Re: Why do people want to touch a product before buying it??

Dear W.van der Hoog, thank you for your fascinating question. I am sorry that it has taken me so long to respond to your inquiry, but there is not a lot of research for this particular question so have I asked several of my colleagues to help me answer it. Touching is of course one of our most important sources of sensory information. There is a lot of research of the importance of touch for the normal development of children. For example, children who are given all the requirements for life such as food, water, warmth and so on except for loving care and touch either fail to thrive or perhaps even die. Some of the early research on this topic was done by a famous psychologist by the name of Harry Harlow. The result of these "Harlow's Monkeys" studies have greatly influenced our perceptions of basic human needs. In fact, Abraham Maslow, who was one of Harlow's assistants, and who later also become famous, based his Hierarchy of Needs theory on these studies.

There is no doubt that humans have a need to be touched and similarly a need to touch other people and other things. For example, we are often inspired by touching the garments of a holy person, or stimulated by fondling objects worn or owned by movie stars and other famous persons (some of the recent auctions of the possessions of famous persons is a good example of this). Although I have no empirical evidence to support this, my own opinion is that our inclination to touch objects before we buy them is based on similar needs. Brian Wansink, who is an expert on consumer psychology, suggests that by touching objects, we collect information on a object that we cannot gain by simply looking at it (for example, if fruit is ripe, spoiled etc.). Secondly, he suggests that by touching and feeling various objects, we are subconsciously testing what it would be like to own them, live with them, or have them around you (for example, by sitting in a chair or lying down on a bed before you buy it). It seems that retailers have recently taken more advantage of this phenomenon and are setting up more displays or other systems where consumers can engage in these behaviors. Of course, as the Internet becomes more of a major force in the sale of many or most of the items we purchase, it will be interesting to see if and how it will adapt to this particular need.

For more information about this interesting topic, I would encourage you to visit Dr. Wansink's site on the Internet (http://www.wansink.com/). In addition, I would suggest that you do a search using consumer psychology as your key words.