Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

People are able to order food using a variety of computer devices, such as desktops, laptops, and mobile phones. Even in restaurants, patrons can place orders on computer screens. Can the interface that consumers use affect their choice of food? The authors focus on the “direct-touch” aspect of touch interfaces, whereby users can touch the screen in an interactive manner. In a series of five studies, they show that a touch interface, such as that provided by an iPad, compared with a nontouch interface, such as that of a desktop computer with a mouse, facilitates the choice of an affect-laden alternative over a cognitively superior one—what the authors call the “direct-touch effect.” The studies provide some mediational support that the direct-touch effect is driven by the enhanced mental simulation of product interaction with the more affective choice alternative on touch interfaces. The authors also test the moderator of this effect. Using multiple product pairs as stimuli, the authors obtain consistent results, which have rich theoretical and managerial implications.

Keywords

computer interfaces mental simulation sensory marketing embodied cognition food choice

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Barsalou

Lawrence W.

(1999), “Perceptions of Perceptual Symbols,” Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 22 (4), 637–60.

Barsalou

Lawrence W.

(2008), “Grounded Cognition,” Annual Review of Psychology, 59 (January), 617–45.

Barsalou

Lawrence W.

, Simmons

W. Kyle

, Barbey

Aron K.

, and Wilson

Christine D.

(2003), “Grounding Conceptual Knowledge in Modality-Specific Systems,” Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 7 (2), 84–91.

Brasel

S. Adam

and Gips

James

(2014), “Tablets, Touchscreens, and Touchpads: How Varying Touch Interfaces Trigger Psychological Ownership and Endowment,” Journal of Consumer Psychology, 24 (2), 226–33.

Bullock

John G.

, Green

Donald P.

, and Ha

Shang E.

(2010), “Yes, but What's the Mechanism? (Don't Expect an Easy Answer),” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 98 (4), 550–58.

Dhar

Ravi

and Wertenbroch

Klaus

(2000), “Consumer Choice Between Hedonic and Utilitarian Goods,” Journal of Marketing Research, 37 (February), 60–71.

Elder

Ryan S.

and Krishna

Aradhna

(2012), “The ‘Visual Depiction Effect’ in Advertising: Facilitating Embodied Mental Simulation Through Product Orientation,” Journal of Consumer Research, 38 (6), 988–1003.

Epstein

Seymour

(1994), “Integration of the Cognitive and the Psychodynamic Unconscious,” American Psychologist, 49 (8), 709–24.

Gilbert

Daniel T.

, Giesler

Brian R.

, and Morris

Kathryn A.

(1995), “When Comparisons Arise,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69 (2), 227–36.

10.

Gilbert

Daniel T.

, Pelham

Brett W.

, and Krull

Douglas S.

(1988), “On Cognitive Busyness: When Person Perceivers Meet Persons Perceived,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54 (5), 733–40.

11.

Hayes

Andrew F.

(2013), An Introduction to Mediation, Moderation, and Conditional Process Analysis: A Regression-Based Approach. New York: Guilford Press.

12.

Hoch

Stephen J.

and Loewenstein

George F.

(1991), “Time-Inconsistent Preferences and Consumer Self-Control,” Journal of Consumer Research, 17 (4), 492–507.

13.

Jeannerod

Marc

(2001), “Neural Simulation of Action: A Unifying Mechanism for Motor Cognition,” NeuroImage, 14 (1), 103–09.

14.

Kahneman

Daniel

(2003), “A Perspective on Judgment and Choice: Mapping Bounded Rationality,” American Psychologist, 58 (9), 697–720.

15.

Kim

Jeong H.

, Aulck

Lovenoor

, Bartha

Michael C.

, Harper

Christy A.

, and Johnson

Peter W.

(2012), “Are There Differences in Force Exposures and Typing Productivity Between Touchscreen and Conventional Keyboard?” in Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 56th Annual Meeting. Santa Monica, CA: Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 1104–08.

16.

Klesse

Anne-Kathrin

, Levav

Jonathan

, and Goukens

Caroline

(2015), “The Effect of Preference Expression Modality on Self-Control,” Journal of Consumer Research, 42 (4), 535–50.

17.

Loewenstein

George

(1996), “Out of Control: Visceral Influences on Behavior,” Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 65 (3), 272–92.

18.

Metcalfe

Janet

and Mischel

Walter

(1999), “A Hot/Cool-System Analysis of Delay of Gratification: Dynamics of Willpower,” Psychological Review, 106 (1), 3–19.

19.

Mischel

Walter

(1974), “Processes in Delay of Gratification,” in Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, Vol. 7, Berkowitz

, ed. New York: Academic Press, 249–92.

20.

Oviatt

Sharon

, Cohen

Adrienne

, Miller

Andrea

, Hodge

Kumi

, and Mann

Ariana

(2012), “The Impact of Interface Affordances on Human Ideation, Problem Solving, and Inferential Reasoning,” ACM Transactions on Computer Human Interaction, 19 (3), 1–22.

21.

Peck

Joann

and Childers

Terry L.

(2006), “If I Touch It I Have to Have It: Individual and Environmental Influences on Impulse Purchasing,” Journal of Business Research, 59 (6), 765–69.

22.

Peck

Joann

and Shu

Suzanne B.

(2009), “The Effect of Mere Touch on Perceived Ownership,” Journal of Consumer Research, 36 (3), 434–47.

23.

Peck

Joann

and Wiggins

Jennifer

(2006), “It Just Feels Good: Customers’ Affective Response to Touch and Its Influence on Persuasion,” Journal of Marketing, 70 (October), 56–69.

24.

Pham

Michel Tuan

(2004), “The Logic of Feeling,” Journal of Consumer Psychology, 14 (4), 360–69.

25.

Ping

Raedy M.

, Dhillon

Sonica

, and Beilock

Sian L.

(2009), “Reach for What You Like: The Body's Role in Shaping Preferences,” Emotion Review, 1 (2), 140–50.

26.

Preacher

Kristopher J.

, Rucker

Derek D.

, and Hayes

Andrew F.

(2007), “Addressing Moderated Mediation Hypotheses: Theory, Methods, and Prescriptions,” Multivariate Behavioral Research, 42 (1), 185–227.

27.

Rolls

Edmund T.

(2005), “Taste, Olfactory, and Food Texture Processing in the Brain, and the Control of Food Intake,” Physiology & Behavior, 85 (1), 45–56.

28.

Rook

Dennis W.

(1987), “The Buying Impulse,” Journal of Consumer Research, 14 (2), 189–99.

29.

Shafir

Eldar

, Simonson

Itamar

, and Tversky

Amos

(1993), “Reason-Based Choice,” Cognition, 49 (1), 11–36.

30.

Shen

Hao

and Sengupta

Jaideep

(2012), “If You Can't Grab it, It Won't Grab You: The Effect of Restricting the Dominant Hand on Target Evaluations,” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48 (2), 525–29.

31.

Shiv

Baba

and Fedorikhin

Alexander

(1999), “Heart and Mind in Conflict: The Interplay of Affect and Cognition in Consumer Decision Making,” Journal of Consumer Research, 26 (3), 278–92.

32.

Simmons

W. Kyle

, Martin

Alex

, and Barsalou

Lawrence W.

(2005), “Pictures of Appetizing Foods Activate Gustatory Cortices for Taste and Reward,” Cerebral Cortex, 15 (10), 1602–08.

33.

Sloman

Steven A.

(1996), “The Empirical Case for Two Systems of Reasoning,” Psychological Bulletin, 119 (1), 3–22.

34.

Swann

William B.

Jr. , Hixon

Gregory J.

, Stein-Seroussi

Alan

, and Gilbert

Daniel T.

(1990), “The Fleeting Gleam of Praise: Cognitive Processes Underlying Behavioral Reactions to Self-Relevant Feedback,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59 (1), 17–26.

35.

Tucker

Mike

and Ellis

Rob

(1998), “On the Relations of Seen Objects and Components of Potential Actions,” Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 24 (3), 830–46.

36.

Tucker

Mike

and Ellis

Rob

(2001), “The Potentiation of Grasp Types During Visual Object Categorization,” Visual Cognition, 8 (6), 769–800.

37.

Zatorre

Robert J.

and Halpern

Andrea R.

(2005), “Mental Concerts: Musical Imagery and Auditory Cortex,” Neuron, 47 (1), 9–12.

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.16 MB

0.00 MB

Computer Interfaces and the “Direct-Touch” Effect: Can iPads Increase the Choice of Hedonic Food?

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References

Supplementary Material