The effect of light touch on the perceptions of the receiver during a business transaction

Includes bibliographical references (pages 66-71)Touch and it's positive relationship to perceptual\ud changes in a subject during a business transaction is the\ud focus of this study. A multivariate factoral Analysis of\ud two Independent Variables (sex of subject and\ud touch-no-touch experimental conditions) was designed to\ud examine the main effect of touch on three Dependent\ud Measures: (a) the subject's affective state, (b) the\ud subject's evaluation of the confederate in this study, and\ud (c) the subject's perceived positiveness of the store's\ud environment. The reactions of the subjects to the \ud experimental condition was measured on an eleven-item,\ud bipolar adjective pair, Likert-type questionnaire.\ud Each of the dependent variables were evaluated by\ud measuring the responses to the summed scores of items on the\ud questionnaire assigned to tap each of the dependent\ud constructs. The results indicated that subjects assigned to\ud the experimental condition perceive touch as a positive\ud stimulus. Affective responses to the touch condition were\ud generalized and subjects evaluation of the clerk and\ud positiveness of the store's environment were subsequently\ud effected. Female subjects experienced a far more\ud significant change in "positiveness" to the experimental\ud condition than did male subjects in this study. Male\ud subjects tended to be more ambivalent to the main effect\ud of touch. The results of this study, indicate that the\ud role of touch is an important variable in changing the\ud perceptions of clients in a business transaction. When\ud touch is delivered in an non-intrusive manner, appropriate\ud to the context of the situation, it will elicit a positive\ud reaction from the subject