a purchase after touch a product.
  9. When browsing in stores, I like to touch lots of products.
  10. The only way to make sure a product is worth buying is to actually touch it.
  11. There are many products that I would only buy if I can handle them before purchase.
  12. I find myself touching all kinds of products in stores.

Now add up your scores for questions 1, 2, 5, 7, 9, and 12.

Do the same for questions 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 11.

You have just scored yourself on the “Need for Touch” scale (Peck & Childers, 2003). The first score (“autotelic” NFT) measures the desire to touch objects just to enjoy the sensory experience, where the second score (“instrumental” NFT) measures the use of touch to evaluate products for potential purchase. Although the NFT was originally designed to assess consumer behavior, it turns out to be related to people’s desire to touch objects that they simply see, like the pin cushion shown in Figure 13.1 of your textbook (Klatzky & Peck, 2011). In a study with about 200 college students, the median scores were 28 and 29 for autotelic and instrumental NFT, respectively. You can decide for yourself whether your measured values seem to predict your habit of touching the world.

References
Klatzky, R. L. and Peck, J. (2012). Please touch: Object properties that invite touch. IEEE Transactions on Haptics 5: 139–147.

Peck, J. and Childers, T. L. (2003). To have and to hold: The influence of haptic information on product judgments. Journal of Marketing 67: 35–48.