Touch matters: exploring the relationship between consumption and tactile interaction

For a long time, vision dominated scientific research related to consumption. However, in the past 15 or so years there has been a gradual but steady interest in how the other senses can impact upon aspects such as consumer decision-making, product evaluation, and attention. The tactile sense in particular has been hailed as having the capacity to alter consumer perceptions and at times even directly compete with visual input. This review looks at numerous aspects of how touch is linked to consumption, such as; why it is an important tool, when tactile input is useful, the role of interpersonal touch in consumption and applicability to sales techniques, whether a "tactile language" can be established and how need for touch can be measured. By doing so this review draws upon research evidence from multiple disciplines, including consumer psychology, marketing, cognitive psychology, and neuroscience. The review seeks to present the reader with a sense of why tactile research is important to consumer sciences.