Article
To read the full-text of this research, you can request a copy directly from the authors.

Abstract

Numerous experimental studies have shown that touch increases compliance with a request made by the “toucher”. Customer's behavior is also affected by tactile contact. Waiters or waitresses in a bar or in a restaurant were evaluated more positively and received higher tips when they slightly touched the customer than when no tactile contact was used. A new evaluation of the effect of tactile contact was made in a restaurant with 256 patrons. When presenting the menu to a patron, the waiter or the waitress was instructed to make or not make (control condition) a suggestion about a meal. In half of the cases, when making this suggestion, the employee slightly touched the patron on the forearm. Results showed that, compared to a control condition, the suggestion had a positive effect on patron's choice especially when the patron was touched by the employee. Theoretical and practical implication of tactile contact are discussed.

No full-text available

Request Full-text Paper PDF

To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.

... L'efficacité de la relation ache- teur-vendeur dépend de la création d'une prédisposition affective positive à cette relation, suffisamment forte pour résister à tout élément d'insatisfaction (Mzahi, Cova, 2011). À cet égard, le personnel confère son image à l'enseigne, au fondement de la construction du positionnement (Munos, 1999 (Guéguen, Jacob et Boulbry, 2007 ;Guéguen, Jacob, 2011). ...
... Le restaurant reflète un terrain d'étude privilégié dont la consommation est à la fois alimentaire, hédonique et propice aux relations sociales voire d'intimité avec les serveurs, lui conférant un statut de third place (11) (Rosenbaum, 2006). En effet, dans le cadre d'une rencontre de service comme celle se présentant, de fait, lors d'un repas au restaurant -ou dans un bar -entre clients et serveurs, une approche plus amicale, plus familiale voire tactile avec le consommateur aurait une influence positive sur l'atmosphère de consommation (Guéguen, Jacob et Boulbry, 2007). D'une part, la familiarité perçue avec l'interlocuteur serait amplifiée par la réception d'un sourire et, ce, particulièrement lorsque les interactants ne se connaissent pas (Baudoin et alii, 2000) comme c'est le cas, le plus souvent, entre un client et le personnel en contact. ...
... D'autre part, au-delà d'un plus haut niveau de satisfaction-clientèle induit par la production de sourires, l'intention de revenir serait également plus élevée (Barger, Grandey, 2006), l'impact sur la fidélisation étant potentiellement positif. Pour répondre favorablement aux attentes clients, l'amélioration de la convivialité recherchée implique alors de multiplier les interactions physiques et sociales (Corbeau, 2005), dont l'évolution est positivement proportionnelle au temps de l'expérience de consommation (Kimes, Wirtz et Noone, 2002 ;Guéguen, Jacob et Boulbry, 2007). (11) Un third place serait alors un espace dans lequel le consommateur peut entretenir des liens d'intimité avec le personnel en contact ou les assimiler à des relations d'ordre familial. ...
Article
Full-text available
L’étude du sourire des personnels en contact signale un allongement significatif de la durée de consommation au restaurant lorsque le serveur est une femme ou s’il s’agit d’un serveur souriant à une table de femmes. Une stratégie hybride composée d’éléments relationnels et temporels est proposée en intégrant l’influence de ce signal non verbal sur le business model d’un restaurant. Les résultats obtenus sont en adéquation avec les préoccupations en management du personnel en contact et en gestion de l’occupation.
... These results are consistent with qualitative findings reported recently by Seger-Guttmann and Medler-Liraz (2018) who interviewed bartenders and found that flirting benefits such as financial gain were associated with the positive emotional atmosphere generated by a stronger bartender-customer friendship. Although the upcoming references did not refer directly to flirtation, studies on the effect of employees' light tactile contact found that employees can increase tips in a restaurant or in a bar ((Guéguen and Jacob, 2005); Guéguen and Jacob, 2014;Hornik, 1992) or increases the selling rate of products (Guéguen et al., 2007) simply by touching a client. ...
... Managers need to be aware of the ethical concerns that derive from flirting displays and sanction employees who cross the line. Since customers' behavior is positively influenced by acceptable normative tactile contact (e.g., customers touched by a requester tend to comply, give a tip and consume more than customers who were not touched; Guéguen et al., 2007), employees may hope to manipulate customers for their own financial gain. Although it is common practice in marketing to manipulate consumers to secure compliance, managers should be on guard and instruct their employees that touching should be used with discretion and within the bounds of societal norms and that they should consider other less sensitive persuasion techniques (Hornik, 1992). ...
... It is imaginable that, when feeling tired or disgusted at work or feeling depressed by an uncomfortable situation, the presence and physical snuggling of a partner or pet without any words has a healing effect. It is known that in communication between people, touching psychologically or physiologically has a positive effect [1][2][3]. Also, in human-robot interaction, it is reported that touching the robot increases motivation [4,5], and reduces stress [6]. Further, in the real environment, it is proved that the touching of a robot has effects on treating depression and problematic behavior [7]. ...
... There are many studies on the effects of human touching. If light touching is made in request behavior, the request can be easily accepted [1,2]. Even in the field of nursing, it is obvious that touching improves patients' emotions, behaviors, and physiological responses [3]. ...
Article
This paper focuses on “play-biting” as a touch communication method used by robots. We investigated an appropriate play-biting behavior and its effect on interaction. The touching action has positive effects in human-robot interactions. However, as biting is a defenseless act, it may cause a negative effect as well. Therefore, we first examine biting manner and the appearance of the robot using a virtual play-biting system in Experiment 1. Next, based on the result of experiment, the play-biting system is implemented in a stuffed animal robot. We verified the impressions created by the robot and its effect on mitigating stress in Experiment 2. Consequently, the play-biting communication gave positive and lively impression, and effect of reducing the physiological index of stress, in comparison to only touching the robot.
... This type of effect is known as the "Midas touch" effect. Various phenomena have been reported to this effect; for example, humans who have received physical contact from others have been found to be more likely to give a tip to shop staff [51], help others more often [52], create a better impression [53], and accept requests more often [54,55]. One of the interesting points about the Midas touch effect is that the tip was increased even when the customers themselves did not notice the fact that they were touched. ...
... Gender differences in touch from robot[48,49] H-R T Influence of appearance on touch and robot's impression[50] People's behavioral changes H-H T Chipping behavior[51], helping behavior[52], positive impression[53], compliance with a request[54,55] H-R T Brain response induced by touch[56], helping behavior[57], prosocial behavior[58], therapeutic effect[64], effect of gaze and touch on ...
Article
In human-human interaction, social touch provides several merits, from both physical and mental perspectives. The physical existence of robots helps them reproduce human-like social touch, during their interaction with people. Such social touch shows positive effects, similar to those observed in human-human interaction. Therefore, social touch is a growing research topic in the field of human-robot interaction. This survey provides an overview of the work conducted so far on this topic.
... Touching also influences prosocial behaviors, not only health status. Researchers investigated touch effects for positive impressions [24], and higher compliance to requests [25,26]. This phenomenon was dubbed the "Midas touch," which is one famous effect of touching in human science literature. ...
... To investigate the effects of reciprocated hugs from a robot, we focused on behavior changes: the Midas touch effect. In human-human interaction, touch encourages such prosocial behaviors as donations and helping the person who was touched [11,[24][25][26]. Such effects are also observed in human-robot interaction [33,34]. ...
... Handshakes, hugs or pats on the back may occur less frequently during communication than other behaviors, such as smiling or nodding, but social touch is known to have strong effects on subsequent interactions between co-located individuals. It has been shown that co-located social touch can affect compliance to requests [10], can reduce stress [8], and can be used to communicate discrete emotions [16]. ...
... Social touch has been found to play a role in a wide range of interpersonal messages, such as the communication of support, appreciation, affection, and others [17]. Furthermore, social touch can positively influence compliance to requests, in a way that the one receiving the touch is more inclined to comply with the request, such as filling out bogus personality questionnaire items [19], or complying to menu item suggestions by a waiter or waitress [10]. Effects of touch that result in a behavioral change in the one receiving the touch may be dependent on the context in which the touch takes place. ...
Conference Paper
In this paper we examine how simulated social touch by a virtual agent in a cooperative or competitive augmented reality game influences the perceived trustworthiness, warmth and politeness of the agent. Before and after the game, participants interact with two agents whereby one agent touches the participant’s arm. Results showed no significant difference in how agents are perceived in the cooperative and competitive situation. However, significant differences between perception of the touching and non-touching agents could be observed for warmth.
... The influence of a server's friendliness, body type or posture on the amount consumed or the items ordered have been reduced to one-dimensional interventions. Guéguen and Jacob showed that compliments or a slight touch on the forearm by the waiting staff can result in a higher compliance to the employees suggestion of certain meals (Guéguen, Jacob, & Boulbry, 2007;Jacob & Guéguen, 2014). Lynn conducted several studies in applied settings concerning the tipping behavior of patrons and influences of the server on the tipped amount. ...
... Past research has shown that a high compliance rate to the server's suggestion of items can be reached, e.g through the usage of mimicry techniques. (Guéguen et al., 2007;Jacob & Guéguen, 2014;Jacob, Guéguen, Martin, & Boulbry, 2011). ...
Article
Full-text available
Does the weight of a server have an influence on how much food diners order in the high-involvement environment of a restaurant? If people are paying for a full meal, this has implications for consumers, restaurants, and public health. To investigate this, 497 interactions between diners and servers were observed in 60 different full-service restaurants. Diners ordered significantly more items when served by heavy wait staff with high body mass indexes (BMI; p < .001) compared with wait staff with low body mass indexes. Specifically, they were four times as likely to order desserts (p < .01), and they ordered 17.65% more alcoholic drinks (p < .01). These findings provide valuable evidence in recent lawsuits against weight discrimination, and it suggests to consumers who decide what they will and will not order at a restaurant—such as a salad appetizer, no dessert, and one drink—than to decide when the waiter arrives.
... Guéguen et Jacob, 2005 ; Hornik, 1992a ; Lynn et al., 1998) entre personnels et clients ont notamment été étudiés. Plus récemment, ces travaux ont laissé place à des considérations sur le rapprochement physique des personnels aux clients (Guéguen et al., 2007 ; Jacob et Guéguen, 2012 ; Jung et Yoon, 2011). Néanmoins, ces recherches s'intéressent surtout aux effets de ce rapprochement sur l'octroi ou le montant d'un pourboire et sont souvent menées dans un contexte anglo-saxon. ...
... Par ailleurs, les seuls travaux permettant d'expliquer l'augmentation des dépenses et du temps passé par le client dans l'espace de consommation s'appuient sur des effets positifs du contact tactile du personnel (Hornik, 1992a ; Patterson et al., 1986 ). Ces résultats s'expliqueraient d'abord par le statut social qu'octroient le contact tactile et les perceptions associées au toucheur (Guéguen et Joule, 2008 ). En effet, un personnel de service tactile serait évalué de manière plus favorable (Erceau et Guéguen, 2007 ; Guéguen et al., 2007 ; Hornik, 1992a), le toucher permettant de développer la confiance à l'égard des employés en contact (Orth et al., 2013). Des réactions affectives positives expliqueraient en outre ces réponses comportementales (Jung et Yoon, 2011). ...
... Such haptic interactions, which have been extensively studied in human science literature, provide both mental and physical benefits [1][2][3][4][5][6]. Human science literature has reported that haptic interactions positively change people's behavior and support various efforts [7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. Previous research has found that physical robots can impact interactions with people more strongly or differently than computer-based agents [14][15][16][17]. ...
... Studies of interpersonal touch appear in various research disciplines, including marketing (Luangrath et al., 2020;Martin, 2012), psychology (Saunders et al., 2018), and neuroscience (Ebisch et al., 2014), as well as crosscultural investigations (Sorokowska et al., 2021). The collected evidence across these domains indicates that tactile stimulation generates positive feelings and increases consumers' compliance with requests to answer a survey (Hornik, 1987;Hornik and Ellis, 1988), order a suggested meal (Guéguen et al., 2007), or leave tips (Crusco & Wetzel, 1984;Hornik, 1992;Luangrath et al., 2020;Stephen & Zweigenhaft, 1986). For example, in studying interpersonal touch between restaurant servers and diners, Crusco and Wetzel (1984) find that a brief touch on a diner's hand or shoulder increases tips. ...
Chapter
Consumers use their sense of touch to interact with products and salespeople in direct marketing; they use touchscreen devices to interact with products and others on e-commerce and mobile commerce platforms. Understanding the role of touch in consumers’ experiences in both physical and digital realms is essential for businesses to implement effective haptic strategies and for scholars to advance knowledge in touch literature. This chapter offers an initial review of the role of touch, touchscreens, and haptic technology through an interactive marketing lens. Specifically, it proposes a conceptual framework for continued research by situating current haptic and tactile research within an interactive marketing frame. It summarizes new knowledge of three important topics in interactive marketing: technology adoption, customer behavior, and multichannel marketing. It also draws readers’ attention to the multifaceted research of touch from psychology and neuroscience perspectives. The first half of the chapter summarizes the most up-to-date research findings and theories (e.g., psychological ownership) on haptic and tactile effects that substantially affect interactions between consumers and products and between consumers and service providers. Then a summary of recent research outlines how touchscreen devices (e.g., smartphones, tablets) and haptic technology (e.g., smart wearables) influence consumers’ experiences in the digital world.
... Experiments also indicate that tactile touch exerts an influence on compliance with a request made by the "toucher" (Dolinski, 2010;Guéguen & Fischer-Lokou, 2002). For instance, Guéguen et al. (2007) found that employees in the restaurant can receive higher tips and more positive evaluations when they slightly touched on the forearm of the patron compared to those who did not touch the customer. ...
Article
Following preventive measures is crucial for slowing the rate of COVID-19 spread. To date, most research has focused on the role of individual differences and personality in compliance with preventive measures to COVID-19. Building on findings that interpersonal touch instills a feeling of security, we propose that interpersonal touching behavior, an underexplored factor tied to social interaction, leads to more breaches of coronavirus restrictions by inducing security feelings. In a lab experiment (Experiment 1) and a field study (Experiment 2), we demonstrated that a female experimenter’s fleeting and comforting pat on the shoulder made people less willing to abide by preventive measures in their self-report and actual behavior. Further, we excluded a potential alternative explanation that touch intervention by the experimenter presents the defiance of COVID-19 rules because the effect cannot be observed when the touch consists of a handshake rather than a comforting pat on the shoulder (Experiment 3). Finally, consistent with our theoretical perspective, the results revealed that sense of security mediated the effect of interpersonal touch on violation of instructions to follow coronavirus precautions. Taken together, interpersonal touch not only enhances trust and security, but also can push people away from health guidelines.
... Being so, it follows that, when an embarrassed client and a salesperson interact, mimicking by the FLSE may be beneficial, considering that it is good marketing policy to make all efforts to alleviate this feeling, since embarrassment can have negative effects on the behaviors of customers (Wu and Mattila 2013). Besides the benefit from the affiliation side, literature also indicates that nonverbal mimicry helps to create rapport between FLSEs and embarrassed customers (Lakin and Chartrand 2003;Yabar et al. 2006;Guéguen, Jacob, and Boulbry 2007;Tickle-Degnen and Rosenthal 1990), with mimicry leading to enhanced pro-social behavior toward the mimickers (Jacob et al. 2011): ...
Article
In this paper we use qualitative data to identify how pharmacy frontline sales employees try to build rapport toward embarrassed clients using nonverbal interpersonal communication (NVIC). Upon doing so, we build on a conceptual framework where NIVC can create rapport in embarrassing situations, with the client usually preferring the salesperson who, through expressive similarity, connects himself/herself with the client’s emotion and behaves discreetly, preserving the client from unnecessary exposure. Four methods were triangulated, including the critical incident technique. Results show that rapport building on the part of these salespeople by means of NIVC toward embarrassed clients is eminently amateurish, as these employees do not receive any prior training to perform in a more professional way. A relevant academic contribution comes from challenging the preconception that the categories of rapport are mutually exclusive and exhaustive, allowing the initial conceptual framework to be reconfigured as a new category of rapport is included. In practical terms, this research is also distinctive, since it suggests that, as a peculiar locus for embarrassment, pharmacies take these clients’ emotion in a more serious way, searching for ways to mitigate it through better training of salespeople, as this effort may translate into higher customer satisfaction and loyalty.
... Another strand of research has shown that consumers' behavior is frequently influenced by nonverbal cues, including (but not limited) to passive touch. As a case in point, Guéguen, Jacob and Boulbry (2007) found that clients touched by the employee were, for example, more willing to follow advice for a meal. Also, interacting via touch with costumers, enhanced people's willingness to taste products and ultimately buy the product (Smith, Gier & Willis, 1982). ...
Article
Individuals possess an innate capacity to communicate and understand non-verbal cues (i.e., touch). In addition, touch affects individuals at the intrapersonal level (e.g., physiological reactions) and at the interpersonal level (e.g., impression formation, pro-social behavior). Recent studies testify to the effects of touch also at the intergroup level (e.g., improvement of outgroup attitudes). The present review will discuss the effects of touch on a wide range of situations, and differently from past reviews, special attention will be given to the effects of touch (also in its indirect form, i.e., imagined physical contact) at the intergroup level
... On his study, Kornik et al. showed that bar customers were more likely to give a tip when they were hit by servers [Hornik, 1992a]. It was later replicated by IJsselsteijn, 2009, Guéguen andJacob, 2005], and it was demonstrated that this effect was impacting the behaviour in other experimental settings: the Midas touch effect was increasing the willingness to return money [Kleinke, 1977], and influenced purchase decisions [Hornik, 1992b] (for instance customers anthropomorphic devices 25 were following the suggestions on a menu item restaurant after being touched by a waiter [Gueguen et al., 2007]). Other studies demonstrated this effect in a health care setting to adhere medication [Willis and Hamm, 1980] or eat more [Eaton et al., 1986]. ...
Thesis
Communicating emotions is important for human attachment and bonding as well as for physical and psychological well-being.We communicate emotions through voice, but also through body language such as facial expressions, posture or touch. Among all these nonverbal cues, the tactile modality plays a particular role. Touch happens in co-located situations and involves physical contact between two individuals. A touch contact can convey emotions such as comforting someone by gently stroking her arm.Current technologies and devices used for mediated communication are not designed to support affective touch communication.There is a need to have new interfaces to mediate touch, both to detect touch (to replace the receiver's skin) and to convey touch (to replace the emitter's hand).My approach takes inspiration from the human body to inform the design of new interfaces. I promote the use of anthropomorphic affordances to design interfaces that benefit from our knowledge of physical interaction with other humans.Anthropomorphic affordances project human functioning and behaviour to the attributes of an object to suggest ways of using it. However, anthropomorphism has received little attention so far in the field of Human-Computer Interaction; its design space is still largely unexplored. In this thesis, I explore this design space and focus on augmenting mobile and robotic devices with tactile capabilities to enhance the conveying of emotions to enrich social communication.This raises two main research problems addressed in this thesis.A first problem is to define the type of device needed to perform touch. Current actuated devices do not produce human-like touch.In the first part of this thesis, I focus on the design and implementation of interfaces capable of producing humanlike touch output.I highlight human touch factors that can be reproduced by an actuated device. I then experimentally evaluate the impact of humanlike device-initiated touch on the perception of emotions.Finally, I built on top of these findings to propose Mobilimb, a small-scale robotic arm that can be connected onto mobile devices and can touch the user.A second problem is to develop interfaces capable of detecting touch input. My approach is to integrate humanlike artificial skin onto existing devices.I propose requirements to replicate the human skin, and a fabrication method for reproducing its visual, tactile and kinaesthetic properties. I then propose an implementation of artificial skin that can be integrated onto existing devices and can sense expressive touch gestures. This interface is then used to explore possible scenarios and applications for mediated touch input.In summary, this thesis contributes to the design and understanding of anthropomorphic devices for affective touch communication. I propose to use anthropomorphic affordances to design interfaces.To address the research questions of this thesis, I built upon human biological characteristics and digital fabrication tools and methods. The devices presented in this thesis propose new technical and empirical contributions around touch detection and touch generation.
... Daha açık bir ifade ile atmosferin boyutlarını ölçme ve kavramsallaştırmaya yönelik araştırmalar bu grup içerisinde sayılmaktadır(Raajpoot, 2002;Ryu ve Jang, 2008a;Kama ve Erdoğan, 2015).Bu grupta daha çok atmosferin boyutlarına veya alt boyutları içerisindeki unsurlara odaklanılarak araştırmaların yapıldığı görülmektedir. Söz gelimi bu grupta müzik, gürültü, renk, koku, çalışanlar gibi atmosferi oluşturan unsurların bir takım tüketici davranışlarına etkisinin incelendiği araştırmalar bulunmaktadır(Milliam, 1986; North vd., 2003;Kimes ve Robson, 2004;Lin ve Mattila, 2010;Guéguen ve Jacob, 2007).Bu çalışmaların esasen bir soru etrafında şekillendiğini söylemek mümkündür. İlgili literatürdeki çalışmalar genellikle atmosferin tüketici davranışları üzerindeki etkisini incelese de özünde atmosferin restoranlar için etkin bir rekabet üstünlüğü aracı olup olmadığını açıklığa kavuşturmaya çaba göstermektedir. ...
Thesis
Full-text available
The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between importance that consumers attach to restaurant atmosphere and their purchasing behaviors. The scales that were obtained from the relevant literature pertaining to the restaurant atmosphere, consumption values and purchasing behavior were applied to 450 individuals through convenience sampling method in Antalya region using questionnaires. First, the reliability and validity of the scales were demonstrated using the appropriate analyses of the data. Then, correlation analysis and regression analysis were performed in order to test the anticipated correlations between the variables in the study model. As a result of the correlation analysis, it was identified that there is a correlation between the dimensions of the restaurant atmosphere and hedonic consumption value and also there is a correlation between the dimensions of the restaurant atmosphere and the average spending on eating outside at a given time. As a result of the regression analysis, it was found that aesthetic has a significant effect on the hedonic consumption value. On the other hand, it was also identified that aesthetic has a significant effect on the frequency of eating out and average spending, however that R2 values of both models are quite low. In the light of the findings, recommendations have been brought to the attention of future implementers and researchers. Keywords: Eating Out, Restaurant Atmosphere, Consumption Value, Purchasing Behaviors
... 416;Hornik 1992, pp. 449-458), and customers' compliance with suggestions and requests (Guéguen et al. 2007(Guéguen et al. , pp. 1019(Guéguen et al. -1023Hornik 1992, pp. 449-458). ...
Chapter
Designing and orchestrating sensory cues is critical to service co-creation, since sensory stimulation has been acknowledged to be central to the customers’ evaluation of service quality and their service experience. Moreover, sensory perception is an essential element of customers’ contribution to service co-creation. The predominant angle from which sensory perception in the literature has been addressed is stimulus centric. That is, research has been focusing on the effects of individual and combined cues on customers’ purchase decisions as well as mental and emotional reactions to specific cues. As a result, existing studies focus only on one sense or on a selection of senses. Thus, a true multisensory perspective is not reflected in research. Shedding light on service co-creation from an actor-centric perspective, the purpose of this article is to understand how multisensory design, i.e., simultaneously considering all five senses, impacts service co-creation.
... hands, referred to as the "Midas effect;" (Crusco and Wetzel 1984), and that customers are more likely to follow food suggestions when they are touched by the server (Guéguen et al. 2007). ...
Thesis
In this dissertation, I examine the influence of aversive states (e.g., unpleasant emotions, undesired outcomes) on consumers’ motivations and behaviors. In essay 1, I explore how feelings of physical and moral disgust can be threatening to consumers’ sense of self and motivate them to engage in compensatory consumption. In essay 2, I investigate why and when consumers exhibit negative behavioral intentions against firms that terminate unconditional business-to-consumer gift-giving initiatives. In essay 3, I explore how loneliness affects consumers’ preferences for products and services that do or do not require interpersonal touch and interaction (e.g., getting a massage vs. shopping online). Together, the three essays contribute to the literature on emotion, identity threats, and compensatory consumption, to the literature on sales promotion, and to the literature on loneliness. Moreover, the research findings inform marketing practice in the fields of advertising, sales promotions design, and consumer haptics. Finally, this research provides insights into consumer welfare by bringing attention to the unforeseen consequences of marketers’ actions that seek to benefit the consumers but instead generate compensatory behaviors to cope with their aversiveness.
... La sinceridad es fundamental ya que constituye un incentivo al comportamiento recíproco en el intercambio de información con los clientes (Huang y Chang, 2008). Además, repercute incluso en la selección de servicios y productos por parte de los clientes, ya que estos se ven influenciados por las sugerencias que reciben por parte de los empleados (Guéguen, Jacob y Boulbry, 2007). Hwang et al. (2013) definen la sinceridad del consumidor como la intención de revelar información u opiniones sobre sí mismo a un empleado. ...
Chapter
Full-text available
Se propone un modelo conceptual que es evaluado con datos procedentes de una encuesta a una muestra de 336 consumidores. Los datos fueron analizados mediante un modelo de ecuaciones estructurales por el método de mínimos cuadrados. Los resultados muestran que la sinceridad del personal de un restaurante influye en la sinceridad del cliente y en su confianza en el restaurante, que media la relación con el compromiso del cliente, su intención de volver al establecimiento y la intención de recomendarlo online.
... According to the Midas touch phenomenon (Crusco & Wetzel, 1984), the tipping rate was much higher for consumers (both male and female) who had been touched versus those who had not been touched (Hornik, 1992b;Stephen & Zweigenhaft, 1986). Additionally, Gu eguen, Jacob, and Boulbry (2007) found that tactile contact by a waiter or a waitress toward a patron led them to follow a suggestion more favorably made by the employee. They found no significant effects for confederate or participant gender. ...
Article
Interpersonal touch has been shown to affect consumer behaviors such as compliance with a request, impulse buying, and tipping behavior. In this study, we examine if the impact of touch on purchase behavior is gender specific, and if it depends on how much the individual likes the product. Findings indicate male consumers are more likely to purchase a product at low to moderate levels of perceived tastiness when they are touched by a female server, whereas females are less likely to purchase. However, the touch encounter doesn’t matter for either gender when a consumer really likes the product.
... Noe & Uysal, 2004), and tipping (e.g. Guéguen, Jacob, & Boulbry, 2007) in the physical environment, and customers' social media engagement (e.g. Aluri, Slevitch, & Larzelere, 2015) and website usage intentions (e.g. ...
Article
Traditional coffeehouses, such as kopitiams, face intense competition from contemporary coffeehouses, such as artisanal cafés and coffeehouse chains. This paper sought to encourage customer patronage of traditional coffeehouses by considering socioenvironmental factors. Specifically, this paper examined the effects of ambience and social interactions on customer patronage of traditional coffeehouses. A sample of 363 participants, who were patrons of kopitiams, participated in this study. In general, the results of the study showed that ambience and social interactions significantly and positively shaped customers’ intentions to patronize traditional coffeehouses. A detailed scrutiny of the main and interaction effects revealed that traditional coffeehouse operators should focus on two ambient conditions to encourage customer patronage: cleanliness and furnishings. Further, the results emphasized that traditional coffeehouse operators need to maintain the quality of coffeehouse furnishings, as patronage decreases as the condition deteriorates, as a result of customers using the furnishings over time in their interactions with other customers.
... Many studies have found connection between verbal communication and positive customer behaviour or emphasized the significance of a personal service, i.e. interpersonal relationships between the service staff and guests. These studies (Guéguen, Jacob, & Boulbry, 2007;Gustafsson, 2004;Hansen, Jensen, & Gustafsson, 2005) found that suggestions from waiting staff, both male and female, to order a certain dish, actually lead restaurant customers selecting that particular (target) dish more often. Similar results were found by Jacob, Guéguen, Martin, and Boulbry (2011) among retail salespeople. ...
Article
Full-text available
Verbal communication is the main form of personal interaction. This article presents evidence for the positive role of service staff’s verbalized hospitality on consumer behaviour. The principal aim of the study was to explore the effect of verbal attention on making additional purchases and tipping behaviour in three different countries (Sweden, England, and Serbia). Moreover, research investigated whether server gender, customer gender, and group size moderate the relationship between verbal attention, additional purchase, and tipping behaviour. For the purpose of the study, servers in casual dining restaurants either paid special verbal attention to group diners, or did not do so, before asking target questions. The results show that group diners in verbal attention conditions make additional purchases and leave tips more often. While group size moderates the relationship between verbal attention and additional purchase and tipping behaviour, such role was not confirmed in the case of server gender and customer gender. The theoretical and practical implications of verbal interaction between servers and customers are discussed, as well as differences in three analysed countries.
... In human science literature, the positive effects of haptic interaction have already been broadly investigated and both mental and physical benefits have been unveiled [2][3][4][5][6][7]. Haptic interactions are well known to change the behaviors of others and facilitate various efforts in human science literatures [8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. Past research reported that the physical presence of robots influences interactions with people differently or more strongly than computer graphic-based agents [15][16][17][18]. ...
Article
Full-text available
Communication cues, e.g., gaze behaviors and touch styles, are essential factors in the close interaction of people with social robots. Even though the communication cues are broadly investigated in human–robot interaction, it remain unknown how they change human impressions of social robots in haptic interaction situations. For better understanding of communication cues in human–robot touch interaction, we conducted an experiment with 28 participants who interacted with a robot with gaze behaviors and touch styles. We prepared two gaze behaviors and three touch styles based on past research works. Our experimental results showed that participants preferred a gaze behavior more that only looks at their faces during a touch than a gaze behavior that looks at their faces, hands and returns to their face. They also preferred a touch style in which they touched the robot more than touch styles where a robot touches them.
... Asked to report their interest in volunteering for future Habitat for Humanity (charity organisation) efforts (Likert scale); specify the activities they would like to assist with, and indicate whether they wanted to donate funds to the cause (yes/no) Participants primed with a 'clean' scented room were more interested in volunteering and had a higher willingness to donate money ( Drink a cup of water through a straw with/without touching the cup, and then asked about the quality of the water Participants primed with haptic input gave more negative evaluations (Guéguen, Jacob, & Boulbry, 2007) Consumer, 1 study ...
Article
Full-text available
This paper contributes to design for behaviour change by testing the potential of priming via everyday products as a means of influencing users and dissolving conflicting individual and collective concerns. Self-construal is introduced as a core explanatory concept with respect to behaviours that unite individual and collective concerns. Two studies are reported. In the first, abstract representations of the target behaviour are elicited and incorporated into subconscious priming stimuli for each of the major senses: sight, hearing, touch, and smell. These primes are then evaluated in a controlled experiment. From these studies implications for both researchers and practitioners are identified. In particular, priming showed a significant effect across all senses.
... facial expressions), it is a communication modality that is known to have strong effects on the interaction. For example, social touch affects compliance to requests [13], can reduce stress [10], and can be used to communicate discrete emotions [17]. Recent findings indicate that when social touch is mediated through haptic feedback technology (i.e. ...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
In this paper we present a study in which participants played a collaborative augmented reality game together with two virtual agents, visible in the same augmented reality space. During interaction one of the virtual agents touches the user on the arm, by means of a vibrotactile display. We investigated whether social touch by a virtual agent in a collaborative setting would positively influence the participant’s perception of this touching virtual agent. Results showed that the touching virtual agent was rated higher on affective adjectives than the non-touching agent.
... This effect has been demonstrated in numerous ecologically valid settings, with a diverse range of observed pro-social behaviors. The Midas touch effect can result in increases in willingness to return lost money [89], increases in restaurant tipping after a touch by a waitress [13][88] [90], enhanced compliance to menu item suggestions in a restaurant after a touch by a waiter or waitress [91], and influence purchase decisions [88]. Other findings include that a brief touch to the forearm increases the chances that people will spontaneously help to pick up dropped items [92], increases the chances that students will volunteer to write down an answer on the blackboard during class [93], increases the time that participants are willing to spend on a repetitive task, such as filling out bogus personality questionnaire items [94], and increases the likelihood people will give their opinion on difficult social issues [95]. ...
Article
Full-text available
This survey provides an overview of work on haptic technology for social touch. Social touch has been studied extensively in psychology and neuroscience. With the development of new technologies it is now possible to engage in social touch at a distance or engage in social touch with artificial social agents. Social touch research has inspired research into technology mediated social touch, and this line of research has found effects similar to actual social touch. The importance of haptic stimulus qualities, multimodal cues, and contextual factors in technology mediated social touch is discussed. This survey is concluded by reflecting on the current state of research into social touch technology, and providing suggestions for future research and applications.
... Physical interaction, particularly haptic interaction, is one promising research path in the human-agent interaction research field. Because of its physical existence, which is an important advantage enjoyed by robots over CG agents, robots can communicate with people through haptic interactions that are well known to change the behaviors of others and facilitate their efforts in human science literatures [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. In the research field of human-robot interaction, various research works have reported similar effects of haptic interaction between robots and people: mental therapy [8], increasing motivation [9], and attitude changes by touch [10][11][12]. ...
Conference Paper
Haptic interaction is a key capability for social robots that closely interact with people in daily environments. Such human communication cues as gaze behaviors make haptic interaction look natural. Since the purpose of this study is to increase human-robot touch interaction, we conducted an experiment with 20 participants who interacted with a robot with different combinations of gaze behaviors and touch styles. The experimental results showed that both gaze behaviors and touch styles influence the changes in the perceived feelings of touch interaction with a robot.
... Social touch has also been shown to have persuasive effects. Guéguen et al. [13] showed this effect in various scenarios: In an investigation on a street about an imaginary ''TV program appropriate for children,'' the rate of those who agreed to answer increased when they were touched during the explanation; at a sampling sale of an aperitif in a pedestrian zone, briefly touching visitors increased the purchase rate [15]; when a waitperson touched a visitor at the time of an order at a restaurant, the rate of those who chose that day's recommended dish increased [16] and so on. Eaton et al. [8] also showed that when a female nurse promoted a meal for the elderly with touching, they consumed more calories and protein. ...
Article
Full-text available
The main contribution of this study is realization of a method that enhances the effect of touch in remote communication between persons of the same gender by changing the gender impression with a voice changer during telecommunication. Although psychological studies have revealed that touch has various positive effects such as triggering altruistic behavior and persuading others, these effects are restrained in some cases, especially in same-gender communication, because a touch between persons of the same gender tends to cause unpleasant feelings. However, “Transcendent Telepresence,” which enhances positive psychological effects and suppresses negative effects by modifying the information transmitted via telecommunication, enables us to overcome this problem. We hypothesized that telepresence that modifies people’s gender impression reduces this unpleasantness and enhances the effect of touch. We tested the effectiveness of this method in a situation in which a male operator asked male participants to perform a monotonous task. The results showed that a touch by a male operator whose voice was changed to female-like could reduce the boredom of the task and improve the friendliness toward the operator. We believe this method realizes effective communication in various fields including telemedicine, crowdsourcing, and remote education.
... Thus, by reducing risk via an information search, food-wine pairing, and recommendations could increase targeted wine sales (Wansink et al., 2006). The development of suggestive selling techniques (e.g., verbal suggestions, food-wine pairing) is also considered an important part of wine promotion (Gil, Berenguer, & Ruiz, 2009;Gue´guen, Jacob, & Boulbry, 2007;Ruiz-Molina et al., 2010;Wansink et al., 2006). For instance, Wansink et al. (2006) show that food-wine pairing recommendations (e.g., the use of tent cards placed on the table) can help allay these fears. ...
Article
Full-text available
This study tests the effect of a pairing suggestion for food with wine by the glass directly placed on the menu. We made the assumption that these suggestions can, by reducing social and financial risk, increase wine by the glass sales. One hundred and fifty-nine customers of a Swiss restaurant participated in this experiment. For 82 customers, a food and wine by the glass suggestion was directly placed on the menu while the 77 others were given a normal menu (without a pairing suggestion). Results show that this type of suggestion significantly increases wine sold by the glass. Practical applications of this strategy are discussed.
... Other research work suggested that such positive evaluations might increase compliance with requests from a person who did the touching [8]. Several research works reported that touching changes behaviors in actual settings: generous tips [9], compliance with the suggestions of a restaurant's employee [10,11], convincing the finders of money in a phone booth to return it [12], and increased sales in stores [13]. These research works suggest that robots that touch humans might produce similar facilitation effects ( Fig. 1). ...
Article
Full-text available
The paper investigated the effects on a person being touched by a robot to motivate her. Human science literature has shown that touches to others facilitate efforts of touched people. On the other hand, in the human–robot interaction research field, past research has failed to focus on the effects of such touches from robots to people. A few studies reported negative impressions from people, even if a touch from a person to a robot left a positive impression. To reveal whether robot touch positively affects humans, we conducted an experiment where a robot requested participants to perform a simple and monotonous task with/without touch interaction between a robot and participants. Our experiment’s result showed that both touches from the robot to the participants and touches from the participants to the robot facilitated their efforts.
... Moreover, a different study found that a brief touch on the customer's forearm by the waitress, would increase the amount of money left as a tip by the customer in a bar [34]. Similar effects have been found in a restaurant, where a touch by the waiter or waitress to the customer's forearm increased the customer's compliance to menu item suggestions by the waiter or waitress [35]. Furthermore, a brief touch to the forearm increased the chances that people would spontaneously help a confederate to pick up dropped diskettes [33], and increased the chances that students would volunteer to write down an answer on the blackboard during class [31]. ...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
In this paper we outline the design and development of an embodied conversational agent setup that incorporates an augmented reality screen and tactile sleeve. With this setup the agent can visually and physically touch the user. We provide a literature overview of embodied conversational agents, as well as haptic technologies, and argue for the importance of adding touch to an embodied conversational agent. Finally, we provide guidelines for studies involving the touching virtual agent (TVA) setup. © IFIP International Federation for Information Processing 2014
... Une revue des principales études sur le toucher interpersonnel entre le personnel en contact et le client permet de conclure à l'effet globalement positif de ce contact physique (Smith, Gier et Willis, 1982 ;Kaufman et Mahoney, 1999 ;Guéguen, Jacob et Boulbry, 2007). D'autres recherches, qui se font plus rares, suggèrent que le toucher interpersonnel entre deux clients suscite des attitudes négatives (Walker, 1971 ;Martin, 2012 ;Ardelet et al., 2015). ...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Les résultats de recherche sur le toucher soulignent les effets des modalités tactiles sur les réponses cognitives, affectives et conatives. Ces recherches admettent l’efficacité du toucher client-employé. Toutefois, très peu d’auteurs se sont penchés sur les effets du toucher accidentel client-client, objet de ce papier. Pour ce faire, une expérimentation a été réalisée au cours de laquelle les clients d’un magasin évaluaient un produit exposé. Durant leur expérience de shopping, les participants étaient touchés brièvement par un complice. Le statut et le sexe des compères étaient manipulés en vue de fournir des explications aux réponses obtenues. The results of research on the sense of touch emphasize the role of haptics in consumer behaviour. This research admits the efficiency of customer-employee touch. However, very few of them have taken the case of accidental touch between customers. A new experiment was carried out in which customers were asked to evaluate a product within a store. According to the experiment, participants were or were not briefly touched on the arm accidently by a confederate. Status and gender of the confederate were manipulated to provide explanations for responses.
... For instance, it has been shown that people who are touched by a confederate while being asked to sign a petition sign more often than people who are not touched (Willis and Hamm 1980). Also, restaurant clients who are touched by the waiter follow more often the waiter's suggestion than clients who are not ( Guéguen, Jacob, and Boulbry 2007). In the same vein, patients who are touched by their physicians follow the physician's recommendations regarding the medication more than patients who are not (Guéguen, Meneiri, and Charles-Sire 2010). ...
... Server disclosure is considered the starting point in maintaining a harmonious relationship with customers, in which customers become more aware of service providers (Collins and Miller, 1994). More importantly, the selection of products or services in the service industry is significantly affected by employee suggestions (Guéguen et al., 2007). Thus, server disclosure significantly influences sales management (Huang and Chang, 2008;Hwang et al., 2013). ...
Article
Purpose – The purpose of this study is to understand how to engage customers socially in the full-service restaurant industry. More specifically, based on the existing theoretical background, it was hypothesized that server disclosure induces customer disclosure. By a literature review, it was further hypothesized that server disclosure and customer disclosure influence trust, which in turn positively affects commitment and loyalty. Design/methodology/approach – The proposed hypotheses were empirically tested using data collected from 287 full-service restaurant patrons. Structural equation modeling was conducted to empirically test the proposed theoretical hypotheses and evaluate the proposed conceptual model. Findings – Based on the data analysis results, server disclosure was found to be a key predictor of customer disclosure. In addition, server disclosure and customer disclosure aid in the creation of trust, and can thus help to enhance commitment and loyalty. The theory building process revealed that gender is a significant moderator. Practical implications – First, restaurant managers need to develop a systematic training program which would help restaurant servers attain adequate knowledge of their job. Furthermore, the restaurant servers must know the importance of frankness when providing services; a frank confession is the key to understanding the minds of people. Finally, restaurant managers are required to hire employees with an outgoing and likeable personality because they are more likely to induce customer disclosure. To achieve this, restaurant managers should conduct in-depth interviews or personality tests in the recruiting process, which help clarify an applicant’s personal traits. Originality/value – Social penetration theory was applied to identify the relationship between server disclosure and customer disclosure, as it is first attempted in the hospitality industry. In addition, this study separated mutual disclosure into two subdimensions (e.g. server disclosure and customer disclosure) and investigated the impact of these two subdimensions.
... These findings can be explained first of all by the social status generated by tactile contact and perceptions associated with the toucher (Guéguen and Joule, 2008). In the context of services, tactile staff members are said to be assessed more favourably (Erceau and Guéguen, 2007;Guéguen et al., 2007;Hornik, 1992a), as physical touching generates greater trust towards frontline employees (Orth et al., 2013). Positive affective reactions may also explain these behavioural responses (Jung and Yoon, 2011). ...
Article
This research highlights the effects of socio-spatial distance between frontline employees, customers and co-clients in restaurants on the duration and expense of the consumption experience. Situations in which all those involved are very close to one another (intrusion) reduce both of these variables. The authors note a preference for positions removed both from staff and from fellow customers, especially in the case of individuals consuming as part of a group. Four interactional service situations - intrusion, conviviality, discretion and coldness - are interpreted according to customer group sizes.
... Ces résultats s'expliqueraient d'abord par le statut social qu'octroient le contact tactile et les perceptions associées au toucheur (Guéguen et Joule, 2008). En effet, un personnel de service tactile serait évalué de manière plus favorable (Erceau et Guéguen, 2007 ;Guéguen et al., 2007 ;Hornik, 1992a), le toucher permettant de développer la confiance à l'égard des employés en contact (Orth et al., 2013). Des réactions affectives positives expliqueraient en outre ces réponses comportementales (Jung et Yoon, 2011). ...
Article
The research underlines the sociopatial distance effects between frontline employees, clients and co-clients on consumption duration and expenses in restaurants. When they are very close to each other, consumption duration and spending decrease (intrusive situation). It is emphasized that the preference for high sociospatial distances between a consumer and simultaneously frontlines employees and co-clients increases with the group size. Four interactional service situations – intrusion, conviviality, discretion and coolness - are interpreted according to the customer group size. La recherche souligne les effets de la distance sociospatiale entre personnels, clients et co-clients sur la durée et les dépenses d’une expérience de consommation au restaurant. La situation dans laquelle l’ensemble des acteurs du service sont très proches les uns des autres (intrusion) induit une minimisation de la durée de consommation et des dépenses. Une préférence pour une position éloignée tant des personnels que des autres clients est notée, notamment lorsque les individus consomment en groupe. Quatre situations interactionnelles de service – intrusion, convivialité, discrétion et froideur – sont interprétées selon la taille du groupe de clients.
Chapter
While gamification research is multidisciplinary and has grown in popularity during the last decade, it still requires further evidence and direction on which and how much various game mechanics impact on cognitive, emotional, and behavioral outcomes in digital and physical servicescape contexts. To shed light on this problem, a novel perspective on sensory marketing and gamification was chosen. This chapter has discussed and analyzed the similarities and differences between sensory marketing and gamification, as well as what theoretical perspectives and practices gamification can borrow from sensory marketing. Six issues have surfaced that require more research on this matter: (1) The interaction effects, (2) Weight and impact, (3) Congruency, (4) Complexity, (5) (sub)Conscious/(non)visible elements, and (6) The causal chain. This chapter explains and discusses these issues and offers future research avenues.
Article
Purpose – This article demonstrates that the type of service setting and the first interaction with an employee influences the customers’ intention to stay or leave during an unsatisfactory service encounter, and that these effects are mediated by social lock-in, which describes the perception of a customer that exiting a service encounter early violates social norms. Design/methodology/approach – The hypotheses are tested with two scenario-based experiments using a collective (theater) and high-contact service (restaurant) (N: 1143; 1485). Findings – The results suggest that social lock-in and the intention to stay are higher in a closed as opposed to an open setting and that the type of setting is, in fact, more important for the decision to stay than sunk costs. Moreover, customers are more likely to stay after an interaction with an employee. Research limitations/implications – This article contributes to the research aimed at explaining customers’ decisions to stay or leave during an unsatisfactory service encounter. In doing so, the study highlights the constraining power of social norms in service encounters, which contributes to the research on the relationship between the social context and customers’ behavior. Practical implications – This study suggests that service providers can manage servicescape cues and employee behavior to influence customers’ social lock-in perceptions and their decision to stay on or to leave early. Originality/value – This is the first study to provide quantitative evidence for social lock-in and its determinants in service encounters. Keywords: Consumer lock-in, Social norms, Service encounter, Dissatisfaction, Service setting, Employee interaction Paper type: Research paper
Article
The current studies examined why hospitality employees flirt with customers, and the interaction between flirting and authentic or faked emotional displays. In Study 1, 245 restaurant servers reported their flirting motivations, emotional labor strategy, and perceived rapport. Flirting motivations had a positive effect on rapport when servers engaged in either surface acting or deep acting but not when servers engaged less in emotional labor strategies. In Study 2, 130 servers reported their flirting displays, emotional labor strategies and tip sizes. Flirting displays only increased tips when deep acting was involved. The theoretical and practical implications of flirting are discussed.
Chapter
While gamification research is multidisciplinary and has grown in popularity during the last decade, it still requires further evidence and direction on which and how much various game mechanics impact on cognitive, emotional, and behavioral outcomes in digital and physical servicescape contexts. To shed light on this problem, a novel perspective on sensory marketing and gamification was chosen. This chapter has discussed and analyzed the similarities and differences between sensory marketing and gamification, as well as what theoretical perspectives and practices gamification can borrow from sensory marketing. Six issues have surfaced that require more research on this matter: (1) The interaction effects, (2) Weight and impact, (3) Congruency, (4) Complexity, (5) (sub)Conscious/(non)visible elements, and (6) The causal chain. This chapter explains and discusses these issues and offers future research avenues.
Article
Full-text available
Social interactions and hierarchical structures in classrooms are studied in a number of scientific disciplines, yet the complexity of such systems makes them hard to investigate. In the present study we explore the relationship between social status and bodily interaction. We developed a novel approach to assess social status in grammar school students by way of measuring the presence in others’ minds: Classmates assessed their peers in intellectual, social and physical domains. Additionally, we measured the amount and nature of physical interactions among classmates during breaks in the classroom. These interactions were tracked with the help of older, trained and regularly supervised students from the same school. This peer-to-peer method generated large amounts of data over a period of two months, during which 168 students were observed repeatedly. Results show that touching behavior is modulated by social status and sex: The amount of physical interaction with classmates increases significantly with social status. Same sex touching of intimate zones such as breasts, lap and buttocks occur more frequently among individuals of similar status as compared to touching the intimate zones of the opposite sex. The latter involves extremely high and low ranked individuals more often than same-sex interactions. This study helps to understand formative interactions within classrooms and gives rise to new questions on the establishment and maintenance of hierarchies in peer groups.
Article
Full-text available
製品の評価や選択などにおいて、触覚情報は大きな影響を及ぼしている。マーケティングおよび消費者行 動の領域においては、消費者が自らの手で自由に対象物に触れることで得られた知覚、すなわちハプティッ ク知覚について様々な研究が取り組まれている。ところが、各研究は個別的な関心に基づいて行われており、全体を体系的にとらえた研究は行われていない。そこで本稿では、ハプティック知覚に注目した研究を対象にレビューを行った。その結果、接触の基本的な効果から個別の触覚属性の効果へと研究対象が変化した点、それらの効果の有無からメカニズムの解明へと研究関心が変化している点など、研究展開において複数の変化が生じていることが明らかになった。一方、調整変数に関する議論の精緻化や他感覚との相互作用など、ハプティック知覚に関する研究を進めていくうえで、今後取り組まなければならない課題についても議論を行った。 There is a growing body of studies showing that haptic perception, which originated from tactile experiences of active hand movement, has a substantial influence on product evaluations and choices. However, previous studies mainly focused on individual research interests. Due to this, a systematic overview of the role and effect of haptic perception in consumer behavior has not been provided in the literature. Thus, we conducted a comprehensive literature review of haptic researches in marketing contexts. The results of the review reveal that the research focus has shifted from the effect of product touch to the effect of material properties of the product and to the underlying mechanism of the effect of touch on product evaluation. Limitations of current literature and future directions of study are also discussed.
Conference Paper
This study realizes a method to enhance the effect of touch in remote same-gender communication by changing the gender impression with a voice changer during telecommunication. We focused on touch in communication. Although psychological studies have revealed that touch has various positive effects such as triggering altruistic behavior, these effects are restrained in some cases, especially in same-gender communication, because the touch between persons of the same gender tends to cause unpleasant feelings. We aimed to address this problem to utilize the effects for telecommunication purposes, such as remote medical care and remote education, by hypothesizing that the use of telepresence could change people's gender impression, reduce this unpleasantness, and enhance the effect of touch. We tested the effectiveness of this method in a situation in which a male operator asked male participants to perform a monotonous task, and the results showed that a touch by the male operator whose voice was changed to female-like could reduce the boredom of the task and improve the friendliness toward the operator.
Chapter
Studies exploring the influence of casual touch (e.g., a tap on the arm) on interaction partners identified a phenomenon called the Midas effect. In analogy to the Greek mythical figure Midas, whose touch turned everything into gold, casual touch promotes positive affect and other-concern. Compared to interactions without casual touch, those with casual touch leave touch recipients with more positive emotions and goodwill toward others. Here, we review the literature that established the Midas effect and explore a possible somatosensory basis. Specifically, we consider studies that independently modulated skin temperature, pressure, and velocity of tactile sensations and show that these modulations produced mental and behavioral changes in line with the Midas effect. Additionally, we discuss possible mechanisms by which somatosensory impressions affect emotional and social processing and outline existing links between both. Together, the literature reviewed here favors the idea that the Midas effect arises in a bottom-up manner from the stimulation of the skin and highlights the importance of interpersonal tactile exchanges for our personal well-being and the functioning of our social groups.
Chapter
Interpersonal touch is renowned for playing a pivotal role in strengthening social bonds and communicating emotions. This chapter provides an overview of the effects of touch or lack of it early in life, and the tactile differences across cultures, as well as discussing the subconscious effects of touch and the role it plays in intimacy. Despite the obvious benefits of touch there is surprisingly little scientific research on the topic of interpersonal touch; however, the present chapter will highlight some of the recent advancements in the neuroscience and biology behind affective touch. Overall the chapter provides overwhelming evidence for the importance of touch in our everyday lives, and queries why it is not explored and utilised more in clinical contexts. A synergistic effort will be needed by researchers across varying disciplines in order to develop a more detailed understanding of interpersonal touch.
Article
Tactile contact and compliance to a request: A meta-analytic review Among the compliance without pressure well-know procedures in the social-psychology literature, the Touch technique appears so be really efficient. A host of studies showed that a slightly tactile contact used with a solicitation led the target to accept more favorably the request. Furthermore, unlike further compliance techniques such as the Foot-in-the-Door or the Door-in-the-Face technique, the efficiency of Touching behavior has never been tested by the way of the meta-analytic statistical technique. Our paper shows that the effect of touch is real but seems to be related with the dependant variables used in the experiments. In a methodological and theoretical way the meta-analysis method shows the benefit to synthesize the studies conduct the last 30 years in order to present new research perspectives.
Article
Full-text available
Previous studies have shown that touching leads to positive behavior, particularly in an educational context. A new experiment was carried out in which students were encouraged to intervene in a course by demonstrating the solution of a statistical exercise on the blackboard. According to the experiment, students were or were not briefly touched on the forearm by the teacher during the corrective exercise. After that, the teacher asked his students to demonstrate the exercise on the blackboard. The results showed that touching increases the volunteers’ rate. Various explanations (familiarity, status and mood) were suggested to explain such results.
Article
Full-text available
Tactile behavior is a basic communication form as well as an expression of interpersonal involvement. This article presents three studies offering evidence for the positive role of casual interpersonal touch on consumer behavior. More specifically, it provides initial support for the view that tactile stimulation in various consumer behavior situations enhances the positive feeling for and evaluation of both the external stimuli and the touching source. Further, customers touched by a requester tend to comply more than customers in no-touch conditions. Implications for consumer behavior theory and research are discussed. Copyright 1992 by the University of Chicago.
Article
Subjects in a shopping mall were approached with a request to participate in a survey. Half the subjects were touched and gazed at by interviewers and the other half were not. These nonverbal techniques increased compliance to participate in the interviewing task and somewhat decreased respondents' perceived burden. The touch and no-touch groups did not differ in response quality, apparent response bias, or volunteer bias. Compliance was related to the gender of the interviewer but not related to that of the respondent. Implications for mall intercept surveys are discussed.
Article
This study of 105 dining parties at a casual chain restaurant found that a male server received significantly larger tips when he touched the shoulder of the person paying the bill than when he did not touch the customer. This touch effect on tips was essentially the same whether the touch was for two or four seconds, and whether the customer being touched was male or female. The age of the customer, however, did have a significant effect on the extent to which the touch increased the server's tips. Young customers responded more positively to the touch than did older diners. Nevertheless, the older diners who were touched did increase their tips compared to like-aged diners who weren't touched at all. Restaurant managers' personal objections to promoting touching seem to be misguided in light of these and other experimental data, and their fears of legal repercussions from touching customers are groundless.
Article
The effect of interpersonal sentiment on helping behavior among Japanese students was investigated in two studies. In Study 1, the effects of interpersonal sentiment, gender of subject, and gender of target person on everyday helping behavior were investigated. In Study 2, the effects of interpersonal sentiment, gender of subject, gender of target person, and type of situation were investigated. Positive sentiment toward a target person increased the subject's willingness to help, and negative sentiment toward a target person decreased the subject's willingness to help. Gender of subject and of target person, and situation had relatively little impact on willingness to help.
Article
Shoppers in a supermarket were approached with a request to sample a new food product. Half the shoppers were touched during the request and the other half were not. Touch increased the probability of both trying the food sample and buying the product. The touch and no-touch groups did not differ in their taste rating of the product. The probability of sampling or buying the product was not related to the gender of the shopper or the experimenter.
Article
Tested the effect on tipping of a female waitress touching the male patron, the female patron, or neither patron, using 112 pairs of restaurant customers. Results show the average tip in the female condition was 15%, the average tip in the male condition was 13%, and the average tip in the no-touch condition was 11%. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Article
Although positive effect of touch on restaurant's tipping has been widely found in the literature, no evaluation was made outside the United States of America and in a bar. An experiment was carried out in a French bar. A waitress briefly touched (or not) the forearm of a patron when asking him/her what he/she want to drink. Results show that touch increases tipping behavior although giving a tip to a waitress in a bar is unusual in France. The familiarity of tactile contact in France was used to explain our results.
Article
The present study examined the effects of two types of touch in a controlled but natural setting, a restaurant. Waitresses briefly touched customers either on the hand or the shoulder as they were returning change. Customers' reactions were assessed by a restaurant survey and a novel behavioral measure, the tip expressed as a percentage of the bill. The tipping rate for the two types of touch did not differ from each other and did not differ according to the customer's gender. Both tipping rates were significantly larger than a control, no-touch condition. There were no touch effects on ratings of the waitress, the restaurant's atmosphere, or the dining experience. It was concluded that touch effects can occur without awareness, and that males will not react more negatively to touch than females when the touch is unobtrusive or free of status and dependency connotations.
Article
The present study was designed to explore further the effects of nonverbal behaviors and sex on compliance. Male and female subjects who had just found a dime in a phone booth were approached by a male or female experimenter and were asked to return the dime that the experimenter had supposedly just lost. In the Eye Contact condition, the experimenter gazed at the subject as the request was made, whereas in the No-Eye Contact condition he/she did not. In addition, the experimenter lightly touched half of the subjects while making his/her request, but did not touch the other half. Replicating previous findings, it was found that both eye contact (significantly) and touching (marginally) produced increased rates of compliance. Extending prior results, these effects were obtained for male experimenters. Furthermore, a Sex of experimenter times Sex of subject interaction effect was obtained, such that subjects were much more willing to comply with the request of an opposite, rather than same sex experimenter. Questionnaire data suggested that: 1) subjects were aware of the touch, but not of the eye contact variable, and 2) the requesters were perceived as much more attractive when they were of the opposite, rather than the same sex as the subjects.
Article
Direct gaze and a personal approach distance have been shown to increase compliance in a face to face situation. In the present study touch was varied along with gender and difficulty of request to assess the effects upon rate of compliance. The results indicated that touch was important in securing compliance, moreso if the request was more difficult, and most important in securing same gender compliance.
Article
Touch is considered an important factor in various social situations. The present results show that touching customers in the store increased their shopping time, their evaluation of the store and also the amount of shopping. The findings suggest that interpersonal touch can be an important aid to salespeople and servers.
Article
Two experiments supported the hypothesis that gaze and touch would serve additive functions of increasing compliance to unambiguous requests. These and other experiments were integrated into Ellsworth and Langer's (1976) framework for interpreting gaze (and touch) as nonspecific activators. It was concluded that behavioral responses to gaze and touch are a function of the attention and arousal elicited by these stimuli, the meaning derived from the situation, and the attributes of the gazing and touching person. It was suggested that future research should study subjects' responses to gaze and touch in terms of attributions made by subjects about people who engage in these behaviors.
Article
De nombreuses recherches ont mis en évidence que le toucher d'une personne favorisait l'acceptation d'une requête soumise par le " toucheur ". On sait également que le comportement du consommateur est affecté par le toucher. Toutefois peu de recherches ont été faites sur les applications mercatique du toucher, notamment en France, culture qualifiée de contacts. Aussi, une première expérience a-t-elle été menée dans laquelle le toucher a été utilisé pour inciter des passants à répondre à un questionnaire sur leurs habitudes de consommation. On observe que ce contact tactile prédispose les sujets à répondre. Dans une seconde expérience, le toucher a été utilisé par un vendeur de condiments afin d'inciter les passants à goûter ses produits. Les résultats montrent que cette technique s'avère plus efficace pour augmenter le taux d'achat des produits considérés. Trois explications théoriques à l'efficacité de la technique du toucher sont proposées à la suite de cette étude. Many investigations have put in obviousness that touch the compliance to a request made by the " toucher ". One knows toot that consumer's behavior is affect by touch. Nevertheless few researches on marketing application of touch have been made notably in France, which is considered as a contacts' culture. Also, a first experiment has been carried out in which we used touch to incite passerby to respond to a survey on their consumption' s habits. We observe that this tactile contact predisposes the subject to respond. In a second experiment, touch has been used by a salesman of condiments to encourage passerby to taste its products. Results show that this technique is more efficient to increase the rate of product purchase. Three theoretical explanations to the efficiency of the touch technique are proposed.
Article
A 2 (touch-no touch) x 2 (sex of confederate) x 2 (sex of subject) between subjects design tested the affective and evaluative consequences of receiving an interpersonal touch in a Professional/Functional situation. It was found that the affective and evaluative response to touch was uniformly positive for females, who felt affectively more positive and evaluated the toucher and the environmental setting more favorably than in no touch conditions. The male response to touch was more ambivalent.
Article
That a brief touch increases compliance to a request is well documented, but the effect of touch after compliance has already been obtained has not been investigated. The current experiment tested the effects of post-compliance touch on subjects' willingness to respond to items on a lengthy and difficult survey. A total of 104 women and 94 men, approached at random in an American university student union, agreed to participate in a survey of social attitudes. Subjects rated their amount of agreement or disagreement with 150 statements about social issues such as discrimination, abortion, euthanasia, politics, and religion. The effects of touch were assessed in two ways: by the number of survey items completed and the nature of these responses. Results indicated that both male and female subjects who were touched completed significantly more items than nontouched subjects, but there was no difference in the nature of their responses.
Article
A total of 96 men and 48 women participated in a study on the effect of touch in the natural setting of public taverns in the United States. Participants in the same-gender (men-men) or mixed-gender dyads were either touched or not touched by waitress confederates. Regardless of dyad type, participants who were touched consumed more alcohol than participants who were not touched. Men in the mixed-gender dyads consumed more alcohol when the women was touched. Same-gender (men-men) dyads aggregately consumed more alcohol than mixed-gender dyads. The results are interpreted in terms of the environmental cues and the dynamics of the group.
Article
In certain situations it has been shown that touch has a positive effect on the compliance with a request expressed by a stranger. However, the difference between the effect of touch on request compliance between people who had noticed and those who had not noticed this contact has never been taken into account. In this experiment a female confederate asked 227 women to answer a questionnaire. When asking for their collaboration the forearm was or was not touched for a brief period of 1 to 2 seconds. Analysis showed that touch was associated with significantly higher compliance to the request but no difference was found between subjects who had noticed the tactual contact and subjects who had not noticed.
Tactile contact and spontaneous help
  • N Gue´
  • J Fischer-Lokou
Gue´, N., Fischer-Lokou, J., 2003. Tactile contact and spontaneous help. The Journal of Social Psychology 143, 785–787.
Touch and consumer behavior: a new experimental evidence in a field setting
  • N Gue´
  • C Jacob
Gue´, N., Jacob, C., 2006. Touch and consumer behavior: a new experimental evidence in a field setting. International Journal of Management 23, 24–33.
Tactile contact and spontaneous help
  • Guéguen
Reach out and touch your customers
  • Lynn
Touch and consumer behavior: a new experimental evidence in a field setting
  • Guéguen